Chapter 1

Growing up in a small town in the Deep South had its advantages and disadvantages. The commonplace "big city" excitements were surreal images on television in Jason's small, sleepy hometown. The lumber business, namely pulpwood, was the town's biggest industry. Neither affluence nor wealth were words that one would use to describe the local economy. But, the environment was safe, simple, and secure. Most agreed that it was a good place to raise a family. Parents allowed their kids to keep themselves occupied pretty much as the children pleased. The town's teenagers particularly welcomed such freedom.

Like every other summer in Jason's young life, the summer of 1964 was hot, humid, and generally boring. No one that he and his friends knew had a swimming pool at home and there was no municipal swimming pool in which to escape the muggy heat of summer. The only pool in town was at the Country Club where only the very rich few were welcomed. Jason and his buddies were not among the well heeled. Instead, they had discovered heaven on earth about fifteen miles away from town-the old millpond.

The millpond property actually belonged to the grandfather of one of Jason's friends. The land was remote and little used so the owner actually liked having the teenagers from town avail themselves of the pond as a swimming place. In doing so, they helped keep an eye on the secluded property.

There supposedly was a caretaker for the property who lived a couple of miles up the road from the millpond. One had to drive past his ram-shackled house to get to the pond. The caretaker house was a weather beaten, run down dwelling obviously built for a sharecropper ages ago. Rumor had it that a man and a child lived there and, since they had no running water, they had to bathe in the millpond. No one was sure whether this was fact or fantasy, however. In all the times Jason had been swimming in the pond, he had never seen a living soul at that spooky old house on the road.

The millpond was a gorgeous spot set in dense pinewoods. The water was most often very still causing the towering trees to be beautifully mirrored in the pond's surface. A sandy beach of sorts curved along the water's edge near the road. To one side, the pond slowly disappeared into dense vegetation. From deep inside the thick foliage, a cold flowing spring fed the pond with icy, clear water year round. The dirt road wound past the beach to the other side of the pond. There a small dam held back the pond's waters and funneled the continuous flow toward an old grist mill. An ancient water wheel once had powered everything from a grinder for making corn meal to a massive saw for milling lumber. Now the wheel sat motionless having fallen from its axle years earlier. The water cascaded in a noisy tumult over the rocks underneath. The mill was pretty much intact. Everyone but a few curious teens had long since deserted it. Instead of the vibrant business hub it had been in the distant past, it now served as a place for adventurous adolescents to try cigarettes for the first time or any number of other activities that needed to be done in secret.

High on the hill leading down to the beach sat a dilapidated old house previously occupied by the mill operator, but now long abandoned. Its roof was caved in here and there, vines grew inside and out, and the breezes blew its old screen door open and shut when the wind direction was just right. Otherwise, the house kept silent vigil over the millpond and any secrets of the past stayed within its old wooden walls. The remoteness of the pond made it a perfect summer place for youths, like Jason and Becky, who had a lot of time on their hands and a need for a place to just hang out well beyond parental control and scrutiny.

Jason leaned quietly forward and his eyes moved down across Becky's taut stomach to her pubic mound. The soft swelling under the fabric of her swimsuit was a marvelous mystery to Jason. In his sixteen years of life, he had seen pictures of naked women in magazines, like Playboy, but even there the models were strategically posed to cover that most intimate of female places from direct view. Looking closer at the union of Becky's tanned legs, Jason suddenly noted a single pubic hair that had strayed from underneath her swimsuit. It gleamed in the sunlight like a tiny beacon. That single hair and the thought of its companions beneath were enough to give Jason a stiff erection.

What I wouldn't give to see under there, thought Jason.

Becky and Jason had grown up together. There families lived only a block from one another; they attended the same church; and they had been in the same class in school since Kindergarten. The two were a part of a neighborhood of kids who had played together for years.

As children, they had entertained their sexual curiosities with I'll-show-you-mine-if-you-show-me-yours play, but the conservative southern environment in which they lived soon put an end to those wonderful exploration games. The innocent sexuality of childhood had faded into memory and a simple friendship had emerged between Becky and Jason.

Only recently had Jason begun to view Becky in a very different way. She always had been a skinny kid with unruly hair. He always had been the small, but wiry athletic type. In recent months, both teens had slowly developed into young adults with all the raging hormones and accompanying changes in their bodies. Both had "gone steady" with various others since about the sixth grade, but through all those childhood romances, Becky and Jason had stayed close friends and confidants.

Becky was fairly quiet and shy, though her appearance did not seem to match her personality. She had long, unruly, curly hair-strawberry blond in color. In a time when most of her friends sported poofy, teased hairdos piled high on their heads, Becky appeared more the precursor to the hippies of the future. Becky's skin was fair and pink with a few freckles here and there. She wore little makeup and always had that freshly washed look about her. Her long, very fit, skinny legs looked great under short skirts.

Becky's body had changed from the boyish figure of a young girl to the curvy shape of a sexy young woman in a very short period of time. Now she was beautiful, but she hardly knew it. That she was attractive sexually was not in her consciousness.

Jason, on the other hand, was very conscious of her sexuality. Watching her sunning on the millpond beach, Jason could not decide which was more interesting, Becky's firm small breasts or her soft pubis. Fascinated by both, his eyes repeatedly wandered back and forth between the two as he moved closer and closer to her. He was close enough now to observe every freckle and hair.

"Hey, y'all, come back in. The water feels great," a voice rang out.

Bubba Johnson, Jason's best friend was lounging in an inner tube about thirty yards out in the lake near an old diving platform. Bubba's real name was Reginald, but since he was this gentle giant of a person, his nickname seemed to fit much better than his real one. "And when you come, bring me one of those cold beers. Ok?"

This little band of adventurers' most secret sin and supreme pleasure was sneaking beers, stolen from Bubba's father's ample supply, out to the pond. A little alcohol made those hot summer swims all the more exciting, daring, and dangerous.

"Come on, Becky, let go back in," said Jason as he reached in the cooler.

"Aw, I'm just warming up from that freezing water. You go ahead, but leave me a beer. One more and I'll be feeling no pain. Wheeeee."

Becky removed the tee shirt from her eyes, sat up, and smiled her trademark, million-dollar smile. It was that smile that most captivated Jason. Her white teeth seemed almost too big for her face and the way her nose crinkled and her eyes sparkled got Jason's undivided attention every time. He wanted just to sit forever and watch her smile... and his cock agreed. It seemed to perk up and tingle each time Becky smiled.

"Ok, suit yourself then," said Jason. He grabbed two beers from the cooler and, as he did, he flung icy water at Becky. Becky turned away shrieking. The diversion allowed Jason to get up and run for the pond without revealing the half-staff erection pushing out against his swim trunks.

"I'll get you for that, Jason Hill," Becky yelled after him. "Revenge always is sweet." Becky laughed and returned to her sunbathing. She flipped over on her stomach and began to find her place in her brand new library book, The Spy Who Came In From the Cold. Absentmindedly she slipped the straps of her swimsuit down off her delicate shoulders and pressed the pages of her book apart.