The Summer that Changed Everything

Chapter 5: The Painful Truth

        It's important for me to tell that that my cousin Lennie never fussed about the way she looked. I mean, she also never had a person that fussed over the way she looked. She pretty much was raised by my uncle Bob. And Aunt Louise was too sick to make a ruckus over what Lennie wore. But Aunt Louise also was a lot like Lennie when she was younger. She hated dressing up pretty to impress anyone. Lennie had to wear plain clothes because she was busy on the farm helping uncle Bob and cooking for them. She pretty much was in control of the house. She never really had many girlfriends. She said she felt that they talked too much rubbish and it wasn't worth the listen. But I knew that she had a hard time as a kid. The girls used to pick on her at the school. They called her names like "Tomboy Len." And said that she was born a girl but raised as a boy. I guess it was kind of hard growing up as a girl and be surrounded by guys. There were always expectations about the way a girl should look or behave or dress. But Lennie only lived up to her own expectations of who she should be.

Lennie had curly hair... it was sort of like Goldilocks but brown. She said it was annoying because it was heavy and it sweated a lot in the sun. So she always pulled it back. She never really combed through her hair, so there were a lot knots and she couldn't use a regular brush, because it would just get stuck in it. She washed her hair a lot though; it always had a flowery scent.

That was one thing that Aunt Louise wasn't "laxy-daisy" on. Hygiene was very important. She told her that she can't be going out smelling like a pig and if you are going to be outside a lot working with animals you will always smell like one. Lennie had a pair of favorite overalls. She liked them a lot because they were good for painting the house or fence, working on the farm, or hanging out with us guys. I used to wear overalls a lot too. When we were little and the same height we used to borrow each other's. I had a pair of red ones that Lennie used to like to wear in the garden. Teddy always had a green shirt he wore and his father's dog tags, Chris always were a simple white shirt and Vern wore whatever he could fit in.

Today Teddy, Chris, Vern and I sat out on Lennie's swing set in the front yard waiting for her to come out. When she came out of her house, she had on a pair of light pink overalls and pink ribbons tied at the bottom of two braided pig tails. Chris and I both looked at each other and laughed out loud. Teddy laughed like a hyena.
"Shut up." She said to us.
"I don't shut up, I grow up. And when I look at you I throw up! Aeoo!" Chris, Teddy and I chanted all did together.
"You look like a girl." Teddy said to her after he took a puff of his cigar.
"That's what I am half-wit, but don't rub it in. I know I look like a pink nightmare." Lennie told Teddy.
Teddy chuckled at the reference.

Vern trying to be nice said he liked how she looked. Her step mother came out on the front step.
"Don't get too dirty, Lenore." She said.
"Ok, mom." She yelled over towards the house. She watched as she went back in and shut the door. "This was her idea. Remind me to shoot her later. I feel like a frigging idiot.
"So guys what do you want to do?" Vern asked.

"Nothing legal." Chris said. "Come on let's get out of here."
We all follow Chris out of the yard. There was a long debate on what we should do first, because Vern and Teddy couldn't seem to agree on anything but in the end we decided on fishing.

At the lake Lennie was bitching about how annoying her stepmother and Ace were and that she didn't understand why her father had to remarry. All they did was argue anyway about her. Her step-mother didn't want her to have any fun. She wanted her to hang out with girls her own age, but girls her own age were boring and talked too much.

Teddy came up behind her. He slapped her on the side of her face with a dirty, grimy hand.
"Here have some mud." Teddy said.
"You are gonna regret that move, mister." Lennie told him.
"I don't have regrets for anything I do!" Teddy said.
"Act your age!" She said back to him.

This remark brought me back to the memory when Teddy said the same thing to Chris when we all fell into a swamp of leeches and Chris told Teddy to act his age and he replied back with "This is my age! I am the prime of my youth and I am only going to be young once!" And Chris reminded that Teddy "Yeah but you're gonna be stupid for the rest of his life."

As Lennie handed her fishing rod to Vern and went to step towards him, she realized what Teddy was standing in was a giant mud bath.
"Oh... I guess you can't get yourself dirty. Oh well." Teddy chuckled.
"Teddy come on. Don't be annoying." I tell him. "If Lennie gets dirty, than her step mom is going to bitch at us."
"That's too bad." He mocked.
"Sorry, Gordie, I can't let him get away with slapping dirty grime in my face." She said.
Lennie started undoing her pink overalls.
"I hope you have more than just your underwear on." Chris laughed at her.
I laughed as well.

Well, she did. Lennie was smart you see. She knew if she was gonna be going out with us, she was going to get dirty even if she tried not to. She put on a pair of denim shorts and tank top under the overalls. After she took them off, she hung them on a low branch and then jumped into the mud bath; they wrestled around in it. Teddy then grabbed some more mud and went to throw it towards Lennie. She ducked and it hit Chris in the face.

"Asshole!" Chris yelled out at him.
"It was an accident." Teddy tells him.
Teddy than hit me with mud in the back.
"Hehehe. But that wasn't." He admitted.
"Teddy, knock it off." I tell him.

He kept on laughing which was making Chris angrier. Chris threw down his rod.
"Alright. You asked for it!" Chris said and run towards them.

Lennie grabbed mud and threw it at Chris. Chris grabbed a big gulp and smushed it into her face. I jumped in and tackled Teddy. Vern was whining about the rods and fishing by the lake, by himself but after Chris and I threw mud at him he had enough and jumped in.

Afterwards in order to get rid of the evidence, we all decided to jump into the lake on a rope that we fastened months ago. We used to swing on it back and forth. It was a lot of fun. Lennie at first was hesitant about going in because she thought the water might have been cold.

"So you are gonna put your overalls back on and get them dirty anyway?" I asked her. "That's dumb."
Lennie stood there with her arms folded across her chest. We were all in the water splashing around.
"Don't be a chicken." Teddy told her. "Even Vern got his fat ass in."
"The water is fine...Lenore." Chris told her. "It's not cold at all."
"Yeah." I said laughing. "You should come in, Lenore."
"Get in the water Lenore." Teddy said.
Even Vern played along. "Lenore. Lenore. Lenore." Vern sang out
"Stop. Don't call me that. I hate it." Lennie said.
Chris replied back to her. "Well, if you don't get your ass in here in 2 seconds... we will call you that for the rest of the summer."

She narrowed her eyes.
"Fine."
She grabbed the rope and swung herself around and splashed in. She splashed water at all of us. Chris then grabbed her from behind and tossed her over his shoulder. We all kept dunking each other and splashing each other, but at least there were no leeches this time. The sun reflected along the water's surface, like golden halos. It was really beautiful—almost breathtaking, actually. If I had a snap shot I would have tried to capture the essence of its beauty. But I'm a writer not a photographer so you'd have to deal with the description of it.
It was like god was there, watching over us. And no matter how much I read or write I don't think I could ever really capture the power of god through images or words. Even if you show proof that it existed—A life better than the one we knew, some people still wouldn't believe it. I mean even I can't believe sometimes that there's a world out there better than this one. I couldn't imagine being anywhere but here in Castle Rock with my favorite people in the world. It's because of them that made this place perfect for me. And if I can't have the people I care the most about in my life or a place like this to live in, than it wouldn't be heaven.

A moment or later, Lennie sat on a boulder and combed out her hair, while we sat around the lake drying off. I saw how Chris was watching as she combed it out. It was pretty long since the last time I saw her. It looked better when it was wet, because sometimes when it dried, if she didn't put anything in it, it could frizz up pretty bad. But Chris didn't want to seem like he was staring at her for too long, so he turned to look at me and we talked about something unimportant.

I looked to see if the halos were still visible in the water. But they were gone now. I wanted to ask Chris what he thought about it, but I doubted that he would have seen anything religious or chaste in it, anyway.
We didn't need any towels, because it was so hot—the sun dried off any small evidence of water. It would have just been confused as sweat anyway.

Afterwards we walked down the track for a while just bull-shiting and what not.
I told Lennie that she was able to have a good time and still managed to not get dirty. That was a lot to accomplish in a day.

Teddy looked over at Len.
"But what's that on your pants?" Teddy asked.
"Come on Man... don't play around." Chris said.
"Yeah." I returned.
"No I'm being serious." Teddy said. "What's that on her pants?"
Chris, Vern and I turn around and look at Lennie as she stood there.
"Yeah. What is that?" Vern asked.
Lennie looked down at herself and then eyes suddenly filled up with water. She turned around and ran down the track. Chris and I ran after her. Teddy and Vern followed.
"Len!" We yelled out. We couldn't keep up with her though. She was already towards her house and crying at the door. Her step mom was standing there.
"I'm...sorry. I'm sorry. I tried not to get dirty. I don't know what happened." Lennie panicked.
"Oh honey. This is not your fault." She pulled her inside the house.
Chris and I looked over at Teddy and Vern and told them to wait there. We walked up to the stoop and knocked on the door. Ace opened it.
"What do you want?" Ace asked.
Chris snarled at him.
"We want to see if Lennie is alright." Chris said.
"Go on home." He went to shut over the door.
"Not until you tell us if Lennie is alright, butthead." I told him.
My uncle told Ace to go to his room.
"Hey Gordie." Bob said.
"Hey, Uncle Bob." I returned.
"You're here about Lennie aren't you?" He asked.
"Yeah. What happened to her? Is she sick?" I asked him.
"Lennie isn't going to feel alright for a few days. She isn't sick, but she is going to need some time to rest." He whispered something quietly to Chris and I. "So it would be best if you wait it out. When Lennie is fine she will come look for you guys."
"We understand." Chris said.
I said goodbye to my uncle and we walked over towards Vern and Teddy as they waited by the fence.
"What happened?" Teddy asked. We didn't answer him. Chris just walked down the street and I followed him.


"Where are you going?" Vern asked us both.
"To the tree house. I want to smoke and play cards. Who's in?" Chris asked.
Teddy and Vern said they were. I said I was. We all walked along.
Back At the tree house Vern asked: "Did Lenore get in trouble for getting mud on her pants?"
"Shut up." Chris said.
"Did it look like mud to you?" I asked. "Mud is brown, moron. What she had on her pants was red."
"Like paint?" Vern asked.
"Vern. Lennie got her period." I told him.
"Oh." Vern said.
Teddy started to laugh hysterically.
"Shut up, Teddy. It isn't funny. And if you make fun of her for this I will give you a black eye!" Chris said throwing down his deck of cards.
"Chris, I'm really sorry." Teddy said. "I'm not laughing at her. I'm laughing over how she managed not to get dirty and then this happened. Man, it must really suck to be a girl."
Chris sort of smirked at the remark.
"Yeah." Chris chuckled softly to himself.
"Alright. Alright. So we all got to pinky swear never to mention this to her or anyone ever." I said. "We owe this to, Lennie."
"Ok, Gordie." Chris said.
We all pinky sweared.
Then Vern said.
"Umm. Gordie." Vern said. "I just have one question."
"Yeah?" I looked at him.
"What is a period?" Vern asked him.
Teddy punched him twice in the arm.
"Owww." Vern rubbed it. "Jeese, Louise."