Richard Shelby Peacock was one of the wilder boys I knew in grade school. He had a taste for models of mustangs and corsairs. Ricky and I, and
Daniel Mahoney a red headed ruffian, used to play with all the different warplanes he had. There was a P-38 Lightning and the obligatory P-51,
and two bombers a B-52 and a B-29. Plastic bodies snugly glued together, all sporting decals and hash marks from the many missions flown in
our hands. Once Ricky climbed up on his roof and tied a fishing line between the chimney and a large pine tree in his yard. The house had a
Spanish style verandah with an arched entryway. I climbed up and we tied on this battered old bomber in primer gray. It was cracked and scuffed
in several places, the bay doors wouldn't open without falling off, and the landing gear was gone. Ricky lit the tail of the bomber with a
disposable lighter. It lit in an instant and trailed thick black smoke as it went hurtling down the line. When Ricky tied the line it was surely a foot
or two above the archway, but with the weight of the burning plastic model the line dipped. When the B-52 reached the entrance the line was
just above the top and the bomber smashed into the brick archway and shattered into splinters of burning plastic which smoked as the fell and
bubbled on the pavement where they landed. Danny who was watching from the tree had a look in his eyes like as if he had been watching a
dogfight in Battle of the Midway or Pearl Harbor.
I was never as interested in the warplanes and aerial combat as Ricky was; I preferred space flight and the stars. We both loved to collect snakes
though. There was a marshy area over by the bowling lanes at the front of his and Danny's subdivision. We used to go there after school and
spend hours trying to catch thin garter snakes in the water. There was an old rusted barrel submerged in the mud near the edge of a pond. I
would stand on a board and using the barrel as a fulcrum splash the water repeatedly. The slosh slosha slosh of the waves disturbed the snakes
and forced them to come up from wherever they were hiding. Ricky would be waiting near the edges and grab at them with his hands. Often
times he would come up with a hand full of mud or just water soaked sleeves. But then when he did catch one it was a terrific joy to see the snakes
twist and curl around his arms in an attempt to get free. Sometimes they would be two feet long, all shiny black with bright yellow stripes running
down their sides. They had eyes like cats with the pupil horizontal. We loved to tickle our eyelids with their soft flicking tongues. This kind of
thrill seeking was fun in its way, helping us wile away the hours after school. But we were after something even more adventurous – we would
sneak out at night and ride the streets while our parents slept.
One day when we were resting from a kickball game under the lone scraggly tree that held court on our elementary school playground we
devised a plan to inaugurate Summer. Cowering in the shade we drew up a plan to sneak out that night. Since I lived in another subdivision,
I would leave first and ride over to their neighborhood. It was a short enough trip, I rode it every day when we went to the snake pond or
scavenged the construction site where they were putting up apartments across FM 525. I would go to Danny's house and wait for him to come
out, since Ricky's mom wouldn't be back till later that evening. He would make up some provisions for us and put them outside his window, in
case we had to wait long for her to get home. After he got out we would go out to the old quarry neat the freeway underpass. We could all go
swimming naked in the quarry, maybe even try to catch a real snake. We each agreed to the plan and decided to forgo our trip to the apartment
site that afternoon so we could begin our adventure that much sooner.
I was so completely anxious to get through my dinner that I ate so fast I barely tasted the food which passed my lips. I went to my room shortly
afterwards; the sun' s chariot was still not finished with its race for the horizon. I couldn't stop thinking of the cool water in the dark. The moon
would just be at first quarter so the light wouldn't be too bright – just enough to see the shadows.
I dropped my clothes close to the foot of the bed so they would be near at hand and crawled into bed to wait. The thumpthumpthump of my heart
was sounding in my ears like heavy surf on the jetties. The light was just beginning to fade. I could still hear the television in the next room. I
waited there, hearing the voices, wishing time would speed up so that the night would fall and my parents would sleep. After what seemed an
eternity in which the crawl of the sand had slowed to a grain at a time, I heard his voice. The voice that announced my parents would soon head
to their room.
-Heerreesss JOHNNY.
Click. Yes.