Date: Sat, 20 Dec 2014 13:28:51 +0100
From: Is This Desire <01.is.this.desire@gmail.com>
Subject: DOWN BY THE RIVER 1

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.