Copyright © 2014 by Is This Desire. All rights reserved. Do not reprint without permission.
DOWN BY THE RIVER -----------------
Separating himself from the crowd, Jim Patterson, a tall young man with a dark, handsome face, paused a moment on the top step. He looked out, searching for his friend Mark Richards, but he couldn't make him out in the mob of kids streaming out of the school building.
A running kid struck Jim's arm. Jim turned, expecting Mark, but it was someone else. He smiled, struck back, and they exchanged brief insults. All of the athletes were popular, even those who were quiet and shy, like Jim.
At last Mark appeared. "This year me. Next year you."
"I sure wish it was me who just graduated."
"So how did I look up there on that stage wearing that black potato sack?"
"Great."
"You know it." Mark chuckled. "Well, come on. We better play while we still got some light."
As they moved through the crowd to the locker room door, at least four giggling girls greeted Mark. Tall, blue-eyed, broad-shouldered, with thick curly hair and an especially powerful jaw, he was admired by most of them.
Mark looked around the dim locker room. "I guess this is the last time I'll be changing in here."
"Well, we can still use the courts this summer."
The two kids walked to the tennis courts without speaking. They had known each other all their lives, but it wasn't until the last two years that they'd become best friends.
They'd been on the baseball team together and they'd played tennis together, even though Jim always won. Sports had been particularly important to both of them, especially to Jim, who found it difficult to talk to people, at times even to Mark. Throwing playful punches, wrestling or hitting a ball back and forth across a net were forms of communication he preferred to conversation. Mark knew and respected this.