The Summer that Changed Everything

Chapter 2: The Summer that Changed Everything

         I guess the best place to start is in the beginning. The little girl in my dreams I mentioned to you about was my first cousin. We weren't that much apart in age and I was very close with her. Her name was Lenore but she hated being called that. She settled for Lennie. We always talked about things with Lennie-the kind of talk that seemed important until we discovered girls or until girls discovered how more mature they were than us or how manipulated we could be. But then again it was different with Lennie; she was like one of the guys. And she could pretty much hold her own. She kicked Teddy's ass on numerous occasions. And she even had a few squabbles with Ace and Eyeball, although I hate mentioning either one in any of my stories. Still we watched over her wherever we went—it was just something that guys did. Chris especially took the liberty of acting like her big brother. He felt that it was his right to watch over all of us since he was the oldest. Chris Chambers was the leader of our gang and my best friend. He came from a bad family and everyone just knew, he'd turn out bad—including Chris. There were times that he got a bit bossy with certain things and with us; that was just his temperament. Lennie was pretty used to it to be exact. She got the same treatment from my brother Denny.

Lennie could be seen out on the deck removing her bicycle helmet, her green-and-purple knit gloves, and the dirt-stained yellow jacket. She held it all with one arm against her body and with her other hand she wrapped her fingers around the handle. I remember the time a few years ago when she glided through my door and tackled my older brother as he shaved in the bathroom.
I walked down the stairs now and smiled at her.
"Hey Len." I said.
She looked up. "Hey, Gordie."
"I'm sorry about your mom." I told her.
"Thank you." She said. "Sorry about Denny."

In April my older brother Dennis had been killed in a Jeep accident. Four months had passed but my parents still hadn't been able to put the pieces back together again. It was a really hard time for me. I missed him a lot. It was like he was the only one that took an interest in things I did other than Chris and Len.
"Are you staying for the summer?" I asked her.

"We are not just staying for the summer. We are going to be living in Castle Rock." She told me.
"Wow, really?" I looked shocked at the news.
"That's right, Gordie." My uncle said greeting my mother and I. "We wanted to wait to tell you news in person."
Not so long after my aunt passed away, they purchased a house. But Lennie didn't actually tell me where they bought the house in her last letter. So it was news to me. She said she wanted to surprise me. I couldn't wait to tell the guys.

Chris, Vern and Teddy were already in the tree house when I knocked on it.
"Knock the secret knock." Teddy said.
"I already did. Open up." I said.
"It's, Gordie. Open it for him." Chris said.
I came up.
"Hey guys, guess what—Lennie moved to Castle Rock!"
"Your cousin?" Teddy asked.
"Yeah." I replied back.
"Wow that is soo awesome." Vern said.
"How is your aunt doing? I remember you mentioning to me that she was pretty sick." Chris questioned.
"She passed away." I explained.
"Sorry man." Chris said.
"It's alright." I said.

My aunt Louise had been stricken with cancer of the liver and although it was surpassed for years—a few months back it had taken a toll on her—the disease famished through her body. Lennie and I used to write a lot of letters back and forth to each other especially when I went away for summer camp for a few weeks at a time. It was always an interesting time for me there although I really couldn't wait to see Chris, Vern and Teddy. I always wanted them to go with me, but Chris was poor you see and couldn't afford it. Teddy was too crazy and Vern well, he was just too fat. Teddy though made fun of him constantly and said that in order for him to be able to attend my camp, he'd have to start at fat camp first. Lennie went to my summer camp a few times with me when we were growing up. It was a lot of fun. But her mother needed her home a lot, because she was sick so she was sent there less and less.
"Hey, so you guys mind stopping by her new house?" I asked.
"No not at all." Chris said.

The guys never minded Lennie. They were always happy to see when she visited and we had a lot of good memories. We walked to Lennie's new house. We could see Lennie as she stood in her denim overalls spotted with some paint that she used while helping her father paint over the house he purchased. Her father sold the other house and was offered a better job over here and could afford this new house by the River bend. It was a really nice place up there. A lot of country and there school and church wasn't too far away either. I was saddened that my aunt was gone, yet overjoyed that Lennie was coming to stay in Castle Rock. She was my favorite cousin. Well, to be honest (my only cousin.) But she was best there ever was.

When Lennie came over towards us she sucker punched us all on the arm. That was her way of saying hello. She took out some gum balls in her pocket and handed them over to Vern.
"Here. I picked these up at the market. I know you like em." Lennie handed a few gum balls to Vern.

"Thanks Lennie. You're the best." Vern said.
Teddy looked over at Lennie and took a puff of his cigarette.
"You finally get some boobs over the summer?" Teddy asked her.
"Have your glasses finally grown to match the thickness of your head?" She asked him back.
Teddy for the first time was at a loss of words.
"Zing!" Vern yelled out in Teddy's face. "Ha! Ha!"
Teddy punched him in the arm and made him drop all of his gumballs.
"Hey, what did you do that for?" Vern whined.
"You need anyone to show you around Castle Rock, I'm your guy." Chris said next to Lennie.
"Thanks." She tied her hair back with a clip and looked up at her balcony. "Hey, dad you mind if I hang out with Gordie and the guys?" Lennie asked him.
"No. Go right ahead. I have the neighbors coming to help fix the place." Her father said.
"Ok." She turned back to us. "So what is the plan today?"
"I don't know. We might throw horse shoes and go fishing for a little while." I told her.
"Well, first we are heading out to the tree house and having a smoke." Chris threw his arm around her shoulder. "I'll teach you the ropes of it."
"Thanks big brother." She told him.
Back at the tree house Chris put the cigarette in Lennie's mouth. He told her to blow in and breathe out. She started to cough uncontrollably.
"Breathe through the cigarette." Chris told her again.
Teddy laughed. "She's hopeless with her cigarettes."
Chris rubbed her on the back.
"You ok?" He asked.
"Yeah." She said.
"Come on, Chris. Don't get her hooked. My father will kill me if he finds out I've been letting her smoke." I tell him.
"He won't even know." Chris told me.
"He'll smell it on her clothes." I said.
"I'm sorry, Gordie." Chris replied.
                                                                                                   * * *
I stood up against my wall and grabbed a cigarette out from my box and took a deep breath as I smoked it and looked up at the leaves as they blew back and forth through the wind. I looked down at the cover of my novel, "The Body," and walked out into the hallway. Chris saw a picture of my cousin on the wall with us. She was standing in overalls next to me and Chris. Teddy and Vern had their arm around her. It seemed like ages ago.
"I was the one that taught her how to smoke." Chris said remembering about Lennie in the treehouse.
"Yeah." I replied.
"I bet she hated me for it." Chris said.
"Nah." I replied back to him.
He watched me as I stood looking at all the portraits I had up on the walls of my family, I thought how unfortunate it was for Chris that he would never know what it was like to hold his first one in his arms.
"He really looks like you, Gordie." Chris said about my son.
"Really?" I asked. "I always thought he looked more like his mother."
"Does he like to write?" He asked.
"Yeah. He wants to be a writer too." I told him.
"Then he takes after you." Chris said.

I nodded and walked into the bathroom and started shaving. The shaving crème was sticking to the razor. I ran it under the water and shook it off. Chris was standing in the bathroom doorway, leaning up against the wall. He watched me as I shaved.

"Hey, Gordie. I have an idea... let's make some music, make some money, find some models for wives. You can write the songs, I'll sing, Teddy will play the guitar and Vern will play the drums."
"You really think we'll make it and be famous some day?" I chuckled.

"Yeah... why not? This is our decision, to live fast and die young. We've got the vision. Yeah, it's overwhelming, but what else can we do...Get jobs in offices, and wake up for the morning commute? We'll move to NYC, and be rooftop roommates. We can get shit faced and look up at the stars every damn night."
"We can forget about our friends and our wives?" I asked.

"Hell, we'll get new ones." Chris said. "The model-type ones with slender legs and perfect bodies. The models will have children, we'll get a divorce and then we'll find some more models. Everything will run its course."
"Sounds like a plan, Chambers." I told him.
"It is." He said.

"So what would we name the band?" I asked.
Chris thought a moment.
"Destined To Pretend." He nodded. "Yeah."

"Why's that?" I asked.
"Because pretending was all that I had." He said. "And all I have now."
I watched as Chris looked down. I watched him solemnly.
"Please tell me more about us. I want to remember." He looked up to me.