After that, I grabbed my wallet off the dresser, shoved it into a back pocket of my jeans, hurried to the closet and pulled a short-sleeved shirt off its hanger. I put it on as I hurried downstairs.

Rusty and Slim were waiting on the porch.

I finished fastening my buttons, then opened the screen door.

`Where we going?' I asked.

`You'll see,' Slim said.

I shut the door and followed my friends down the porch stairs.

Rusty was wearing an old shirt and blue jeans. That's pretty much what we all wore when we weren't dressed up for school or church. You hardly ever caught guys our age wearing shorts. Shorts were for little kids, old farts, and girls.

Slim was wearing shorts. They were cut-off blue jeans, so faded they were almost white, with frayed denim dangling and swaying like a fringe around her thighs. She also wore a white T-shirt. It was big and loose and untucked, so it hung over her butt in the back. Her white swimsuit top showed through the thin fabric. It was a skimpy, bikini-type thing that tied behind her back and at the nape of her neck. She was wearing it instead of a bra. It was probably more comfortable than a bra, and definitely more practical.

Mostly, in the summer, we all wore swimsuits instead of underwear. You never knew when you might end up at the municipal pool or at the river . . . or even when you might get caught in a downpour.

I had my trunks on under my jeans that morning. They were sort of soggy with sweat from mowing the lawn, and they clinged to my butt as I walked down the street with Rusty and Slim.

`So what's the plan?' I asked after a while.

Slim looked at me and hoisted an eyebrow. `Stage one's already been executed.'

`Huh?' I asked.

`We freed you from the chains of oppression.'

`Can't be mowing the yard on a day like this,' Rusty explained.

`Well, thanks for liberating me.'

`Think nothing of it,' Rusty said.

`Our pleasure,' Slim said, and patted me on the back.

It was just a buddy-pat, but it gave me a sickish excited lonely feeling. I'd been getting that way a lot, that summer, when I was around Slim. It didn't necessarily involve touching, either. Sometimes, I could just be looking at her and start to feel funny.

I kept it to myself, though.