The dim black light gently illuminated Josh Gonsoon’s chilly basement bedroom.
The stars that were haphazardly strewn on the walls and ceiling shone with superficial
enigma. The stereo quietly hummed with pop music provided by the local radio station,
and the murmur of four friends hanging out together filled the room with a comfortable,
alive warmth. Amidst all the fun chatter, the careful thumping of Josh coming down the
stairs was almost inaudible. His father was asleep upstairs, so we had been instructed to
keep quiet while he went up to the kitchen to get us a round of sodas.
His heavy oak room door opened noiselessly as the small crack of light coming
into the room from the den began to swallow the darkness. “Hope everyone likes Coke.
It was all we had in the ‘fridge.” Josh said in his pleasantly deep, soft voice, as he set his
armful load of cans onto the bed. Josh was quite tall, at least six foot, and his arms were
long and gangly, just like the rest of him. He was a gentle giant, though, with soft, caring
blue eyes and fine light brown hair, trimmed in a tidy, bowl-cut style.
“Coke! What’s with that?!” Wilson stammered, “I thought your dad hated Coke?”
“Yeah, he does. He thought I liked it.” Josh said, as a big, straight-toothed grin
spread across his lips.
“Gees! You gotta go grocery shopping with your old man sometime so you can
get some decent food around here!” Wilson suggested, jokingly. He was always giving
Josh shit about little things like that. Most of the time they practically acted like brothers
because they had been friends for so long and they shared the common bond of both not
having a mother (Josh’s mom had died of cancer when he was only twelve and shortly
after that, Wilson’s mom walked out on his dad).
At school, Wilson would give in to peer pressure and begin to pick on Josh
mercilessly. Josh was a easy target for most pranks because, although he was extremely
intelligent, he seldom said much when other people were around and he hardly ever fought
back. He just didn’t believe in it. Sometimes this helped him out because Wilson would
get bored if he were picking on Josh and he wasn’t getting a reaction. Unfortunately,
other times, when Josh was at school, Wilson would be fueled by our classmates and pick
on Josh until he would simply walk away. I could never understand why Josh even hung
out with Wilson, except for the fact that Josh was an extremely forgiving person.
“Hey, Donners, is Margo coming over tonight?” Blitzy mumbled, a disintegrating
cigarette hanging from the corner of his mouth.
“Yeah, I think so. She said she had to work out at Burger Bonanza until 11:30
tonight.” Donners answered back. Margo was his girlfriend of six months and as Margo
put it “he’s my boyfriend forever: ever was and ever will be!” Donners was a football
player, as were Wilson, Blitzy and Josh, but he was the most into the game of my friends.
He actually had hopes and dreams of becoming a professional football player. He had met
Margo at a game one night when he got a concussion. She was a cheerleader and an
aspiring nurse, so being the caring person she was, she checked up on him between cheers.
Before he met Margo, he would never even speak to me or Wilson or Josh, but since then
he had been with us constantly. I had never thought that he was a quiet person, but he
explained to us that he was simply just shy.
I was glad to hear that Margo would be coming soon. It was almost midnight, and
I was ready for some female contact --I had been with the guys since eight p.m., being the
only girl, not that it really mattered. They treated me just like one of the guys, almost. I
had known Josh and Wilson since kindergarten and Blitzy had moved to our school in
ninth grade. Wow! I’d know him for almost four years! Blitzy was from a suburban high
school before he moved to our smaller metropolis of Coleville, population ten thousand.
He was a bit more crude than we were used to, especially the smoking. He had been
smoking since he was twelve, but he seldom spoke of it or attempted to pressure any of us
to smoke. He was actually more against smoking than most non-smokers, but he was
physically addicted and he had given up trying to quit years ago. He sat next to Josh’s
opened window, so the smoke wouldn’t cloud the room too badly.
“Hey guys! Miss me much?” Margo said loudly, cheerfully.
“Shhhhhh!” We all said in unison.
“You have to be quiet, Margo, my dad is sleeping.” Josh explained to her.
“Oh! Okay!” Margo whispered back, accentuating her lip movements so that we
could read her lips if we couldn’t hear her strained whispering. Her hair was wet, she
must have stopped at home and taken a quick shower so she wouldn’t smell like a burger
joint when she arrived. “So, what ‘cha all been up to?”
“Just hanging out.” I said, quickly. She caught my eager glance and nonchalantly
strided over to sit by me on Josh’s bed, which had a worn navy blue afghan on top that his
mother had made. Donners immediately followed her and moved from Josh’s desk chair
to the other side of Margo in the blink of an eye.
“So what are we going to do tonight?” Wilson asked after the brief pause of
silence. Hearing no answers, he continued, “I’ve got it! We should go skinny dipping in
the swimming hole at Camden!” Camden was a small rural state park that was the home
of many acres of plains, trees and a portion of the Redwood River. In an effort to make
the park more appealing, there was a human-made swimming hole that had been made out
of a natural spring near the river. We had gone there as a group before, only we had gone
when the park was actually open. It closed at 10 p.m.
“Yeah!” Blitzy responded, followed by a muffled hoot.
Margo and I just shook our heads and she said, “Yeah, you guys just want to see
me and Jill naked. Well, guess what! It ain’t happening.”
“Okay, okay, let’s just drive out there and take a walk and check the place out. At
least it’s something to do, right?”
We agreed with Wilson on this point, so we decided that driving out to Camden to
take a walk would be a good idea. Blitzy had the largest car: a mint green, four-door,
Oldsmobile Delta from the 80’s. The doors squeaked in unison as we all opened them and
got in. Blitzy jumped in behind the wheel, Donners and Margo ended up in the front seat
together, and I was squished between Josh Gonsoon and Wilson in the back seat. As we
drove out of town, Margo played with the radio stations, as usual. Wilson started playing
with the ties of the hood on my pastel pink hooded sweatshirt. By the time we were only
two miles out of town, almost half way to the park, an inadvertent game of “penis”
erupted, which entails going around the room saying the word “penis” as loud as one dare
say it, until someone says it the loudest.
“PENIS!” Margo screamed at the top of her lungs. It was quiet just a second and
then everyone burst out in laughter. Everyone knew Margo would win. She always won
that game. She was more comfortable talking about sex than anyone else in the car. She
had been sexually abused by her uncle when we were in elementary and after being forced
to talk about what happened in counseling for three years, saying the word “penis” didn’t
bother her in the least. This was just common knowledge among our classmates.
The car slowed and Blitzy turned off onto a gravel road just across from the park
entrance. He parked his car in a field drive so it wouldn’t inhibit motorists from traveling
with ease on the road.
We ran across the lonely state highway and easily climbed over the meager fencing
that blocked the entrance to the park at this late hour. Wilson lead the way down the
dark, tar road that went past the Park Ranger’s station, Josh and Blitzy at his sides
Donners walked with his arm around Margo’s tiny waist. She was wearing his
letterman’s jacket and she rested her head on his shoulder as they walked together, his
bulging biceps stretching the sleeves of his thin black T-shirt. I walked on the other side
of Margo, my flared blue jeans flopping against the pavement --pavement that would
eventually shred the heel portion, giving them the desired worn look. I shoved my hands
deep into the shallow pockets of my hooded sweatshirt, attempting to cover my slightly
exposed stomach. I had worn a baby tee that was short enough to show my belly button
piercing, but the chilly autumn air made me regret my clothing decision. As we began to
walk farther down the trail, I could almost feel icicles forming on my short, bleached,
boy-cut hair. In front of us, Wilson, Blitzy and Josh Gonsoon joked around, making me
chuckle every once in a great while on the long walk to the swimming hole.
After walking almost an hour on the tar road, sprinkled with crunchy misplaced
gravel, we finally arrived at the swimming hole. The large yard light near the seasonal
restrooms emitted only a weak pink light on the swimming area. On the grass around the
swimming hole there were five or six large wooden picnic tables. In front of the
restrooms there was a small sand beach, still etched with the footprints of children who
had gone swimming that day. Wilson let out a loud hoot as he ran down the slight
inclination to the swimming hole.
“I’m going skinny dippin’! Last one in’s a rotten egg!!!” He yelled as he tore off
his shirt, kicked off his shoes and approached the body of water. Margo and Donners just
laughed at Wilson’s immaturity. Blitzy started to take off his clothes, too. Josh wandered
hesitantly to the side of the swimming hole and was eventually coaxed into getting in, by
Wilson and Blitzy who were already in the water in their boxers. “Come on in, Gonsoon!
The water’s great! Don’t be such a pussy!” Wilson pressured. Wilson knew he would be
able to get Josh Gonsoon to get in the water, but he knew better than to mess with me,
Margo or Donners.
Margo quickly decided that it would feel good to wade her ‘tired’ feet, so she
slipped off her socks and shoes, rolled up her jeans and tiptoed down the sand beach into
the swimming hole with her delicate feet and fuschia painted toenails. The guys splashed
around quite a bit after Margo got in the water. Josh wasn’t like Blitzy and Wilson,
though. He waded over and started chatting with Margo like a respectful gentleman. He
smiled as he talked with her, but I couldn’t hear what they were saying because they were
just out of my audible range from the picnic table that I sat upon with Donners. Josh had
always had a crush on Margo and she knew it, but respected his feelings. She had
explained to him that she could never go out with him, but still she spoke to him with the
utmost care and concern.
I had been concentrating so intensely on Margo and Josh that I hardly noticed that
they had gotten quiet and swam to the middle of the pool. Margo was only knee deep in
the water and Josh was over waist deep in the water, even though they were standing near
each other, because of the steepness of the pool. When I glanced out to the center of the
pool again, only Blitzy was standing there. This evoked my suspicions immediately, but
before I could warn anyone, Josh was pulled under and Wilson stood victoriously waving
Josh’s green and blue plaid boxer shorts. Before Josh had realized what happened, Wilson
was already up on the beach, still holding Josh’s boxers high in the air.
“Wilson!!!! Give ‘em back!” Josh shouted, his head low in the water. Josh
appeared extremely embarrassed and enraged that Wilson would pull such a terrible prank.
Wilson now stood on top of one of the heavy, wooden picnic table, shaking his head of
short, blond hair to get the excess water out.
“Come and get ‘em!” Wilson said, laughing coldly. Margo waded out and wiped
her sandy feet on the grass as she approached Wilson.
“Wilson, don’t be such an ass.” Margo said. She finally reached Wilson, stood on
top of the table with him and held out her hand, requesting the boxers. Blitzy followed
her out and started to gather his clothes that were still strewn on the hill next to the pool.
“I’ll give you Gonsoon’s boxers for a kiss, Margo.” Wilson said. He knew it
would never happen except in his dreams.
Margo grabbed the boxers from him and replied, “Not in this lifetime.”
She walked back down to the sand beach and into the water and threw Josh his
boxers. By the time Josh had his boxers on and was coming out of the water, Blitzy and
Wilson were fully dressed. We were all standing around the picnic table that Donners and
I had been sitting on before, just talking. Finally Josh sauntered over, his pants on and his
shirt limp in his hand. His faded blue jeans were low on his thin waist and his shirtless
chest appeared smooth and defined. Gradually, after Josh joined the conversation, Margo
and I started chit chatting about clothes and the guys drifted to the subject of football.
Blitzy had a cigarette in his mouth again, and mumbled because of it when he spoke.
Wilson and Donners started talking about plays they were working on and then it became
game. “Yeah, I’d show ya’ what Coach taught me, if I only had a ball. . .” Wilson
finished, and began looking at Josh Gonsoon, plottingly.
“Yeah, all we need is a pigskin. . .” Blitzy chimed in, catching Wilson’s drift.
Blitzy stood up and started walking from his place on the back of the picnic table to a
place near Wilson.
“Yeah, too bad, huh.” Josh added, innocently.
“Then again, we could just use Gonsoon. . .” Wilson spit out. He and Blitzy
charged Josh and within minutes they had his light frame off the ground and were running
towards the swimming hole.
Margo stopped what she was saying suddenly and her jaw fell, making her mouth
open astonishedly. I spun around to see what had happened.
There was a loud splash as Josh hit the water, his dry shirt only feet from the picnic
table we were sitting on top of. With loud, foolish chuckles, Wilson and Blitzy grabbed
the nearest picnic table, only a few feet from the water and pushed it to the edge as a
blockade. Seeing how quickly Josh was arriving at the edge, Wilson and Blitzy pushed it
just a bit further and it flipped on its tabletop into the water, on top of Josh. There was a
crisp “thunk” as the water swallowed the tabletop of the picnic table. . . and Josh.
Blitzy and Wilson were frozen in their spots. Donners sprinted to the water and
jumped in fully clothed. Margo and I followed and arrived at the pool just in time to help
Donners pull Josh from the water --Josh’s warm, motionless, limp body. We laid him on
the grass and Margo checked to see if he was breathing, his head in an oddly inhuman
position: completely tilted so that his ear rested on his shoulder. There was no pulse and
no air escaping his lips. Margo assumed his neck had been fatally broken by the impact of
the picnic table. Margo rose from Josh’s body and turned into Donners, hiding her painful
tears. Wilson re-animated and fell shaking and screaming to Josh’s side. Blitzy sat on the
ground with his head in his hands, his dropped cigarette still glowing in the grass. I just
stared at Josh’s closed eyes, envisioning the cool blueness of them in my mind.
Copyright 2001 by Jennifer Mertz