Young Lather

Thrashing the Air with His Hands

"How'd you get that name anyway?" Archie asked. "Who names a kid Lather?"

I sighed. "My parents."

"But, Lather?"

"After a song," I answered. "Called, Lather, by the Jefferson Airplane."

"Who?"

"Jefferson Airplane -- an old band from the sixties." I was actually kind of happy with my name, and especially some of the words of the song. I started to sing it.

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Lather was thirty years old today

They took away all of his toys

His mother sent newspaper clippings to him

About his old friends who'd stopped being boys

There was Howard C. Green

Just turned thirty-three

His leather chair waits at the bank

And Sergeant Dow Jones

Twenty-seven years old

Commanding his very own tank

But Lather still finds it

A nice thing to do

To lie about nude in the sand

Drawing pictures of mountains

That look like bumps

And thrashing the air with his hands

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I stopped. They were staring at me -- Archie, Kara, Dara and Celeste.

"You sing good," Archie said. I think one of the girls would have said something -- they all looked sort of... softened up -- but just then, Track puked again. Not a pretty sound.

"You okay, Track?" I asked unenthusiastically.

"Yuh," he got out as he panted, then he dry heaved again. The softened up girls were now hardened up again, so...

We sat quiet for a bit, contented, the words of the song still in our minds -- or at least in mine. I mean, we were only becoming juniors, but still the words about being a banker or a soldier, and forgetting about stuff we liked now... Well, I don't know, but it's that getting adult thing that's weird when you think about it, which I almost never do. I glanced at the others. The girls had all laid back on the grass and were staring at the sky. Archie was still sitting, but he was staring too -- at Dara. At all of Dara. What was up with Archie?

But then Track surprised us. He rallied! He stood up and lurched back our way from where he'd been in the bushes, pulling off his clothes as he came, until he stood beside us completely naked, except for his socks. "Party!" he tried to shout as he plunged into the shallows of Big Bend. I got up, and then Kara, and the others. In seconds, we were all getting undressed the way we always do -- except Archie was going fast! I knew why right away. He was facing upstream so the girls couldn't see, but I couldn't miss noticing that he was a little hard, and I knew he wanted to get in up to his waist quick. You can't not see something like that, right? I don't know why I noticed, and I did not call him on it. Wouldn't do that. But I saw, and I was sort of surprised that he wasn't quite so little anymore. ...Then again, what did I expect? Time doesn't go backward.

Shit! He saw that I saw. Just like that, he glances at me as he's plunging in, and my eyes are just that second moving up to look at his face instead of looking... lower, and he sees me. So... so I flash this smile and give him a big thumbs up, like he told me he got a B in Math or something. What? Oh well.

Later, when we got it together to head back down to the party, and he and I are the last to get our shoes on and get started, something came over me, and I pulled Archie aside.

"Um, Arch?"

"What?"

"So, you... I don't think... Well, when I... Before, I mean. Well... Well I don't think you need to be so shy anymore." I don't know why or how, but we're looking at each other and somehow have this entire conversation in about two seconds, without saying a word. Really, I thought, it was like finishing the conversation we started when I saw, and he saw that I saw, with Archie doing all the work. I saw his face go from, 'Huh?' to 'You mean...? Ohhh,' to 'Yes!' to 'Thanks bro' to 'Fuck you asshole!' in two seconds. Two seconds! I'm glad, too, because as soon as I said what I said, I thought sure I shouldn't have, but he just wrapped it up sweet, and we were cool.