Free Flagged Victor by Keith Hollihan Page A

the time we arrived, peeving me and making me feel proud at the same time. He helped hold the boat tight to the floating dock while the girls deboarded.
    Now what? Leah said, with her hands on her hips, and a tilt to her head.
    I could think of so many unmentionable ideas, but we went swimming instead. We dove or cannonballed into the water. We splashed each other. We raced out, turned around, treaded close to one another, dove under, grabbed a foot, kicked away. We laughed and tickled. (I feared rising from the water because I didn’t know whether my erection was fully formed and steel-rod stiff, or just bobbing playfully.) We did handstands and back-flipped into the water. The girls, with their lean, proportionately exquisite bodies, could do them perfectly, and somehow I knew they would never be so beautiful again. Chris could also manage a handstand, rising like a great redwood, the muscles on his shoulders and back straining formidably before he tottered and crashed into the water. My own attempts were typically pathetic. I wobbled, collapsed, and landed on my neck on the floating dock, before tumbling in agony into the water. Chris laughed mercilessly. The girls laughed, though they were also suitably concerned. I showed enjoyment in my buffoonery, but I could already feel a stiffness setting into my neck and knew I’d barely be able to turn my head the next day.
    When we got cold, we swam to the pier onshore and lay face down on the warm planks, smelling the sunshine soaked into the splintery wood. We watched through the cracks for minnows swimming by. I noticed that Leah’s foot was almost touching Chris’s leg and that he had raised himself on his elbows in such a way that his shoulders looked even more rounded, like a powerful animal’s haunches before a sudden forward spring. Some sense of pheromones became obvious to us all, and Susanmentioned that she needed to pee. Then, to my amazement, she asked me to accompany her.
    I jumped to my feet and glanced at Chris as I left. We laughed silently to each other, barely capable of disguising our delight. This was the summer experience we’d always longed for and imagined. The spontaneous double fuck.
    I followed Susan’s small steps along the mossy path.
    I always wondered what was on this side of the lake, she said.
    I asked her if she lived on the other side. She told me that she did now. The houses were more expensive over there, and she seemed like someone with money. I was trembling as though cold and I couldn’t trust my own voice.
    Wait here, she told me, and disappeared into the woods.
    I knew that she was peeing. I knew that, somewhere, she was crouching and her bikini bottoms were around her knees and urine was leaving her vagina and puddling the earth between her tanned feet.
    There was a boulder nearby, set partly in the water. It made a good spot to cast from because you could span out beyond the weeds. I clambered up and sat down. The surface was hotter than I expected, and I winced and forced myself to get used to it. I waited. I suppose I would have waited forever.
    When she returned, I was calmer, almost resigned, as if our relationship had progressed further in the interim, become something more intimate and knowing. She climbed up beside me and sat close. My arm touched her arm. My feet dangled near her feet. I pushed the side of her foot with my toes, she kicked back playfully. A frog jumped. So we hadn’t killed them all, I thought.
    Leah’s weird, she said.
    What do you mean? I asked. I did not want to talk about Leah. I wanted to nuzzle Susan’s neck and nibble the lobe of her ear.
    I thought it was weird to call you over. Don’t you think it was weird?
    I shrugged. I guess, I said. Yes, it was weird, but I was glad.
    I’ve seen you in school, she said.
    Have you? I asked, heart thumping.
    You’re very noticeable.
    I gulped. Is that so? I wanted to ask why, to gain some insight.
    How come you don’t have a girlfriend? she asked before