The Seed

Germination

     Ronald and Uriah had been friends ever since third grade, when their families had moved next door to each other in the suburban neighborhood of Colfax, Florida. Uriah, who had always been the more aggressive and outgoing of the two, had made up his mind to pursue Ronald’s sister, Natalie, the very first time he laid eyes on her, although he was only eight and she was seventeen. Because of this huge difference in age, Natalie found Uriah’s crush amusing more than anything and took every opportunity that she could to smile and speak to the “cute little boy” next door. As far as Ronald was concerned, however, she made sure he knew how much she loathed his existence. Nevertheless, Ronald firmly believed that it was his responsibility to defend his sister’s honor and ensure that Natalie never lost her mind and gave in to Uriah’s eight-year-old persuasions. The two boys spent a short period of time as bitter
rivals until they had their first and only fistfight in the dead of winter, in the middle of a snowstorm, as Natalie and her boyfriend Rufio watched from the living room window and
laughed. By the time Uriah had made Ronald eat enough snow to cover the South Pole and Ronald was sure he had pee-peed in his snow suit, the two of them had become friends at the
core of their souls and had been inseparable ever since. They did everything together, talked about everything together and were not only defensive of each other but had even developed many of the same behavioral and physical characteristics, although Ronald always would be the more quiet and reserved of the two.
     Out on the basketball court one bright, humid summer’s day, in the middle of a particularly aggressive game when the two were thirteen years old, Uriah just so happened to be magnificently elusive with the ball. In spite of his continued efforts, no matter how hard or how often he tried, Ronald could just not seem to steal the ball from Uriah. This made him very frantic, almost infuriated, because he was already losing by eight points and was really struggling hard to catch up. Again and again, he swiped at the ball as Uriah dribbled it between his legs. Accidentally, Ronald reached out for the ball and felt the thickness of Uriah’s penis smack him on the wrist just as Uriah grabbed the ball with both hands and jumped up to drop it easily into the net for another two points. Startled by how heavy the boy’s genitals felt in that
split second that it had connected with his arm, Ronald stood up, half-revolted, half-intrigued.
     “Ha, ha, nigga, you betta step yo game up or just go sit yo ass down on the bench, boy,” Uriah pointed two fingers in Ronald’s face, dribbling the ball with his other hand and strutting away, grinning from ear to ear. Ronald stared at the boy for another second before brushing the
incident off and running over to check the ball.
     But the seed had already been planted. The secret curiosity was real, and no matter how Ronald tried to shake it or deny it to himself, it never went away.