Chapter 2: Eleven Years Old

"You mean to say you've never heard of Truth, Dare and Promise? You Yanks don't know nothing. C'mon, I suppose I'll have to teach you..."

It was the summer of '62. Maryon had made one firm friend at school, but even to Karen she'd made no mention of her exciting games with Mike. Though, lately... for some months in fact... he'd paid little attention to her. She'd suspected for some time that he was enjoying himself with his new girl friend, that Riva Kamparsky who treated her, on the few occasions she deigned to come over to the house, like a little kid. One day she'd show them all how grown up she was... how much of a girl... how much she knew about making a boy happy, even if she was little and young.

But so often had she gone to sleep thinking such thoughts, and so commonplace had they become to her childish, still largely unformed mind, that they'd sunken deep into her, and were now unvoiced and unnoticeable, as quiet and secret as a cancer. She certainly wasn't consciously aware of them as, this hot, bright day, she sat with the others in the barn next to stables of the Matherly Ranch.

Matherly's wasn't a working ranch, more of a rich man's hobby and tax loss. Glenville was too close to, and too much a part of the great Metropolis for a rough and ready acreage to be farmed, or much livestock raised. But the estate of the Matherlys was as secluded and spread out as their money could make it, with green pasture land for the string of horses, and comfortable quarters for them away from the main house. The barn was full of straw, dried and in bales or, these broken, scattered thickly over the floor, while upstairs the remnants of last winter's hay still smelt sweetly from over the edge of the high loft and suffused the close air of the darkened building, with only occasional shafts of sun sliding through cracks and between the tall, all-but-closed doors.

"You Yank kids probably know it as something else... another name." The speaker was Colin--Colin something. He was English, visiting thirteen-year-old Sylvia Matherly for the summer vacation... the 'hols' as he called it. From his lofty height of fourteen years he seemed to regard the rest of them, Karen, Maryon's twelve-year-old friend from school, her 'boy friend, ' the same age as Sylvia... Derek, his friend Johnny, a year younger, and Sylvia herself, currently 'dating' Johnny, and Maryon the youngest at eleven, with a considerable amount of condescension somewhat boosted by his exotic position of being 'Sylvia's English cousin.'

This was Maryon's first meeting with him and was, indeed, only the third time she'd been invited to Sylvia's to play, the invitation being extended through Karen who, though she usually kept herself aloof from the others at school, was mysteriously strong enough in her personality to go where she wanted, and had taken a sort of liking for Maryon's company, even though she was a year and a class ahead of her at St. Joan's. In Glenville it was a mark of snobbish distinction to be accepted as a 'Jonah', and Burt and Louis had groveled to get their daughter into the school.

For some reason Karen had laid it importantly upon her that this day she should wear her full school uniform for the visit to the Matherlys, and dutifully Maryon had obeyed, wearing her soft white ruffle-fronted blouse with the blue-and-brown school tie neatly in place, the knee-length brown skirt with blue hatchlines, blue jacket with brown piping, white long socks that nearly met her skirt's hem, tidy black button shoes and, on her long blonde hair, braided into two plaits, her school hat, of pale yellow straw with a blue-and-brown banded ribbon. She was a bit put out to find that the other two girls were very casually dressed, in contrast, Karen in tight hip-hugging Levi's of faded blue that looked as if they'd been painted on her and, above a navel-bare midriff, a short, loose, sleeveless top, its once-bright lines of color now washed out. Sylvia, barefoot, was tanned darkly the length of her legs, which only at their very tops vanished beneath a pair of white shorts, which matched the brief halter beneath which her burgeoning breasts strained the thin cotton cloth. Again in contrast to Maryon's neatness, while Sylvia's short brown hair hung in a froth about her head, Karen's jet black uncut tresses were caught into a ponytail secured by a rubber band, leaving her oval, white face a clear setting for her greeny-blue eyes.

Maryon really felt out of place, the more so as the three boys were even more informal in attire... Johnny in jeans and a flapping, unbuttoned shirt, Derek in tight red-and-white checked Bermudas, and Colin wearing a pair of faded light-tan shorts loose about his thighs. The excuse Karen'd made was to show Colin that some schools in America wore clothes like they did in England! though why Sylvia, in the same house with him, couldn't have worn her uniform, Maryon didn't think to ask.

Now the five settled themselves down to listen as Colin explained the game. Earlier they'd played hide-and-go-seek, but Maryon didn't much care for that, not since Derek had tried to kiss her. He was Karen's guy, and ought not to fool around with another girl, surely? She hoped this one would turn out better, though, since Sylvia and Karen were paired off with Johnny and Derek, it didn't look like Colin was going to pay her much attention... he was three years older! She returned her attention to the English boy.

"Now, this is the way it goes," he said. "One of us... doesn't matter who goes first... gets to ask each of the others whether they choose a truth, a dare, or a promise. Then, whatever they choose, he asks them something... whether it's true that something is so-and-so-like, 'is it true that you like, well, someone?' Whoever the Inquisitor says, see? And if it's a dare, then, the Inquisitor can dare him or her to do anything he likes. Or if it's a promise, then they have to promise to do... well, whatever the Inquisitor tells 'em."

"Sounds okay," said Derek, and Sylvia thought it was a groovy idea.

"But what happens if whoever you ask doesn't want to answer, or do whatever it is you dare 'em to do?" asked Johnny.

"Then the Inquisitor can order 'em to pay a forfeit, do or say something else. And they have to pay the forfeit, that's very important and we've all got to agree before we start on that, else it's no good playing the game. Okay? Do you all agree? Then we can start now. Who wants to be Inquisitor the first time around?"

They looked at each other. Colin alone stood before them, careless and looking almost naked to Maryon's eyes with his golden hair, bronzed skin, and pale tan pants. She sat on a bale of hay while the other four lounged on the soft strawed floor each side of her, Sylvia and Johnny on her right, Karen and Derek at her left. Colin looked at her. "How about you, Maryon Alysun--that's a pretty name, kid!-do you want to go first? You're the youngest."

Confused, she shook her head. "Nah, you go first, Colin," said Johnny. "You know how to play it best. Then we can learn from you."

"All right," he said. "We'll do it in order, then. I'll ask first. Okay? Right, then. Ah, Sylvia, do you want a Truth, a Dare, or a Promise?"

"Oh, I'll take a Truth, Colin," said his cousin, shrugging her frail freckled shoulders.

"Um... is it true you like Johnny a lot?"

"Oh yes," said Sylvia, taking her boyfriend's hand and squeezing it till he flushed and moved uncomfortably.

"Very good," said Colin. "Now, Johnny, how about you, what will you take?"

"Oh, the same as Sylvia."

"A Truth? Well, then... is it true you like her as much as she likes you?"

"Oh, I suppose so!"

"You only suppose so? Won't you give us a Yes or a No, Johnny? Otherwise you haven't answered properly and you'll have to pay us a forfeit."

"Oh... yes I like her as much as she likes me," he got out, not looking at Sylvia. But she wasn't about to let him get off easily, and, throwing an arm about his neck, kissed him on the lips. "You'd better," she warned, darkly.

Colin looked at Maryon. "Now, then, what about you?"

She thought she caught the suspicion of a wink from him to Sylvia, but paid no attention to it. "I think," she said, "that I'll take a Dare."

"Hah, good kid... braver than these two, at any rate. Let's see, now... I dare you to... go climb up the ladder there and come down again before I count twenty. One, two, three... Go! "

Before she was quite sure of what she was doing, Maryon found herself clambering up the tall, straight-set ladder that led to the loft, frantically trying to beat the count of Colin's voice below her. Halfway up, while he was still at four, she saw that he was standing directly beneath her, as though to make sure she went all the way up, and was blushingly aware that he could see all the way up between her legs to where her dark blue elastic- topped and legged underpants would cut off the view. But she scurried on up, stood swaying on the top-but-two-rung then climbed down again taking the steps two at a time, Her light skirt billowing up slightly and once getting caught so that she lost a beat in getting it dislodged from the splinter, noticing Derek also, flat on his back, nearly underneath her. However, her face red from the exertion, she managed to get her feet on the ground again just as Colin counted 'twenty'... though he whispered in her ear as he went back to the center of the semi-circle: "You cheated, you know. I slowed the count for you. Remember that. But I don't think the others noticed."

Out of breath, she sat down on the bale of hay again and tried not to look at anyone as he next asked Karen what she would choose.

"I'll take a Dare too," said the black-haired girl, boldly, looking at the ladder. But her challenge was to be different.

"Right. I dare you... to come over here and do a handstand. I'll hold your ankles so you don't fall," said Colin.

Karen pouted but, without argument, placed her hands on the floor and swung her lithe white body up until she was upside down against his restraining hands. As she remained there, breathing strongly in and out, her loose top slowly edged down her upper body so that, since she was facing the others, the hard black nubs of her nipples were just revealed, set in her pair of flat, oval breasts, their darkness startling against her pale white flesh. Karen didn't tan. Maryon, moving only her eyes, saw that the grinning Derek was intent on the view afforded him, and that Colin had leaned his head over slightly so as to see down His victim's body. In a moment he let his hands drop to her hips and expertly swung her back onto her feet. As she walked back to drop to the floor, Maryon observed that her friend seemed to swing her hips just a little more lithely under the tight Levi's, and her hands were slow to pull down her disarrayed top.

"Very good, Karen, you're a good sport," said Colin. "Okay, Derek, what's it to be?"

"A Promise for me," said the cautious boy, thinking this to be the easiest and less troublesome choice.

"Ahah, the first with a Promise! Let me think about this. Derek, do you promise to tickle Karen until I tell you to stop?"

"What?" cried the startled boy. "But that means Karen has to be part of it too!"

Colin blandly stared at him. "Doesn't matter," he said. "That's part of the fun of the game, see? Go on, now, she can run if she wants to, but she has to stay inside the barn."

Promptly acting on his suggestion, Karen leaped to her feet and tried to evade her pursuer who, now that he got the idea, ardently played his part. After some minutes of the chase, he had her cornered against the ladder where she leaned, breathless, and he begin to tickle her unmercifully, concentrating mainly on her bare sides and her neck. She screamed helplessly at him until Maryon thought someone would hear her and come, till she remembered they had the run of the place today and were alone. In a moment the writhing Karen fell to the straw beside them, and instantly Derek was astride her, his busy fingers running up and down her quivering sides then, as she tried to fight him, up under her armpits and into her throat he went, until she was kicking and twisting uncontrollably. Before long her scanty top was riding high up her slim young body and once more her sharp black nipples were on view, though she was struggling so hard they seemed to shimmer against her pale skin.

Concentrating on his task, Derek let his full weight sit on her hard thighs and, holding her thin wrists in one of his hands, with the other began to play about her navel and then, inexorably, up her fragile rib cage to the soft silken bags of her shallow breasts, where with finger and thumb he began to rapidly circle their stiff little cores. Maryon saw that his mouth was open and he was breathing as hard as if he were the one putting up a desperate struggle. But she'd noticed her brother Mike sometimes went like that when he was excited over playing with her, so she supposed that was what it was, even though this was different. This was just ordinary play, wasn't it?

Just then Colin told Derek to leave off and, panting, the T- shirted boy got up and threw himself to the floor by Maryon. She wondered why he so awkwardly adjusted himself under the bulging red-and-white checked Bermudas. Karen merely rolled over and hugged herself into a ball, fighting for breath so that Maryon could see her slim, naked rib cage expanding and collapsing like a bellows.

Very casually indeed, Colin sauntered over near the girl curled up on the floor and propped one bare foot on the bottom rung of the ladder, putting himself at the end of the line.

"Your turn, Sylvia," he said, over his shoulder, and his young cousin got up and took His previous place, exchanging looks with him when she stood there that Maryon thought, for some reason, significant.

Johnny was the first to be asked, this time, and he again chose a Truth. Sylvia smiled, a bit evilly, Maryon thought, and poked her slim, limber tongue between her full, rosebud lips. "Is it true," she said, "that you'll shout out what I whisper in your car? And remember, kiddo, I get to give you a forfeit if you don't!"

"Uh, yeah... I guess," said Johnny.

Sylvia, grinning impishly, went to him, leaned over and breathed in his ear. "Now, loud as you can," she said. The boy went red in the face then, looking at no one, bawled out, at the top of his voice: "COCK! CUNT!"

A shock went through Maryon... Mike had taught her all the words like that, but she'd never heard them right out loud like that. A hot and cold shiver went through her and unconsciously she pressed her legs together. This was some strange game! And it was her turn next! What should she choose!? She heard the older Sylvia ask her, and she hesitated. "I'll take a Promise, I think," she said.

"That's easy," said Sylvia, laughing at her with her hands on her hips. "Do you promise that, whenever I tell you to, you'll shout out what Johnny just said, and just as loud?"

Beside her she could hear the now recovered Karen giggle, and she felt the blood rushing into her cheeks. Her ears were singing, and her voice sounded strained and hoarse, as she got out: "Yes... Sylvia... yes."

She expected she would have to fulfill her promise now, and mentally prepared herself, swallowing, but such was not to be the case, for Sylvia swung toward Karen, who was now sitting next to Derek, but not so closely as before, in her original place.

"Karen?"

"A Truth, this time!"

"Mmmhhh... Okay, Karen, is it true that you didn't mind at all showing us all your titties just now?"

"You're a rat, Sylvia, and I'll get you for this."

"Rat to you, too, but what's the answer? And remember the forfeit."

Karen had the grace to bob her head down as she mumbled, but loud enough for the others to hear: "No, I didn't much mind."

Sylvia was not about to let her off so easily. "What didn't you mind, Karen?"

"Showing off my tits, goddamn it!" was the louder reply.

"That's better. Now, Derek?"

"Dare!"

"Right... I dare you to tell us truthfully what you were thinking of when Karen's titties were showing."

Derek blushed and looked awkwardly at his feet. "Uh. Nothing much. She... they... I wasn't excited or anything," he stammered at last.

That earned him a burning, sidelong glance from his girl- friend, but Sylvia was not satisfied. "What d'you think, kids, is that the truth? Or shall I make him pay a forfeit?"

"Hey, that's not fair," protested Derek, but Johnny and Colin gleefully agreed he should be forfeited.

"Oh, I'll get you," he hissed savagely at Johnny, behind Maryon's back, but nevertheless he promised to pay.

"Then... Karen shall have a chance at tickling you," said Sylvia. "But this time, you mustn't run away, and you mustn't try to stop her, but just he there and let her do it."

Karen laughed, and stood over Derek as he reluctantly streched himself out on the floor, arms above his head as she directed, then, hunkering down over his hips till Maryon thought the bard round cannonballs of her butt would burst through the tight, trim Levi's. Then, her slim, deft little fingers were busy at the tight-drawn waistband of his Bermudas, under it, then under the edge of the T-shirt and, pulling it up, were free to tantalize and torment his bare flesh. She started off as he had, by letting her hands attack his sides, where he, like most people, was most sensitive, but before long, as he twisted, his mouth grimacing with the effort to not give in and laugh, Maryon could see the ten slender digits beginning to dig into his soft, flesh, moving slowly but steadily about him until they gouged his belly.

Maryon was surprised at the look in Karen's eyes, almost slitted--shining, fierce, secret--as the girl dug her sharp-nailed thumbs into the outer moat of Derek's navel as if she would slice him there. But, as he bucked instinctively beneath her, throwing her forward, she eased off a bit and instead let her wandering hands work up into his hairy armpits, at which point he broke down and wriggled and gasped and hysterically laughed as she'd done when their positions had been reversed. Finally, as if torn between being bored at this childish sport and a reluctance to let her victim free, Karen sat back against his upthrust knees, brushed the back of her hand against her brow, and asked Sylvia: "That's enough for now, isn't it?"

The older girl, who'd been hovering over the squirming pair, nodded and, a bit wearily, Karen leaned over and kissed the stilled Derek lightly; quickly, and rolled off him.

"Okay, Colin, over to you," said Sylvia.

"Dare," said the boy laconically.

Sylvia looked briefly around the others before facing him as he leaned against the ladder. She seemed to swallow, then said: "I'll do you a favor, cousin. Since we're sort of in twos, the rest of us, I mean, I think you ought to make up to Maryon, so's she's not left out of things. So... I dare you to give her a big, real, romantic kiss and hug. All right?"

"Righto," said the taller, golden-haired Colin and, pushing himself away from the ladder, stepped quickly over to stand in front of Maryon, whose pulse was already palpitating at this sudden thrust to prominence. "Stand up, luv," he said, taking her elbow, "and let's show them what it's all about, eh?"

Something in his manner, something in his subtly burning stare, something she could almost smell reminded her suddenly, sharply, of Michael, so that as she got to her feet, her knees felt weak and she almost sat down again. Letting him take the initiative, she gladly surrendered herself to him, uncaring now of what he might do with her or of what might happen. She felt maybe this might be what 'being in love' was like, being shaky like this, and a bit faint and helpless.

Colin put one arm about her, under her long jacket, and tightened his hand about her waist. His other hand held her just behind the shoulder and, putting one lean leg behind hers, and the other between them, leaned her so that she was just off balance. The hand behind her slipped a little lower and pulled her tight in against him, while the other touched her neck and raised her face toward his. Looking down at her with a strange light in his eyes, he bent to kiss her and, instinctively, she opened her mouth and thrust with her tongue as Mike had taught her to do. She felt him start, then his lips were hard on hers and their tongues began to battle in their mouths, each pushing and withdrawing, sucking and wriggling. The hand at her back cupped her ass, now, outside the cloth of her skirt, so that her unprotected groin was ground into by his hip, and against her own hip she felt his large softness through the layers of thin material. Now she put up her own arms about his neck and pulled herself up harder against him, dealing with him as she'd often done with her brother, knowing that this was the right way for grown-ups--somehow Mike and Colin both seemed grown-up--to kiss and show their affection for each other. And she now desperately wanted to show her affection for the English boy.

She closed her big blue eyes and plumped up her soft red cherub lips and gave as much of herself to him as she was able, not seeing the surprised and grinning faces of the others about her as they intently watched. She wriggled her hips a bit, to better adjust to his height, and felt his hidden flesh roll around to her belly so that she was able to press it between them. The hand at her cute little butt was clasping, grasping, squeezing her deliciously and, except for the strain on her arms, she would have been prepared to have gone on kissing like that forever. But after a while she felt a tap on her shoulder and, dazed, she opened her eyes to see Sylvia standing over them.

"Okay, okay, enough already," the bigger girl said, parting the two like the referee at a wrestling match on TV. "Well," she continued, as Maryon dropped weakly to her bale of hay, "you really know how to kiss, don't you? Perhaps you can give us lessons, huh?"

Karen and the others giggled, but she saw that Colin was staring at her with an odd light in his eyes, as if he'd just discovered something curious, startling, and worthy of further investigation. His face looked hot and flushed. "Thanks," he said, surprisingly, then took his cousin aside for a moment and whispered something quickly in her ear.

Maryon was very pleased with herself at having come through this experience so well and having acted not at all like the little kid girl they seemed to have expected. She even managed to wink at Karen, who was stroking Derek's hand where he held her round the waist, his hand red and fleshy on the girl's pale bare skin.

"All right, Johnny, it's your turn now to be Inquisitor," said Sylvia, returning. She dropped down onto the straw where her boyfriend had been sitting as he got up and stood in front of the small group.

"You first?" he asked her.

"Not really... put me last, after Colin. That way it all works out equal," she said, stretching out with an arm bent beneath her head, so that beneath each cup of her halter a full crescent of tanned soft flesh spilled.

"Looks like it's your turn again, kid," said Johnny, hitching up his jeans and looking at the still flushed Maryon, who could hardly keep her covert eyes off Colin, who'd returned to his stance by the ladder.

"Oh, um... oh, I'll take another Dare," she said, somewhat breathlessly. Her eleven-year-old body wholly ached that it would have something to do with Colin.

But she was to be disappointed. Johnny scratched his stomach, in deep thought, while she willed him with her eyes to please have her kiss Colin, or something. "Okay," he said, after a while, "here's what you do. You see the way Karen's got her hair down, in a ponytail, so that it sticks out, then hangs down? Well..." he winked quickly at Derek, "... you have to go and take off her vest, but you have to do it so that you don't pull her hair up with its neck... understand? We'll watch you, and you pay a forfeit if you mess it up. Go on, now. Karen, you kneel down there, so you're not too tall. You can put your arms up, to help her, that's all."

Obediently Karen dropped forward on her knees, and held her hands up over her head, quivering slightly. She looked down at the floor, but as Maryon approached she thought she saw a glint in those greeny-blue eyes from under the long, dark lashes.

At first the problem didn't seem too difficult... the neck of the top was wide and the hole it caused quite large. The others crowded round to observe everything. Maryon considered. If she took the thing by its bottom edge and lifted, the way it would normally come off, she might not be able to see at the back properly to make sure the ponytail wasn't disturbed. The other way was more awkward, but it might be better in the end. Carefully she reached down, standing behind her friend, and hooked her fingers under the neckline at each side. She gently began to lift and the garment slid up the slim body without trouble until, just as Maryon had the ponytail safely hanging down inside the back, the front caught on Karen's chin. Try as she might, she just could not get the two things, the hair and the jaw, clear of the top's hole, even when she tried putting her hands at front and back instead of at the side. Johnny and Derek and Colin, she saw without really looking, were much more interested in looking at Karen's body than at her efforts, but Sylvia kept a hard eye on her struggles with the recalcitrant top.

Finally, just when she thought she had it clear all around and triumphantly jerked smoothly upward along the upraised arms, the thing caught under Karen's nose, the back pulled forward, and her hand snagged against the girl's long black hair and bent it up into a loop.

"Not quite! Not quite!" laughed Sylvia, jumping up and down and clapping her hands. "You didn't quite make it, kid."

In disgust, not caring, Maryon swiftly tugged the top up over Karen's bare arms and half-threw it at Johnny. "There!" she said. "That's the best I could do. Did I hurt your nose, Karen? I'm sorry."

Throwing one slim arm over her naked, pale, shallow breasts, Karen, half hunching her shoulders, rubbed briefly at her nose, then sniffed up at Maryon. "It's all right, baby," she said. "Don't worry about it."

She reached for her top, but Johnny, stepping back, passed it to Derek. "Not yet, babe," he told her and, with a pout, she sat down, brought her knees up against her chest and put her arms about them, and waited for Johnny to ask her her choice.

When the question came, "Truth!" she declared, in a husky voice.

"Is it true that you're wearing nothing under your Levi's?" asked Johnny. "And you'll have to prove it."

"Oi! what about Maryon Alysun's forfeit?" interrupted Colin.

"Oh, yeah. Forgot about that," muttered Johnny. "Say, is it all right if I give her one later, before we leave, but when I think of something?"

"I guess that's okay," said the English boy, smiling at his cousin, who'd flopped down by Maryon again. "Later, later, masturbator!"

Derek barked out a laugh, then flushed deeply when Colin turned a bland gaze on him. 'Okay, let's got on with it, Johnny," he mumbled.

"Well, Karen?" asked Johnny. "Are you or aren't you... and will you?"

"The answer to the first question is, No! No, I'm not, that is; yes, it's true. Okay? And to the second question, well, I'll let Derek prove it, all right?" And before anyone could object, she'd unbuttoned the top of her pale blue Levi's, unzipped a couple of inches, leaving marginal room, reached for her startled boyfriend's hand and thrust it down in back of her, his palm against her skin. From above Maryon could just see the dark- shadowed valley between the two squashed-up globes of Karen's butt before Derek's hand eased down against it. His wrist wriggled and his hand thrust deeper as he felt, clumsily, at her skin, then he withdrew it and, as Karen rearranged her clothes, said, a bit shamefacedly: "It's true, Johnny. Take my word for it."

His friend grinned. "Don't say I never did anything for you, Derek. Okay, I'm satisfied with that. Now, it's your turn."

Derek thought for a moment, rubbing his recently pants- immersed palm against his smooth young chin. "I think 'I'll try a Dare," he said, licking his lips and eyeing his black-haired girlfriend.

Johnny smiled at him. "Well, since Maryon the world-famous champion kisser took something off your girl, I'll give you a chance to get even. I... dare... you... to take Maryon up into the loft there and, before I count up to one hundred, take off her panties and bring her and them back down to us."

Derek's face was hot and his eyes shone as he looked from his friend toward Maryon, who felt a shiver of apprehension go through her. If it had been Colin-! But, still, they were letting her play with them, and not as if she were a little kid. Half reluctantly she stood up. "Okay, blondie?" breathed Derek, and she nodded.

"You don't start counting till we're both on the ladder, all right?" he flung back over his shoulder. Taking Maryon by the elbows, he steered her over to the ladder, where Colin obligingly made room for them, and let her get three rungs up before putting his own foot on the bottom rung. "Now, when he says, Go! you just shoot up there, hear?" he whispered heavily in her ear. "When we get up there, just leave it to me. You don't want us both to get forfeits, do you?"