Chapter 4

Chapter 4

"Wow," Joey said, genuinely impressed as he sat his suitcase down in the living room of the cabin. "I gotta admit, Kyle, you did good on this one," added Denny. Kyle simply crossed his arms and smiled in self-approval.

"Hey, does this work?" Joey asked, looking over the fireplace. "No, Joey, they just put it there as a showpiece," Denny rolled his eyes. "Of course it works." "Okay! I'll go chop some wood!" Joey said excitedly. "You sure you can lift that axe?" Kyle asked just as Joey reached the door. The the youngest winner in NASCAR history stopped in his tracks, grumbling, but didn't turn around. Then he opened the door and stomped outside.

Denny plopped down onto one of the couches in the cabin and reached for the tv remote. "Lets see whats on," he said, flipping on the television. Kyle walked up to the TV and promptly flipped it off. Denny looked at him for a moment, and turned it back on. Kyle flipped it back off. They repeated the process about three more times before Denny pretend to throw the remote at Kyle, who ducked.

"What's the big idea?" Denny finally asked, irritated. "We didn't come here to watch TV, dude. Now give me the remote." Grudgingly, Denny handed it over to Kyle who laughed and turned the TV on himself. "We're gonna watch what *I* wanna watch, SUCKER. Hahaha." "Screw that," said Denny. "I'm gonna go check this place out then.

Kyle hopped into his chair and flipped through the channels, though he soon realized that on this particular day, there was nothing to watch. Sighing, he reclined the chair back and settled in for a little nap.

Right as he dosed off, he heard a loud rumble that made him jump clean out of the chair into the floor. He looked in the direction of the stairs, right as Denny walked down carrying a chainsaw. "What are you doing with the chainsaw?!" Kyle screamed. "WHAT?" Denny replied. "I SAID, WHAT ARE YOU DOING WITH THE CHAINSAW?!" "SPEAK UP KYLE, I CAN'T HEAR YOU!" "WHAT ARE YOU...oh forget it!"

Denny finally turned the chainsaw off. "What did you say?" "I said, what are you doing with a freaking chainsaw?" "Oh. I'm gonna go cut us a Christmas tree." "Dude, why do we need a Christmas tree?" "Well, Kyle, as you like to say, DUH. Christmas is just a few weeks away." "Well first off, we'll be back in Charlotte by then. And besides, we don't have anything to decorate a tree with." "We'll improvise. We can cut up one of Joey's ugly sweaters and put the pieces on the tree, that should do the trick."

Kyle just shook his head and crawled back up into his chair as Denny trodded outside, closing the door behind him and firing the chainsaw up once again.

After a short time, once again just as Kyle fell asleep, Denny pounded at the door. "Yo, Kyle, help me lug this thing in side" he called out as he opened the door. "No, you cut the thing down, you can get it in here." "Fine, I'll just get Joey to help me," Denny said, adding a few cursewords under his breath as he went in search of his young teammate.

For the third time, Kyle was asleep, though this time quite deeply, when he was stirred once again.. "KYLE," Denny screamed in is face. "JOEY'S MISSING!" "What's he missing?" Kyle said, well out of it. "No, dude, ITS JOEY THAT IS MISSING!" "You said that already. What is he missing?" Denny slapped Kyle across the face and shook him roughly.

"What, what, what?!" Kyle finally shouted, finally back into a state of awareness. "Joey is missing!" "MISSING?! HOW DID THAT HAPPEN?! WEREN'T YOU WATCHING HIM?!" "WELL, NO, BUT YOU WEREN'T EITHER!" They looked at each other for a moment.

"His dad is gonna kill us," Kyle said. "Yup," Denny replied.