Pool
Hopping
1973
The car rocked because they were
dancing around. They searched in the debris and scattered tapes in the back of
the car but by the time they found the Carol King tape we were driving up to
the house. Annie had pointed it
out as we came up the hill on the last turn before the school. It was a kind of farmhouse across from
Tilden Lane by the junior high school.
“Oh yeah, yeah this is it,” she
said. Pull up down past the
house.”
“Kill the lights, man.”
“This is all their property. Keep going
down the hill aways, away from the house.”
“OK.”
“Oh shit. Are we really going to do this?”
“Moe, you been pool hopping before,
right?”
“Yeah. But not co-ed I haven’t.”
“Quiet now man. Got to be quiet now.”
The car moved slowly along the side
of the road and then rolled to a stop.
We eased out of the car and
into the night.
“It’s kind of cooled down,” Rosen said.
“WHISPER!” Annie whispered.
Rosen closed his door with a
click. Sammie was the last one
out. She swung the door closed
behind her and it banged shut.
“Holy shit Sammie.”
“Whoops.”
We were across the street from the
junior high, a big brick building up above us on a hill with a few square
windows lit here and there. Down
the street a little ways was the suburbs.
It was like this old farmhouse had been left from another time.
“Come on,” Annie said.
She was ahead of us at a gate in
the hedge. She disappeared into
the field.
“Hurry up,” Sammie said.
She skipped softly to the
gate. She didn’t want to be apart
from her friend. Then we were all
walking through the tall grass of the field. We were kind of high stepping, walking carefully on the
clumps and uneven ground. You
could smell cow manure, or horse manure, or something.
“Watch your step.”
“Where the fuck is the pool.”
“Up this way. By the house.”
“Oh shit, man.”
Up ahead were a few black
silhouettes of tall trees and past them the roof of the house. We were getting closer, walking up a
little hill. Sammie lit a joint
and passed it to Annie. They both
giggled. I watched Annie take a
hit and the red end of the joint brighten up. I could have used a beer, but I’d had enough pot, man. It made me too nervous. But then of
course I had to at least fake a small hit, just to be part of what was
happening.
I was wondering if I should put my
arm around Sammie, or hold her hand or anything after what she’d told me. We
stood shoulder to shoulder, almost touching, then very gently touching, leaning
against each other in out little pot smoking circle in the night field. I
wanted to kiss her all the same. I
didn’t want to think about her and Tim fucking Grey. A horse whinnied off in the distance and we froze for a
second, listening.
“It’s OK. Here.”
“There’s a little left. Finish it.
“Dig it.”
“Don’t bogart.”
“No man.”
The pool was just past the tall
trees. It was a beautiful blue
circle glowing with light from within.
You could hear the pump humming and water circulating. Annie was stepping out of her skirt by
the trunk of one of the trees.
Then Sammie joined her, bending to pull off a sneaker, holding herself
up with one hand on the tree.
Rosen and I looked at each other
and then kind of nodded and started getting undressed. And then they there were, the two naked
girls, holding hands, shivering a little in the moonlight. They tippy-toed on the stone patio and
then sat down on the edge of the pool.
I thought I probably shouldn’t look at Annie, but I did. Shit she did have pretty big breasts. The two girls eased down into the
water. We were right behind
them. We sat on the edge and then
dropped into the water. You knew
you couldn’t dawdle and decide if the water was too cold or not.
The water was about waist deep at
this end. At first I just walked
around with my hands up. The water
was pretty cool. But after a minute the water seemed warmer than the air.
“Come on you big sissy,” Sammy said
to me.
She was whispering but her voice
still seemed loud. I dropped all
the way under water, out of the sounds of the night, and swam over toward her
bare legs. I popped up right in
front of her and she gave a little cry.
“Hey, what’s the big idea?” she
said.
Her wet hair was plastered to her
head and it made her smile look bigger. Annie had swum to the deep end of the
pool and Rosen was moving that way, too, stroking gently along the surface down
by the diving board.
“I have something to say to you,” I
told Sammie.
“What’s that?”
“It’s very important.”
“Oh, I bet.”
We were holding hands now, circling, treading water.
“You bummed me out Sammie. What you said before. About you hanging out with Tim Grey.”
“It’s only once in a while,” she
goes. “I’m sorry.”
“Really. I mean it.”
“I know. I’m really sorry, too.
I don’t know why I do the things I do sometimes.”
“Ok. Then you have to do this one thing for me.”
“Oh I could guess what that would
be.”
“Really. Just one small favor.”
We hugged a bit. Our bodies moved against each other in
the water.”
“What is it honey?”
“Don’t let Rosen see you naked.”
“What?!”
“Really.”
“Are you kidding, Moe? It’s a
little late.”
“I am kidding,” I said. “But I’m
not kidding.”
She swam away from me, kicking up
white bubbles. For a minute there
we started forgetting where we were.
I floated on my back looking up at the stars while everyone paddled
around and giggled like little kids or disappeared under water with a
plop. Rosen was doing that thing
where you make a fist and water squirts out. He shot a spurt at Annie and she splashed him back.
“I’m going to call you Ragtime
Annie from now on,” Rosen said.
“Whatever turns you on,” she said.
We were all just floating around
smiling. It was one of those times
you know something pretty cool is happening and you even have a vague idea that
you should make an extra effort to try to remember. But you don’t, man, do you? It fades into everything else that happens. All the day to
day shit that crowds in, all the hours of work and school and boredom. Although sometimes it surprises you and
comes back, on its own, when you’re thinking about something else.
The traditional way to end a pool
hop is with a cannon ball. At
least that’s the traditional way in Centerport, New York. I thought we could have stayed a little
longer. All the other shit that
had happened that night was being washed out of my head. But I could see Annie
and Sammie were conspiring down by the diving board and then I watched as their
two white asses climbed the ladder and then came running, one right after the
other, off the board.
“GERONIMO!”
“GERONIMO!”
They both held their knees cannon
ball style and came splashing in sending water up into the air and onto the
patio.
“Fuck,” Rosen said. “Now we’re
done.”
We waited, listening. All you heard was the waves moving
around, sloshing against the sides of the pool, and the hum of the pump. A breeze was moving the leaves and
branches above us.
“Well, what the fuck,” Rosen said.
So we followed suit, running with
our hands over our dicks, I’m not sure why, since they’d already had a good
look, then bouncing hard on the diving board, springing up, one after the
other, and then coming down into the water. Under water was all white bubbles. When I surfaced I could hear screaming from the house.
“TOMMY! TOMMY! TOMMY!”
It was an older man shouting and
man was he pissed. Lights went on in the house. You could hear a dog barking. Well, we were all moving and
moving fast, pretty much instantly, man. We all just had to stop long enough to
grab our clothes on the fly. Then
we were bounding across the field with our shirts and pants rolled under our
arms or waving in the air like scarves behind. I was basically scared shit,
stumbling, trying to run faster than I could. In front of me were the naked
bodies of my friends, running and falling. I was last in line. Any thought of
being quiet was pretty much out.
It was all pretty much just nervous laughter and panic, man.
“Shit, hurry up!”
“Are they coming?”
“Don’t turn around.”
Then Sammie my darling turned and
grabbed me. I kind of slammed into her and she had to go on one foot off
balance, holding me up. We were
almost to the gate. She held my
two arms, shaking them.
“I dropped my shoe,”
“You’re kidding?”
“No. You have to go back for it.”
“Fuck Sammie!”
“It’s my peace shoe. Please! You have to go get it. My peace sneaker.”
She was really desperate for that
fucking shoe. I ran back and just
out of dumb luck found the white sneaker sitting in the grass in the
moonlight. Then I booked it back
to the car. We stood in a circle with our backs to each other as the dog howled
in the distance and got our clothes back on quick. Then we flew out of there
safe and sound. We’d made it.
I was in the back seat with Sammie
and we cuddled and kissed. It was
something that was going to happen weather we thought about it or not. Know what I mean? We moved together. It was the most normal thing in the
world. We came together without
thinking about it. We both were
sort of humming or moaning as we kissed.
Hmmmm. Hmmmm. Sounds we didn’t mean to make came out of us on their own. We were just kissing and hugging, that
was all. I even started crying a little as we were kissing and she whispered,
“poor boy.” It was because I
really liked her a lot and it seemed like we could do stuff together and see
what would happen, except she really didn’t like me as much as I liked her.
*
After that we got
them dropped off OK. Annie was
staying at Sammie’s house since Sammie’s dad was basically out of it and
wouldn’t have any idea where they were or how late they stayed out. His big thing was Sammie, don’t have
sex with kids in my bed. To me
that seemed a fair enough request.
Other than that, it was like, see you around. You’re on your own.
He had his own problems, I guess.
Annie and Sammie
waved to us and then turned and walked up the driveway talking and comparing
notes and laughing. We watched
them as they went up the steps and into the house. Then the light went on inside and we drove off.
“Holy shit,” Rosen
said. “Annie really does have some
major serious bazooms.”
“You know what,
man,” I said. “She really does.”
“I was on those
things in the pool, man.”
“Oh yeah?”
“Yes. I’m a very happy individual right now.”
“Rosen, I’m happy
for you,” I said. I really meant
it, too. When it’s all said and
done that was something to be happy about out of the whole fucking long night,
wasn’t it?
“She’s going to hang
out with me tomorrow night maybe.”
“Cool.”
“Hey Moe, man. Want to do a bun run up at the
stores? I think they delivered the
morning rolls and bread by now.”
“Yeah?”
“Yeah. They leave
those big paper bags of rolls and shit against the door at the deli. We could just go grab a few rolls or
something.”
“Yeah I know, but
I’m just beat, man. I got to work
tomorrow. In a few hours, actually.
I’m just wasted.’
“I’ll drop you home
my main man,” Rosen said.
When he pulled the
Corvair up in front of my house he reached over and patted me on the
shoulder. I reached over and
patted him back.
*
I stood out on the
lawn for a minute after he drove off.
My clothes were a little sticky from being wet. My head hurt, kind of, from being
punched. And my soul, man, you
know, what can you say. The moon
was gone from the sky, but the stars were really clear. The train whistle blew
up in Greenlawn. Some kind of bugs were whizzing up in the trees. They’d whizz and buzz and then stop.
Under the stars, at the end of the night, I stood looking up into space
thinking about Sammie. I felt a
chill come to me from across the universe, from outer space, it spiraled all
the way down to our little patch of grass on Buchanan Street. I knew what it was, too, man. It was the Sand City Blues.
My
mother kind of popped up when I walked into the kitchen. She’d had her head down on the table
next to the open Bible and an ashtray with cigarette butts and an empty glass. She looked up with droopy eyelids. At first she stared, getting her
bearings, trying to wake up. She
needed a minute to remember who she was and who I was.
“Oh, finally,” she
said.
“Hey Ma.”
“It’s so late
Kevin.”
“No it’s Jack, Ma.”
“Oh, I know.”
“Why don’t you go on
up to bed?”
“I am. I’m just finishing this one passage
from the Bible. It’s the word of
God. Truly. Really. Isn’t that wonderful, Jack?”
Her voice was pretty
thick and slow from drinking. Her head waved a bit, like a flower that was too
heavy for the stem. She had to
catch herself from nodding off again.
“Come on, Ma,” I
said. I held out my hand.
“I’m coming.”
She got up and held
the back of the chair. She fixed
her eyes on me.
“Do you kids have
any idea how much we love you? You
don’t. Because you can’t possibly know.”
“Time for bed Ma.”
“You kids are so
wonderful. You kids are our
lives. Do you understand that?”
I got hold of her
hand and tried to lead her to the stairs, but she pulled her hand free.
“I’m fine,” she
said, slurring the words. “Your
father’s home from that rotten night job.
He likes night jobs so he doesn’t have to be home. Didn’t you know that?”
“OK. OK.”
“It’s always make
due, though, Jack. Jack, I’m
worried sick about Kevin. They
won’t send him to that war, will they?”
“No, Ma. They won’t send him. Don’t worry.”
“Tell me they won’t
send him over there to Viet Nam.”
“I just told
you. They won’t send him.”
She steadied herself
on the counter and started making her way to the stairs. She stopped at the sink and started
cleaning glasses the kids had left.
She couldn’t help herself, it was instinctual, man, she could wash dishes in her sleep.
“Ma,” I said. “Go up.”
“I am. I am Jack. I was waiting up for you.”
“I know.”
“Jack, what’s on
your shirt?”
“Just catsup got
spilled.”
“Honey?”
“Yeah, Ma?”
“Promise me one
thing?”
“What?”
“That you won’t ever
move into the city?”
“What? What are you talking about?”
“Don’t ever move
into New York. OK? Terrible things
happen there.”
She made her way
toward the stairs, using the walls for balance.
“OK. Sure Ma. Now good night.”
“Good night honey.”
