"Behind me you can see that a large semi flipped and that it is blocking the only entrance to the highway in this area. Highway patrol officers are doing their best to deal with this accident scene, but we have been informed that it may be two or three hours before the wreckage is clear and we can get back on the highway," said Zack doing his best imitation of a news announcer.
Zeke filmed as Zack spoke. He zoomed in on the wreckage of the semi, but mostly he just focused on Zeke. The boys were on their way to a basketball tournament when they stopped at a rest stop to use the restroom. As they were getting in the car to leave the rest stop, they heard a loud crashing sound. They looked toward the highway and they saw a semi sliding on its side along with two cars. It was a horrible crash and Zeke and Zack instantaneously knew they had to get some video footage of it. By this time, Zeke and Zack had already taken over ten minutes of video footage and were trying to put together a fake news show about the wreck.
Hanging out by a van, and also headed for the basketball tournament, were Doug, Sawyer, James, and Patrick. They drove into the rest stop parking lot a few moments after the crash. In fact, they were only about one hundred feet away from the truck when it flipped. Mr. Keith Olsen was driving the school van with the boys in it and he pulled over when he heard the crash. The boys all got out of the van and ran over to the crash to get a close up look at the damage. It only took about six minutes for highway patrol officers to arrive on the scene. They told the boys and Keith to drive up to the rest stop and wait there until the area was cleared. The boys immediately protested that they would miss their basketball tournament and the officer patiently told them that she and the officers would clear the area as quickly as possible.
Sawyer and Doug were the first two to notice Zeke and Zack filming the wreck.
"What are those two guys doing?" asked Doug.
"Beats me, but it looks like they're wearing warm ups. Maybe they're going to the tournament too," said Sawyer.
"Or not going, like us," said Patrick referring to their current predicament.
"Yeah, this rots," said James.
"Let's go see what they're doing," said Doug.
"Hey, Uncle Keith, we're going to go talk to those guys," said Patrick to his uncle.
"Sure, just don't go out of sight," said Keith.
Sawyer, James, Doug, and Patrick walked over towards Zeke and Zack.
Zeke and Zack noticed the group of boys approaching and Zack said, "Who are those guys?"
"I don't know, but let's film them," said Zeke turning the camera toward Sawyer, James, Doug and Patrick.
"They're filming us," said Sawyer to his friends. There was still about one hundred feet between Zeke and Zack and the other four boys.
"Why are they doing that?" asked James.
"I don't know," said Patrick.
Meanwhile, Zeke said to Zack, "Act like you're interviewing them."
"What should I say?" asked Zack.
"Think of something," said Zeke.
"Like what?" asked Zack.
"Ask them where they're from or where they're going," said Zeke.
"You," said Zack.
"Okay, but then you have to film," said Zeke.
Zeke passed Zack the camera and before Zeke could initiate an interview by asking the first question, Doug said, from twenty feet away, "What are you guys doing?"
"Filming," said Zeke. Zeke had really wanted to speak first, but he didn't have time to be disappointed since he didn't want to miss this opportunity for an interview.
"Filming what?" asked Sawyer.
"You guys. We're going to interview you," said Zeke.
"Huh? Why do you want to interview us?" asked James.
"Because you guys were witnesses to the crash," said Zeke.
"So?" asked Patrick.
"Well, how did it feel to be so close to a huge wreck like that?" asked Zeke.
"It was weird. We could have died if Patrick's uncle was driving just a little bit slower," said Sawyer.
"Was he speeding?" asked Zeke.
"Yeah, of course he was. He always drives fast," said Patrick defending the honor and integrity of his uncle.
"So, if he were a law-abiding citizen, then you'd guys all be dead," stated Zeke.
"Yeah, pretty much," said Doug pondering the implications of Zeke's statement.
"What was it like being so close to the scene of the accident?" asked Zeke.
"What are you, a reporter or something?" asked Patrick.
Before the issue of authenticity could be dealt with explicitly, Doug decided to answer the question, "We could see the people and I think some of them were dead."
"I'm not sure if they died or not," said James.
"They took them away in the ambulance," said Patrick.
"And some of the ambulances didn't turn on their sirens," said James.
"Which either means that it wasn't an emergency for them or else that they were dead," said Sawyer.
There was a moment when no one said anything and then Zeke filled the void, "How many ambulances were there?"
"Well, there was," began Sawyer counting, with his fingers, the imaginary ambulances in him mind.
"I think there were six," said James.
"Yeah, I saw them get the truck driver out and he was definately alive," said Doug.
"Yeah, I saw that too and then there were the people in the little car," said James.
"And the guy in the big car," said Patrick.
"There were two guys that must have been in the back of the truck," said Sawyer. "They must have been illegal aliens or something."
"Maybe they were just in the back of the truck because they hitched a ride," said Doug.
"Or maybe they were illegal aliens sneaking into the United States from Mexico," said Patrick.
"Or maybe not," said Sawyer pretending to be argumentative.
"Or maybe yes," said James playing along at being argumentative.
Zack tried to zoom in on the face of each boy as he spoke, but most of the time he just stuck with a group shot since the speaker changed so often.
"What did the highway patrol people say?" asked Zeke.
"They said that we're stuck at this rest stop for at least an hour or so until they can clear the way," said Patrick.
"Yeah, and now we're going to miss our basketball tournament," said James.
"Us too," said Zack from behind the camera.
"Really? Where are you guys from?" asked Doug.
"Dry River," said Zeke.
"Really? Because I think we were supposed to play you guys in the first round," said Sawyer.
"Will the rest of your team even have enough to play without you guys?" asked Zeke.
"We only have nine players total and Brandon's sick and so without us there are only four guys up there," said Doug.
"What about you guys? How many are on your team?" asked Patrick.
"Seven," said Zeke.
"So you guys might still have a full team," said James.
"Yeah, but three of those guys are really awful," said Zack.
"Well, we're the best players on our team," said Doug.
"We're not the best. Probably just second and third best," said Zeke.
"So that means that you guys still have your best player at the tournament," said Sawyer.
"Yeah," said Zack putting the camera down as he said this.
Zeke immediately motioned for Zack to concentrate on filming.
"Oh, then our team is toast," said Patrick.
"There's no way they'll win without us," said James.
"Yeah, Patrick and Doug are our best players and me and James are the next best," said Sawyer.
"You film for a while," said Zack passing the camera off to Zeke.
"Hey, I got an idea," said Doug looking at some basketball courts on the other side of the building containing the restrooms. The rest area had a playground plus some basketball courts in addition to a large grassy area, trees, and picnic tables. "You guys see those basketball courts over there? We could have a game right here, right now."
"Yeah, that sounds like fun," said Patrick.
"I don't know. We probably ought to save our energy for the tournament," said Doug.
"Yeah, like we're ever even going to get there," said James.
"Let's go ask my mom if she has any new information," said Zack.
The boys walked back toward the parking lot and Zack said to the camera, "We're going to go see if the lady in the red car has received any updates pertaining to the accident."
Zeke got slightly ahead of the group and filmed them walking.
"You guys take this video-taping stuff way too seriously," said Sawyer.
"Yeah, be careful where you're stepping," said Patrick worried that Zeke was going to trip as he back peddled in front of the group.
Zeke stepped effortlessly over an obstacle without ever taking his eyes away from the camera.
"How'd he do that?" asked James.
"Practice. Lots of practice," said Zack.
"That's pretty weird, but as long as you don't follow us into the restroom then I guess it's okay," said Patrick.
All the boys laughed at Patrick's comment.
When the boys got to Zack's mom, she rolled down her window and informed them that three bodies had been found in the back of the truck and that it was going to take a lot of time to extract them.
"Extract them? That sounds gross," said James.
"Yeah, are they stuck?" asked Zeke.
Zack's mom explained that the bodies were trapped under whatever had been the cargo of the truck and that it would be at least two hours before they would be able to leave the rest stop.
"What about the tournament?" asked Zack.
"I already talked to your coach and they're going to play Liberty in a game with only three players on each team," explained Zack's mother.
"What? We're going to lose for sure," said Doug.
"Sorry, but there's not much that can be done," said Zack's mother.
"Oh, well. Can we get the basketball out of the trunk?" asked Zack.
Zack's mother hit the button to unlatch the trunk and it popped open.
Zack grabbed the basketball.
"We can play three on three," suggested Patrick.
"But who's going to film it then?" asked Zeke.
"Do you always have to film everything?" asked Doug.
"Yes," said Zack firmly.
"We could get my uncle to film for you," said Patrick.
"Didn't he bring his own camera?" asked Sawyer.
"Yeah, he was going to film the game so he could show everyone the highlights of me in the tournament," said Patrick somewhat boastfully.
Sawyer, Doug, and James didn't have much of a response to this since it was true, Patrick was the best player and he always came up with three or four spectacular plays in every game they played in.
Patrick's uncle, Keith, was sitting in the school van reading. The van was on the far side of the parking lot, not too far away from the basketball courts. Zack bounce passed the basketball to Patrick as the boys walked over to the van.
"Hey Uncle Keith," said Patrick knocking on the window of the van.
Keith opened the door and put his book on the dashboard. Zeke crowded in for a close up of Keith and then of the book on the dashboard. Keith looked at Zeke quizzically and Patrick said, "Don't worry about him. He just films everything. But we have a slight problem. We want him to play in a basketball game with us and he wants to film it. So, we want you to film it for us."
"Well, why not let him film it and I'll play with you guys," said Keith. Keith was a good athlete for a guy in his forties and he often played basketball with his nephew Patrick and his friends.
Zeke stepped back to keep the entire group in the shot.
"No. No. You don't understand. We want him to play since he's from Dry River," said Patrick fiddling with the basketball as he said this.
"Oh, so they got stranded here to?" asked Keith.
"Yeah. And so since we're stuck here for so long we decided that we wanted to play basketball," said Doug.
"So, why do you need someone to film it? It's just a regular old pick up game," said Keith.
"Well they like to film everything," said Sawyer.
"Yeah, I'm beginning to notice that," said Keith.
Zeke smiled from behind the camera.
"Well, seeing as I was going to do a little filming at the tournament anyways, I might as well film you guys playing here," said Keith.
So, Zeke handed the camera to Keith and started to explain to Keith how to use it, but Keith sort of waved Zeke off indicating that he knew how to use the camera without any instruction.
The boys walked over to the basketball court and Keith positioned himself so as to take the best advantage of the light. There were high clouds, but it was a pleasant day for January. The temperature was in the low sixties and there was only a very slight breeze. The boys shot around for awhile to warm up and size up each other. Patrick showed off with a few of his fancier manuevers and Doug showed off a few of his moves too. Sawyer and James, although they were solid players, didn't have the dazzling moves of Patrick or Doug. Zeke and Zack were a little intimidated by Patrick and Doug, but they still demonstrated some of their specialty shots.
"Oh, so you think that's hot, well watch this!" said Patrick as he performed a lay up in which he crossed under the basket and did a one hundred and eighty degree rotation in the air before releasing the ball.
"Whoa! That was pretty good," said Zack.
"Goes in every time!" said Patrick.
Not to be outdone, Doug did a similar move in which he released a jump shot after doing a three hundred and sixty degree rotation in the air before releasing his shot. His shot bounced around on the backboard and rim, but it was still a pretty good shot for a sixth grader considering that he shot it from just inside the freethrow line.
Zeke and Zack demonstrated a lay up they had worked out together. Zeke dribbled up and bounced the ball off the backboard and Zack jumped up, caught the ball and released it before landing.
"That was pretty cool," said James.
"Yeah, we could probably do that," said Sawyer.
So, James dribbled the ball and bounced the ball more or less like Zeke had done. The only problem was that the ball came back at Sawyer a little high. Although Sawyer was able to catch the ball, he wound up being too off-balanced to release the ball before landing.
"Maybe with a little practice, you guys could learn that one," said Doug.
After a few more shots, Sawyer said, "Okay, let's pick teams."
Doug suggested that Zeke and Zack be captains. The boys from Dry River accepted and agreed that this made sense. Patrick flipped a coin to decide who would pick first. Flipping the coin wasn't all that simple though. Zeke made sure that Keith filmed it correctly. He directed Keith to film Zack as he called heads or tails while the coin was in the air. Then he made sure that Keith got a close up of the coin after it landed. They threw the coin several times to make sure that they would be able to edit out a good sequence from all the footage of the coin toss.
"Sometimes you have to redo stuff a lot in order to make it look good," explained Zack.
"You guys are really into this filming stuff," said Doug.
Zeke, Doug, and Sawyer wound up on one team and Zack, Patrick, and James were on the other team.
"First team to ten baskets wins," said Patrick as he took off his jacket and threw it on the sidelines.
"Works for me. We get first outs since you guys had first pick," said Doug.
James threw Doug the ball and Doug threw it to Sawyer who inbounded the ball to Zeke. Zeke's team missed their first shot, which was taken by Sawyer. Zack rebounded and passed it off to Patrick at half court. Patrick took it straight to the basket for a lay up. He got around Doug at about the freethrow line and then he easily manuevered around Zeke to make the shot.
"You guys are going down!" said Patrick.
"What ever," said Doug.
Doug recovered the ball and bounced it to Zeke who then inbounded the ball back to Doug. Doug said to Zeke, "I'll wait for Patrick under the basket next time. I know his moves," as he dribbled the ball down court. He passed the ball to Zeke and then Zeke passed to Sawyer. Sawyer made an outside shot close to the baseline and the game was tied one basket to one basket.
"There's not much you guys can do when Sawyer is on fire from outside," said Doug to Patrick.
"We'll see about that!" said Patrick.
The game went back and fourth and eventually it was tied up at nine baskets each. Doug scored the basket which tied up the game. James retrieved the ball and inbounded it to Zack who passed off to Patrick. Doug hussled down court and directed Zeke and Sawyer to play their best defense. Patrick, Zack, and James passed the ball around a bit. Eventually Patrick got the ball and he decided to dribble straight at Doug. Patrick lept in the air and released the ball, but Doug was able to get a couple of fingers on the ball and deflect it just enough so that it bounced off the backboard without touching the rim. Patrick got his own rebound and passed the ball back out to Zack. Zack tried an outside shot, but missed badly. James rebounded the ball and shot it right away, but also missed.
Sawyer wound up with the rebound this time. He passed the ball to Doug right away and Doug dribbled down court all the way to the freethrow line. Doug faked like he was going to shoot, but instead he threw the ball to Zeke who was cutting straight for the basket. Zeke wasn't able to get off a lay up and so rather than forcing a shot he dribbled back out and threw the ball into the key where Sawyer was waiting just a few feet from the basket. Sawyer sunk the winning shot and Doug, Zeke, and Sawyer thrust their arms skyward in victory.
"Oh my gosh, how did we let them beat us?" asked Patrick.
"I don't know, but it was a good game," said Keith.
The boys all collapsed in the grass by the basketball courts.
"That was better than playing in the tournament," said James.
"Yeah, this way you got to play the whole game!" said Doug.
"Yeah, but I think three on three is better anyways," said Zack.
"Yeah, you get the ball a lot more," said Sawyer.
Zeke walked over to Keith and took the camera back. He sat down with the other boys and he and Zack got back to playing the rolls of interviews and cameramen.