Authors Note: This work was originally published as After the Boys of Summer Have Come, but no one called it that. This is the revised version, renamed to reflect actual use in correspondence.

The changes I made to this book from the first draft to the final are akin to the amount of work it is to take a car completely apart, rethread and re-tap every nut and bolt, cut out all the dead weight, build a hopped up engine, racing transmission, and trick differential, put all the cleaned parts back together, and finish with a hand polished paint job. It looks like the same car from a distance, but it's not the same car. It's a hot rod. There's hardly a single sentence I did not tweak to make it a faster, bolder read.

That obligatory intro aside...

How many times have you said, "I wish I knew then what I know now?" It would have been a different story, huh? It is the same for me. I could write a book about it; in fact, I did, and this is it.

Here goes...

Part One: Joshua

Gay Cock Is Bigger

Ricky sat on the teenagers' rocks at the swimming hole as he did almost every day when he and his family were vacationing at Sweetwater Falls. The beach, downriver, was for adults and smaller children. It was simply one of the traditions in a place with many traditions. In that old set of cabins along the river, most people knew each other. Many of the adults had grown up together. There were very few outsiders.

Staring morosely off across the river to the shady other side, forty feet away at that spot, he felt sad and drained. Debbie had called. She was getting married! She was pregnant!

He sighed. The rocks, eight feet above the slowly eddying dark water below his bare feet, were blazed by sunlight. Feeling hotter and hotter, he would soon trot over to the concrete diving block to his right and jump in. The frigid water would take his mind off her.

He was glad he had the place to himself that late morning. It meant he got to sit in his favorite spot — a little depression that caught and held his butt. In that precise location he could relax without worry of sliding into the water. Also, Ricky was not in the mood for company.

The sun was sparkling on the water. A slight breeze riffled through the oaks, maples, and cottonwoods while the towering firs and pines behind them remained aloof.

Ricky heard him before he saw him.

An excited, babbling voice. A young voice right at the exciting edge of "the change." It got Ricky's attention.

He turned to look, trying to not obviously stare. He saw a blonde kid with a blonde woman. Both of them had bright hair unlike Ricky's, which had lately taken on a golden brown tone. The blond boy was cute! Not at all tanned, like himself. The cute, blond boy's skin was even rather pink. His hair was longer than Ricky's, and Ricky needed a haircut, for it was getting in his eyes and tickling the top of his back. The new guy looked like he was maybe thirteen. He was definitely slender.

He was an effusive fellow, chattering loudly, almost skipping down the stone steps built into the path. He was wearing a pale yellow T-shirt many sizes too big, and he had on the long, baggy, surfing shorts that all guys usually wore swimming.

Without being conspicuous, Ricky kept an eye on him. He decided the woman was his mother. They looked like mother and son. The blond went with her to the beach. There, he pulled off his shirt. He was pretty skinny. But he wasn't weak looking. His lean form showed hard muscle. Ricky watched the kid's mother put sunscreen on his back, and he watched the boy rub more on the rest of himself. It was a sexy sight.

Then, to Ricky's joy, the boy dashed in his direction. He was going to sit on the teenagers' rocks! All thoughts of wanting to be alone vanished. Ricky wanted to meet this new kid.

His shyness was such that he might not even say anything, but the blond boy broke through that instantly.

"Hey," he greeted Ricky casually, balancing on the ridge at the high point of the rocks and asking, "So this is where the teenagers sit?"

His voice was a little huskier and deeper when he was near and speaking quietly. He had bright blue eyes and the cutest freckles on his fine nose.

"Yeah," Ricky said. He smiled at the boy. Ricky was shy, but he was not unfriendly. He saw that this guy had a narrow jaw and thin lips that were a touch chapped. Ricky also noticed, as the kid waved an arm to catch his balance, that he had just a touch of pale, fine hair in his pits.

"Name's Joshua," the boy said, offering his hand, adding, "You can call me 'Josh.'"

"Richard," Ricky said back, shaking hands, and imitating the style, "But everyone calls me 'Ricky.'"

Joshua squatted close to him. "How come they call you that instead of 'Rick?' Or," Joshua added, his voice mischievous, 'Dick?'"

"My dad is a 'Richard,' too. Also, my grand dad. People call my dad, 'Rick.' So 'Ricky' stuck. I don't care. I have an uncle 'Dan,' but my cousin? We call 'Danny.' And I even have another cousin, 'Tommy,' and his dad's 'Tom.' I guess it's a family tradition. As far as 'Dick' goes, well, that's kinda obvious, don'tcha think?"

Joshua laughed agreeably. He commented, "You're pretty talkative."

Ricky shrugged and smiled. Josh made it seem like a compliment rather than a complaint. People often complained that Ricky over-explained things.

Joshua asked, "How old are you?"

"Sixteen. You?"

"Fifteen, almost sixteen. When's your birthday?"

"Last April."

"OK, so you just turned sixteen, and I'll be sixteen in a couple months, so we're, like, basically, the same age."

Josh had a pleasant, musical quality to the way he spoke. Ricky found it alluring. And he was gorgeous. He looked good in a way that Ricky could not quite define. There was nothing fem about his manner or appearance, but he was pretty!

He always envied people with such an easy, confident social manner. Right then, Ricky decided that he would put some effort into being a friend to Josh.

Hugging his knees, Josh rested his head on one and turned his face sideways to look at Ricky. It was a very cute pose. Without ogling, Ricky noticed that Joshua's flat belly had just one little wrinkle where it bent, and Joshua's slender legs were elegantly shaped and sparkled with fine, almost transparent hair.

Joshua commented, "I've never seen someone wear cut-off blue jeans with the sides slit like that! And cut so short!"

Ricky shrugged. "I'm always wearing my pants out at the knees. It's my mom's idea. Also, guys around here do wear cut-off jeans. It's old fashioned. The people here are old fashioned. But you know? I'm on the swim team at my high school. We wear racing trunks there. I'm used to showin' skin."

Josh grinned broadly at that last. "That's pretty ballsy!"

"Literally," Ricky quipped back. He noticed that Josh seemed to be looking him over. Not obviously but still...

Josh grinned, saying, "In L.A.? If you wear a Speedo at the beach? Gay!"

He said the last in such a funny sing-song way that Ricky laughed out loud. He commented, "Getting called a queer for wearing a Speedo on the racing team is actually a high form of 'butch' don'tcha know, Josh? Besides, who cares if some guy is more turned on by guys than girls?"

Joshua slapped his thigh with pleasure. "OK!" he exclaimed, "You fuckin' rock, dude!"

He then changed the subject. "My mom says that some of the people here are total snobs, but you seem cool."

Ricky laughed. "Some of the people here are total snobs! Where's your cabin? I never saw you before."

"It's my step-dad's cabin. His name's Stan Turner. You know him?"

"I know who he is, yeah. So your cabin is that one down past the bridge on the other side of the river? It has gold siding and the big deck in the back?"

"That's the one! So you, like, know every cabin in this whole place?"

"Pretty much, yeah. My families are some of the oldest here, going back to when they first laid the train tracks. Way back."

"Oh HO! Wait'll I tell my mom that I just met the old money!"

Ricky's immediate family was far from rich, but Ricky did not correct Joshua, for his larger family was, in fact, quite wealthy. But they were down to earth people, never flaunting their wealth. Ricky knew that this was a part of their strict, Puritan religion. It was God who bestowed wealth. So bragging or unseemly displays were, bad, bad form.

Joshua sighed. He looked over the river. "I'll bet that water is butt cold!"

"Yeah," Ricky agreed. "My uncle Dan loves to fish, and he's always measuring the water temp 'cause it affects how trout feed. Yesterday he said it was fifty-two degrees."

"Shit!" Joshua commented. "That's gonna sure make our nuts suck up into little walnuts!"

Ricky laughed. The hot image of Joshua's shriveled nuts appeared in his mind. A quick glance showed nothing. Those stupid surfing shorts never revealed anything.

He said, "I was just about to jump in. It is cold, but after about fifteen minutes, you get used to it. Then you are good for about fifteen more. But usually, I just dive in from that block over there and swim around and get out soon. You wanna jump in?"

"My mom told me to wait fifteen minutes for the sun block to soak in, but I'll watch you!"

For some reason, the way Joshua said it registered to Ricky. Joshua wanted to watch him? That meant he liked looking at him?

Maybe I'm reading too much into nothing, but is he flirting with me?

Ricky, to his own surprise, was definitely flirting with Josh. He put on a show for him. He was a good swimmer. He had grown up swimming in this very river. The fast, cold water meant nothing dangerous to him. He was always amused by the terror of people for fast rivers. They were used to swimming pools, he guessed. Traveling in Mexico with his grandparents, he had been astonished to see people swimming in the resort pools when the ocean was right there!

He dove in, hardly making a splash. He swam under the calm, deep water near the rocks to the rapids on the far side and emerged in a high arc, falling back, twisting, and powerfully free styling downstream, only to turn where the stream broadened and became shallow just before it rushed through a rocky region. He swam across the current until he caught the eddy that swirled upstream past the rocks. There, he used footholds and handholds he had learned as a small child to agilely resume his previous place, dripping cold, cold river water.

Joshua nodded appreciatively. "You swim well."

Ricky, happy with the praise, nevertheless tried to appear nonchalant and humble. "Thanks, but I've been swimming here since I was a kid, ya' know? You see how the current works? I followed the current. Usually I turn sooner though. Sometimes I swim around and around really slowly. You gonna try?"

"Sure. In a minute."

When he did dive in, Ricky saw Joshua was by no means as good a swimmer as he, but he did well enough. He did not hold his nose or twist his head while obsessively keeping it out of the water as he swam. Those were dead giveaways that someone was clueless in the water.

After a few sessions of sunning, swimming, and chatting about the people and the history of the community, Joshua said, "Hey, you wanna come see my cabin? I'm camping in a tent on the deck! We could eat something. Are you hungry?"

"I could eat."

Walking back up from the river and south along the shady, tree-lined, gravel road leading to the bridge, Ricky pointed out the group of cabins that comprised his family's holdings. They were not elaborate places, but the lots were by far the biggest in the whole community.

On the other side of the old steel girdered bridge with all the criss-crossing beams, they made another turn south following the road on the west side of the river. It was also tree-lined, but paved with asphalt. Ricky had never actually been inside the cabin where Joshua was staying. Like many of the cabins on the sunny side of the river, his was less rustic and much newer. Ricky did not mention that in the opinion of the old families who had cabins on the shady side, the sunny side cabins were considered "upstart." No one on the old side, for example, ever rented their cabins to strangers. But Ricky also knew that the east side of Sweetwater Falls, while nice in the summer, was a cold, grim place in the winter. The cabins on the west side were much brighter and warmer. If he had his own cabin there, he would want that winter sun.

The deck of Joshua's cabin was the best part, for it was huge. There was even a hot tub in one shady corner near a table. Joshua had pitched his tent on the end overlooking the river. He said, "I think I'm gonna move it back though 'cause it gets blasted by the sun too early, and it gets hot. Hey! You wanna help me?"

"Sure!"

The gold and brown tent was large. One could stand up and walk around in it. Joshua had it fixed up well. It had a futon-like mattress on which Joshua's sleeping bag, comforter, and two pillows were placed; there was a rug and a low table for Joshua's laptop, speakers, a lamp, and what looked like video equipment. Ricky had noticed a power cord running to the tent. "Nice!" Ricky said.

Without much talk, the two teenagers got to work. They hauled everything out of the tent, and then they dragged the whole thing over nearer the cabin into the shade of a giant maple tree. Finally, they replaced all the furnishings exactly as they were before.

When they finished, Joshua said, "I'll make us some sandwiches. You like ham?"

"Yeah."

While Joshua busied himself that way, Ricky went out to the end of the deck and studied the water, enjoying it's omnipresent roar. One got so used to the sound, like the trains going by on the tracks paralleling the river, that one had to consciously listen for it. As always, the sparkle of the light on the water in the rocky stretch was hypnotizing.

His shorts were still wet, and he was barefoot. This last fact had astonished Joshua when they walked down the gravel road. "Don't your feet hurt?"

"Nah. I start toughening 'em up as soon as the weather gets warm. By June, I can walk on just about anything."

Joshua had laughed. "You're such a nature boy!"

Ricky mused on that statement. Joshua seemed to be going out of his way to say nice things to him, but Ricky's shyness prevented him from returning such casual compliments. He would get an awkward feeling and then clam up.

He sighed.

Joshua brought out a tray, and taking it over to the table on the opposite side from the tent, he said, "Could you grab a couple sodas? They are in the fridge. Get me a Pepsi and pick whatever you want."

"Sure."

Ricky got the Pepsi for Josh and was happy to see they had ginger ale.

They ate in relative silence for a while until Joshua asked, "You got a girlfriend?"

"Nah. I had one. She lived far away. She was super hot. A total 'ten.' We wrote a lot. Then, just last night, she called to tell me she was getting married."

"That burns. But I'm not surprised you can score 'tens'; you look like you could be an actor, or a model... uh..."

Ricky saw that Joshua blushed a little then. His eyes looked away nervously, but he quickly recovered, asking, "Getting married? How old is she?"

"Seventeen. She got pregnant!"

"That sucks!"

"Yeah. She cried, telling me. She said she felt like shit for going out on me. She said I deserved someone better! Oh, man, my feelings were so hurt!"

Ricky's eyes started to water. A part of him noticed that he had completely opened up to Joshua. They had only just met, but there he was almost ready to bawl his silly head off.

Joshua nodded sympathetically. But he smiled. He asked, "Did you and she, you know, do it?"

"No. We just made out. It wasn't even heavy petting. We kissed a lot! I've never actually had sex."

"That is so cool!" Joshua exclaimed.

"Cool?" Ricky asked, astonished. It wasn't "cool." It was the opposite of "cool."

"No, uh... I mean, it is so cool that you just admit it! Most guys do not. That's what I meant by 'cool.' Anyhow, I did. I fucked a girl, once, but..."

"But what?"

"Well, this is gonna sound, I dunno, like I'm bragging or something? But uh, well, my dick is pretty big, you know? For a guy my age? And, anyway, she couldn't take it. She kept saying, 'Oh! Ow! It hurts! Stop! Take it ouuuut!' Also, she wouldn't even fucking blow me!"

Ricky tried to not look interested in Joshua's big dick. He nodded. He said, "Mine's pretty big too, actually. So that's a problem sometimes? But, do you have a girlfriend right now?"

"Nah. I went out a few times last spring, but nothing this summer." He smiled that devilish smile of his and cheerfully added, "We'll have to compare cocks sometime."

"Oh, yes!" Ricky quipped back, "Let's do that!"

This patter was all just "jock talk" as far as Ricky knew. However, he was glad to hear Joshua's tone about girls. It meant that Josh would not be doing what a lot of guys their age did — obsess over them. That pretty much ruined a friendship for Ricky. He thought they were idiots, and they? Well, they thought he was gay. Several guys at school even thought he was lying about having a girlfriend. He wasn't lying. He loved Debbie.

Just as that melancholy thought swept over him again, Joshua, with a naughty look, asked Ricky, "You ever watch any porn?"

"I've never even seen any," Ricky answered.

"Really? Wow! I got some on my laptop. You wanna check it out?"

"Sure."

Ricky did not own a computer, and the one PC at his house was strictly controlled both in usage and in internet access. Ricky did not agree with his parents' rules. He obeyed them because he had no choice. Left to his own devices, he would have watched plenty of porn. So Joshua's offer required little thought and no hesitation.

After they cleaned up the lunch mess, they went to Joshua's tent to fire up his computer. Ricky's shorts were still damp, so Josh suggested he sit on a folded towel; otherwise, Joshua's sleeping bag and futon would get damp.

"How do you get porn onto your computer?" Ricky asked.

Joshua looked at him funny. "You don't use a computer much, do you?"

"No, did I say something funny?"

Joshua had been doing things on his computer, his eyes flicking back and forth between the screen and Ricky. He said, "That's what I like about you, Ricky. You're just so honest! But anyway, I download it. There's all these websites that have it for free. You have to do some hacks sometimes to get at the actual files, but that's not too hard. That's one way. There's other ways, like pirate sites, but anyway, check this out! It has ass fucking!"

What Ricky saw next was disorienting.

He was not quite sure what he was seeing. The sight was strange and unknown to him. It was two human beings, he saw that immediately because he saw bare, tan skin, and then he saw what had to be big, big cock and... balls! Big balls, slapping into... What? What was that cock fucking?

Then he figured out what he was seeing. It was like the camera was on the ground. Behind the figures was blue sky. The girl, and it was a girl, had a shaved pussy. Ricky knew it was a pussy. He had seen those often enough. His twin sisters had shown him when they were younger. And that big cock was fucking the girl's ass! Hard! Fast! The guy's balls slapped against her cunt as he fucked her ass brutally!

Joshua fiddled with the computer. The sound came on. Two voices, a screaming girl shouting "Yes! YES!" and a grunting guy going, "Oh yeah! Uh huh! You like it that way? Bitch?"

Joshua laughed. "Is this nasty or what? That's Digger Finn. He's got, like, a ten inch dick! Look at him fuck that ass! She likes it!"

Ricky stared open mouthed. Stunned.

Joshua laughed again, "You should see your face, Ricky! I wish I had a camera! But you notice that the dude is all shaved?"

"Yeah?" Ricky's cock was starting to get hard.

"His ass, balls, and around his cock? Some porn stars do that. He's one. But, anyway, ass fucking is an art! They make it seem easy, but the porn stars gotta do enemas and stuff first. They don't show that part, but check this out!"

Ricky did not fail to notice that Josh seemed to know a lot about ass fucking.

Joshua brought up another window. This one was with the camera looking down at a dark haired girl with way too much garish make up. She was laying on her back on a bed with her head hanging over the edge. Her long hair streamed down. She made a slutty face just before some guy's cock came into the scene. This guy was hairy, but he also had a giant prick. He grabbed the girl's head and she grabbed his cock. He stuffed it into her mouth! Ricky could actually see her throat bulge as she took it full length!

"That's called 'deep throat,'" Joshua explained. "There's a famous old movie called that. Hot! Huh?"

It was hot. Ricky's cock was getting harder.

Joshua added, "That actor is Rex Melrose."

He changed the window back to the previous one. The girl was fingering herself as she was fucked in the ass.

"Doesn't that hurt her?" Ricky asked. Interestingly, Josh mentioned the names of the guys, but not the women.

"Nah. They get used to it... Uh, that's what I hear! I saw an interview. They work up to big cocks like that, and they practice, and if the guy knows what he's doin' it feels pretty good! At least, that's what they say!"

Ricky squirmed a little, changing his position in a vain effort to hide his erection.

Joshua asked, "You boning up? It's cool. I am too. Sometimes me and my friends'll check out this shit out and beat off. It's not gay or nothin'. It's just a guy thing. Anyhow, I'm gettin' one too, so don't worry about it!"

Ricky glanced at Joshua's shorts. He didn't look hard. Ricky glanced away and then back at Joshua, who met his eyes. He had seen him look!

But Joshua only smiled in a friendly way. He said, looking back at the laptop, "Here's one with just some regular fucking."

The next scene had a big breasted blonde laying on her side on a couch, wearing only a cowboy scarf and white cowboy boots, and a tall, muscular man with a hairy chest. He was wearing only a cowboy hat and boots. He had her leg stretched high in the air, and his big cock was sloppily fucking the girl's cunt. She had light brown pubic hair. Ricky liked that better than the shaved one.

"That guy is Jason Harness," Joshua said. "He's in a lot of porn. He's a pretty big star."

It's Not Gay! I Swear!

Ricky's cock was at full mast. It tented up his shorts. It was starting to hurt. He saw Joshua look down at it and and grin.

"We might as well take care of it, man. It's cool. I won't tell if you won't tell! Anyhow, would you, like, get pissed if I popped one off?"

"No," Ricky breathed. He would have liked nothing better than to see Joshua naked.

"Cool!" Joshua undid the tie at the front of his surfing shorts. He lay back, lifted his round, little butt, and slipped his shorts down and off. He was wearing a white Bike jock strap, just like the ones most guys wore in P.E.

And judging from the thick, hard bulge, Joshua did have big dick!

Ricky unbuttoned his cut-off 501s. He slipped down his damp shorts. His cock popped out above his still water shrunken balls. He glanced at Joshua, who was looking at his junk. But Joshua's eyes flicked up to Ricky's face. He continued to fondle his cock in his jock strap. The outline of it was impressive.

"I see you ain't wearing underwear, Ricky. Me? I gotta wear a strap when I swim, otherwise my stuff flops around."

Joshua scooted back a little and leaned onto his side, holding himself up on an elbow. With his other hand, he played with his balls. He lifted a leg. Ricky could see just a hint of his butthole. He was not hairy down there.

Ricky realized he was staring, so he made himself look at the screen of the laptop. Joshua had two windows up with the first and second scenes playing. He had turned the sound off again.

Ricky decided to really get into jacking off. He played with his balls with one hand and stroked his cock slowly with the other.

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Joshua slip off his jock. The guy did have a big dick! It was longer and thicker than Ricky's, not by a lot but definitely bigger, yet, on Joshua's small frame, it looked disproportionately huge. Like Ricky, Josh was circumcised. He was pale white there, and he had a tuft of light blond hair around the top of his penis but virtually non along the sides of his balls. He looked up at Joshua. He had been staring again.

He could feel himself blush.

Josh seemed to get it. He confided, "It's totally OK to check me out man. All guys do that. It's not queer or nothin' We all do it. We all like to see what the other guy's got, so you can check me out. It's fine man. Don't sweat it. I see you got a big one! It's, like, almost seven inches!"

Ricky grinned, but he disagreed, "More like eight! But damn dude! That's a fucking monster!"

"Yeah," Joshua agreed. "It's strange, being this old and still looking like I'm twelve or something, but at least I got me some man meat!"

He laughed happily. Joshua had big balls too. The weave of the jock strap was still imprinted on the delicate, pink skin.

"But, hey! You ever actually measured your dick?"

"Yes. That's why I said 'eight inches.'"

Josh shook his head. "Nah. You're doing it wrong. You're supposed to measure the top. Mine is seven and a quarter inches when measured that way, and well, I'd say it's a half inch longer than yours."

"That seems about right," Ricky agreed.

Joshua said, his face mischievous again, "Basically, you can pretty much always subtract at least an inch from however long a guy says his dick is, and chicks don't know shit, so at least two if a chick says it. Hey! Let's show each other how we do it! Huh?"

"Sure."

"I like to grip the base like this, and make my fingers into a ring to mainly work the tip. How do you do it?"

Ricky showed him, turning to face Joshua with his legs spread. He would have liked to have something to lean back against, but he made it work. Ricky pulled down on his big balls to make the skin of his dick tight, and he stroked the whole length sensuously.

This is so fucking hot!

Joshua watched Ricky unashamedly, blatantly, smiling. This gave Ricky permission to do the same. They ignored the porn on Joshua's laptop. They had their own porn show going that was much better.

Joshua came first with a gasp, "Here it comes! Ah!" It did not squirt out in far streaks; rather, it gurgled up and around Joshua's fingers. The jizz was rather clear.

Ricky came silently. He did that. He was used to being in a small house with a big family. His spunk shot up and arced over a shoulder behind him, some got in his hair!

Ricky had not come that hard in a long time. He could sometimes squirt far. That would happen when he had not jacked off for a while, but then when he did do it and held off an orgasm as long as he could, he could spray come everywhere. This vast amount of semen production was a new thing. It had only begun near his sixteenth birthday. His balls had gotten big, and his dick got much longer and thicker.

He did not tell Joshua that it was fantasies about guys that really got him off. This was a fact so secret, he couldn't even admit it to himself.

He looked at Joshua a little embarrassed. Joshua was wiping himself with a hand towel he had pulled from somewhere. He folded his own juice in it and handed it to Ricky grinning. "You have a lot of goo, man! You're definitely a shooter. You should be in porn!"

As Ricky wiped himself off, he said, "I didn't jack off since yesterday, but I think I got some on your sleeping bag."

"Don't sweat it bro'. Shit happens. Me? I already jacked off once this morning, so I didn't have so much."

Ricky felt shy again. He was having a hard time meeting Joshua's eyes.

Joshua said, "You're not gonna get all weird on me, are you Ricky? That wasn't fag action. That was just horny guys doin' what all kinds of guys do."

Ricky made himself face Joshua as he grabbed his shorts. "I'm not gonna get 'weird,' but I'm kinda' embarrassed. I never did anything like that before."

Joshua shook his head in a friendly way, dismissing Ricky's discomfort. He had made no move to put on his shorts. His cock lay soft across a slender pink thigh. "Well," Joshua said, his voice soothing, "You got nothin' to be ashamed of. You could be a porn star yourself, all tan and muscular with a nice chest and strong looking long legs. And you do have a big dick. Seven inches is definitely considered the in 'definitely big' category. Plus, you got that butch look that porn stars have. You got nothing to hide, man. And look at me! I'm like this skinny, runty, little boy!"

Ricky smiled happily at Joshua's rush of compliments. No one had ever commented on his body that way. Even Debbie had been more reserved. Ricky worked up the courage to say something nice back. "Well, you're not a 'little boy' in the dick department. And you're being unkind to yourself. You have a nice body — all hard and lean. You look pretty tough to me.

"Also," Ricky added, feeling brave, "I think you're cute."

Joshua laughed. His whole face lit up. He did not follow up on the pass, and it was a pass, Ricky realized.

Sunnily, Josh said, "Let's get dressed and go for another swim or something, huh?"

"Sure."

When Josh dressed again, he left his shirt off like Ricky. Before they left his cabin, he asked, "Hey, Ricky, would you put some sunscreen on my back?"

"Sure!"

Ricky squeezed some directly onto Joshua's shoulders, but Joshua hissed, "Damn, dude! Put it on your hands first!"

"Sorry!" Ricky said as he quickly rubbed the lotion onto Joshua's slender back. His shoulder blades stuck out, and the backs of his arms were so slender, it made his elbows look a little bony. But Ricky thought that looked beautiful too.

Joshua then offered to put some on Ricky.

"I never wear it," Ricky said.

"Well, you should! Me, I burn easy. But you want to look fifty when you're twenty five? My mom says that."

"No, I don't want to look fifty when I'm twenty-five," Ricky told him.

"Then wear sunscreen!"

"OK," Ricky agreed. "You can put some on my back. I'll wear it."

Joshua's hands on his back felt wonderful. The guy took far more time on him than Ricky had taken. Ricky, as he noticed this, was thinking, actually for the first time, that Joshua might be a little more into guys than he let on.

He began to imagine possibilities.

He took Joshua on a tour of the vacation community along the river. He became expansive. It was he who did the talking. He was warmed up. His natural gregariousness came out.

Joshua remained quiet. He listened to everything. He never appeared bored. When they finally got to Ricky's cabin, Ricky suggested they go up there and get some water. Ricky's two sisters, Mary and Catherine, were there. They were twins. Unlike Ricky, they had brown hair and brown eyes. They were beautiful girls, and they were all over Joshua in an instant.

"Ooh! Who's your cute friend?" Catherine asked.

Ricky had warned Joshua about them.

He introduced them all to each other. Catherine even ended up in Joshua's lap. Joshua joked with them, "How do you girls even tell each other apart?"

Mary, who was usually more reserved than Catherine, brightened at the joke. She quipped back, "Sometimes we can't!"

Joshua asked, "Do you ever pretend to be the other?"

"Sometimes," Catherine said. "Except it doesn't work on Ricky, but our brother Patrick? We fool him all the time."

Joshua looked at Ricky who was sitting apart on the high, covered deck. "How do you tell?"

Ricky shrugged and smiled.

After Joshua had charmed Ricky's sister's, he showed Joshua where he slept. Between the two main cabins was a deeply shaded acre and a-half of land, and in the center was an old gazebo. He did not tell Joshua that that a huge plot of land with hardly a thing on it was the ultimate status symbol in the vacation community. Ricky's Victorian gazebo was one of the architectural jewels of the whole place.

He explained that there were basically two lines, one from his father's side, and another from his mother's side.

"So your parents met here?"

"Yes. They were childhood sweethearts."

"That's so cool," Joshua commented.

"Except it got a bit awkward after the divorce. My dad tries not to come here when my mom's here. But the great thing is I stay all summer. After my mom goes home, I'll stay with my dad — me and my shitass brother Patrick. The girls have a different father; that's my step-dad."

"I see. So this is your spot?"

They had come to the old gazebo surrounded and covered by maples. "Yeah. This is the oldest building, uh, structure? left after a fire took out my dad's cabin during World War II. It is the oldest building still standing, built in 1868, though a couple of my great, grand uncles rebuilt it after World War II. They used the same wood, but they re-did the foundation and used steel hardware. They built that bridge we walked on too."

"Wow!" was all Joshua could say.

"See how the wood is all heavy and chipped? My great, great, great, grand uncles built this with like, axes or something, but the decorative finishes up top were done with a scroll saw and a lathe. My grandfather told me that. He's all into architecture, and he likes to explain things. We have weddings here!"

Josh grinned."You like to explain things too, huh Ricky?" He quickly added, "But this is where you sleep?"

"Uh huh. They let me. I drop down these screens to keep mosquitos out at night, and there's these other screens to keep the rain and light out. Good for privacy too."

There were no niceties there. No power. No lights. Only Ricky's rolled up sleeping bag. Not even a pad. Under the benches Ricky had many novels and sheaves of sheet music and a small electronic keyboard, but he also had many comic books.

Joshua immediately noted the part of Ricky's collection that had the European comics. "Aren't these expensive?"

"Yeah. I guess so. My dad is into comics. He gets these from a big comic shop in San Francisco. They are not really kid comics. They are 'edgy,' that's what my dad calls 'em."

"It would be fun to hang out here and read comics, er, these are more like 'graphic novels!'" Joshua gushed.

"Exactly," Ricky agreed. He looked around. "Hey! You could spend the night, if you wanted. We could get a pad, and we have lots of sleeping bags."

Ricky was surprised at how easy it was to ask Josh over. Jacking off together had taken them right to a relaxed friendship.

"That sounds fun," Joshua agreed, "and," he added coyly, "we could bring my laptop?"

"We could do that," Ricky agreed.

"Cool. Also a lot of filmmakers are influenced by comics. I'm really into them! I'd love to look at them."

"Totally, dude."

Ricky's mom and Joshua's mom were sitting together on the beach in the low beach chairs preferred by the adults. They were happily chatting when the two boys approached. Permission granted, the two went back to the gazebo and read comics; rather, Joshua read comics while Ricky continued his rereading of The Lord of the Rings trilogy. They also took a little time to build a comfortable nest with pads, pillows, and extra sleeping bags.

"You're quite the reader, huh, Ricky?" Joshua observed.

"Yeah. I guess so. I sometimes think that stories are better than real life."

Joshua then said something great: "Everyone thinks that, Ricky."

Before the barbecue, a few hours before dusk, Ricky took Joshua fishing back at the swimming hole, explaining that trout fed mostly in the evening, not in the morning like most fish. Ricky had a fly rod, but he set Joshua up with a spinning rod and a lure.

Joshua was curious about fly fishing, so Ricky showed him how to cast and pull the line in. Every time a fish took Joshua's fly, it escaped, but when Ricky did it, he always brought them in.

"How do you fucking do that?"

"I just pull when I think there's a fish there. But the time you feel it, they are gone."

This reminded Joshua of something Ricky had said when he had asked Ricky again how he told his twin sisters apart. Ricky had answered, "They just feel different. Also, if you look in their eyes, you can see that they are totally different. They have different belly buttons too. Mary has an outie; Catherine has an innie!"

Ricky then showed Joshua his belly button, pulling up his shirt and peeling apart the skin around it, "Look! It looks like a little butt!"

This was hilarious to Joshua. "Mine", he said as he showed him, "looks like someone stuffed a pea in it!"

Ricky laughed. "Belly buttons are funny, aren't they!"

"Yeah!"

Ricky was wearing a tight T-shirt, but the sleeves were cut off at the shoulders. Joshua asked, "You like to cut off your clothes, huh?"

"Yeah. I like the way it feels to have my limbs free."

He did not tell Joshua that he thought it also made him look good. He did not say that he liked to dress differently than other guys just to mark himself as one apart. Ricky had not really figured himself out that way, yet.

Moving the subject back to fishing, he explained, "This is not really the best fishing here. To catch the wild trout, you have to wade upstream and shoot your line ahead. It's tricky. My uncle Dan taught me a bunch. He's the best fisherman in my family; uh, well, not counting my grand uncles on my dad's side, but they don't fish as much any more, but anyway, maybe tomorrow you might want to try that kind of fishing? It's the way to get native trout in this river."

Ricky had told him that fish in the hole were mainly "planters"; that is, fish raised in a fish hatchery and brought in by tanker trucks.

"I'll try," Joshua said. His tone suggested that he did not think it would be easy.

"Well, we caught a few. Let's clean 'em and take 'em back. We can hang with the grown ups for a while. My mom likes that. Then we'll go to our spot. OK?"

"OK."

When he showed Josh how to clean the fish, he exclaimed, "Wow! You do that fast!"

Ricky smiled. "Lots of practice. My uncle Dan taught me. He was always happy that I did not mind the job, so I'd clean all the other fishermen's fish too."

After the fish were cleaned, and Ricky had vigorously rinsed his hands, they went back to the cabin to add the fresh fish to the feast.

Ricky's place was one of social hotspots in the community. There were many people at the barbecue, including Joshua's mother. They were all drinking, beer, mixed drinks, and wine. The grown ups were acting pretty jolly by the time they arrived. After gorging themselves on barbecue chicken and fire cooked trout, the two boys remained only as long as they thought necessary to show some family togetherness.

Joshua asked, "So where's your brother Patrick? I never saw him."

"Who knows?" Ricky answered. He could not give a damn where his brother was.

Joshua did not pursue the topic. But Ricky suddenly burst out, "Don't leave any of your stuff here! He'll get into it, and it might disappear. He's a total shit. I fucking hate him!"

Joshua said that he would keep that in mind, and, to Ricky's perception, he looked at Ricky oddly.

Once settled into their sleeping area at the gazebo, they talked and talked. Ricky was used to going to bed early and getting up early. Joshua was used to staying up late and getting up late.

In the way of friends, they compromised. Ricky stayed up a little later, and Josh went to sleep a little earlier. They talked about their lives. Ricky, of his life in the farm town where he lived and the high school where he played sports. Josh of L.A. and his high school. They made plans for the next day. They talked about their dreams.

Ricky said he wanted to be an architect, or maybe a naval architect, or maybe both. He told Josh a little about his love of music and his passion for piano and Italian popular music. He carefully explained that it was not opera. Joshua seemed to understand that there was a huge difference. Most people did not. Ricky also love Renaissance music. He loved the way it was so triumphant and optimistic, all full of horns. Joshua said he wanted to be a filmmaker. He had many ideas about lighting. He was fascinated by light. He talked at length about how one image could say so much. He described light as something with rhythm, and this was amazing to Ricky.

"And yet you want to make porn?" Ricky kidded him.

"Nah. Once you do that, no one will ever take you seriously. You'll never get any work. That's what I hear."

"Where'd you hear that?"

"I live in L.A., man! In Venice, where I live, which actually part of L.A? Shit. You can hardly walk around down there without seeing someone filming something. You talk to people, and you hear stuff."

"You ever meet any famous actors and shit?"

"Well, not meet, but you see 'em all over the place. L.A. people know to leave 'em alone."

"Cool. You ever surf?" Ricky asked. He was starting to yawn.

"I tried a couple times. I suck. It's hard! And we live kinda far from the beaches with the good surfing. Hauling a surfboard around is a big deal, and my mom's not into, you know, shuttling me around? I ride a bike a lot though. I got a fixie. You ever ride those?"

A "fixie" was a single speed, fixed gear bike. Often they were brakeless. One slowed down and stopped by pushing back on the pedals. A traditional fixie could not coast.

Ricky was delighted. "A fixie? Sick! That's what I ride too."

"Awesome! What kind?""

"I built it myself around a Kirin frame. They are these steel, hand-made Japanese racing frames. Do you know of them?"

"I do! They are really classy. I used to have this old, steel frame from the seventies? You know? But now I have a Cinelli Mash frame, all aluminum. It's radical!"

Ricky laughed out loud. He had come full awake. "Dude! I am so fucking jealous!"

"My step-dad bought it for me; you know, he was trying to, like, make friends with me?"

Ricky sighed, "I wish my step-dad was like that. I would totally let him bribe me!"

"You don't get along?"

Ricky had told him that his step-dad was not there. He was working. He would probably just show up for a weekend and immediately leave again.

"No," Ricky said, sighing, "I don't think he even likes me."

"That's too bad," Joshua said. "But at least you have your dad. I haven't seen mine since I was a little kid."

Ricky got Joshua's wistful tone. He changed the subject. "Well, it's nice to see our moms getting along."

"Yeah," Joshua agreed.

They did not fool around. The topic never came up.

They never did go get Joshua's laptop. They seemed to have forgotten that idea.

Before Ricky fell asleep, he said, "It's too bad you are only staying through the weekend, Josh. I'm really enjoying your company."

"Thanks, Ricky. Me too."