Chapter 1

Ever summer that he could remember, Roger had had spent on the family farm in Arkansas. He lived in the city about 200 miles away and was rarely able to visit his mother's family during the school year, but he stayed with them every summer. Roger's mom had moved away to the city after she graduated, but her two brothers, John and Paul, had stayed on the farm where they were born. Uncle John and Uncle Paul lived about a quarter mile apart on a dusty dirt road about 40 miles from the nearest town. Uncle John was a farmer and had two children: Tony (17) and Becky (16). Uncle Paul had a herd of dairy cows, and also had two children: Paul Jr. (14) and Beth (13). Roger was also 13, but about six months older than Beth. The country cousins had all grown up together and were closer to each other than most brothers and sisters, as they really had little contact with other kids their age. They had no close neighbors. They lived so far out in the country that the only time they saw other young people were at school, at church, and occasional Saturday night visits to town. Thus, Roger's summer visits with the cousins were almost a form of entertainment for these isolated kids.

When Roger showed up for his summer on the farm, the guys all went off on a camping trip up at Indian Village. Tony and Paul had been planning this event for weeks, as Tony was moving to Little Rock for the summer to work at a construction job, and he would not get to see Roger much otherwise. Tony was pretty excited, as this would be the first time he had lived away from home, and he could make enough money in one summer working construction to pay for a year of college. He was also really looking forward to living in the big city and having some money to spend. The girls, Becky and Beth, were annoyed that they were not invited on the camping trip, but were pretty used to being treated as second class citizens by the boys, especially by Tony. As the oldest (and strongest) cousin, Tony tended to boss everyone around. But Roger would be there on the farm for the next two months, so the girls were content to wait a few days until Tony was out of the way to pump Roger for every detail of his life in the city.

The day after the boys came back from Indian Village, Tony caught the bus for Little Rock amid much family commotion. Roger and Paul seemed kind of subdued, but with the excitement of Tony's departure, nobody noticed. The next day, Becky, Paul, Roger, and Beth began to establish their summer routine. They each had chores to do early in the morning and in the late afternoon, but on most days the cousins had the middle of the day to amuse themselves anyway they could. It was a hot and sunny in June, and back in that pre-air conditioning era, swimming was about the only way they had to get cool. The cousins planned to have a picnic down on the creek about a mile from the house. While they could go swimming at the pond near the house, the swimming holes down on Indian Creek were shady and more pleasant.

After they finished the morning milking and other chores, the cousins gathered up their lunch, some drinks, and some towels in an old army pack, and set off for their favorite swimming hole. This had been a favorite summer ritual for as long as they could remember, and when Tony and Becky had gotten old enough to be responsible for they younger kids, their parents had let them all go swimming on their own. Since then, a swim in the creek had usually been the first activity of Roger's summer visit. The swimming hole was at a big bend along the shady creek, which had a sandy bottom. There was a wide, dry sandy area on one side, with shallow water in the middle, and the deep part was around the outside of the bend. The deepest water was only up to their shoulders, but it was deep enough to swim in and get cool. They had rigged up a rope swing from a big oak, and they loved to swing out and drop down into the cool water.

The farm cousins had been brought up to regard nudity as what happened when you weren't wearing clothes, as opposed to something sinful or forbidden. They weren't nudists; they just weren't particularly modest. Swimsuits were practical items that protected your bottom from sharp leaves and sticks when you sat down on the bank, and for the blond ones, that protected your skin from sunburn. But if you weren't too shy, skinny dipping was good clean fun. Their parents knew that it happened sometimes, but since they had done the same thing in the same creek when they were that age, they didn't think it was a big deal. There was no sex involved.

When you grow up bathing in the same tub, and swimming naked in the pond with your siblings and cousins, mere nakedness just isn't that sexy. The farm kids had grown up watching animals having sex, helping artificially inseminate cows, and assisting with the birth of animals of all kinds, so they were very familiar with the mechanics of sex. On the other hand, they were isolated from the type of sex education that teens normally get from other teens, books, and movies. Their parents were conservative, practical country people who figured their kids would discover the sinful, sex-crazed world soon enough, and didn't see any point in rushing them. These kids were experts in the mechanics of animal procreation, but very innocent in the ways of the world.

On the hike to the swimming hole, each cousin knew what was going to happen when they got down to Indian Creek, because they did the same thing on the first swim every year. It was a ritual that had been going on for at least five years, but for the first time, Tony wouldn't be there. As usual, Beth started wrestling with her brother as soon as they got in the water, and they quickly got Roger involved, ganging up on him and dunking him under. The game was to see who could keep their swimsuit on the longest, as they each tried to pull the others' suits off. They were in no hurry, but they knew they would all end up naked before long. It was mostly sibling playfulness, but now they were teenagers, so there was a certain spiciness to their play that had not been there when they were little kids. With the cruelty common to their age, they teased each other unmercifully about anything they could think of, especially their bodies. Cousins, like siblings, held nothing back. But they all honored the rule that whatever went on down at the creek was not to be mentioned to parents. It was like a secret clubhouse for them.

Becky, acting motherly, sat up on the high bank told them to stop and behave themselves, but, of course, they paid no attention to her at all. Now that her older brother Tony was out of the house, Becky was enjoying her new status of being the oldest cousin, and she played it for all it was worth. Becky had her family's dark hair and skin, but she had bright blue eyes that made a startling contrast with her tanned skin. She had long brown hair that almost reached her waist, and sort of an hourglass figure, with full breasts and full hips. Compared to her younger, still maturing cousins, Becky both looked and acted more womanly. She had no intentions of getting in this game, which was why she was now sitting, fully clothed, far from the water.

Roger was a skinny, pale-skinned kid who held a special place of honor among the cousins because he was from the city. He lived in a world that seemed very sophisticated to the country cousins, and they were all very eager to find out what he had been doing and what life in the city was like. He wasn't big or strong, but he was quick, mentally and physically. He was almost the same height and build as his younger cousin Beth, even though he was six months older. He was generally acknowledged to be the smartest, although Beth was pretty much his equal.

Beth was the youngest, but now that Tony was gone, she was the ringleader. She was bossy in the way that girls that age can be, jumping in and taking charge of whatever was going on. She had wispy, short blond hair, green eyes, and pale skin covered with freckles. She was going to be tall and muscular when she was fully grown, and at 13, she was already an inch taller than Roger and growing fast. Her breasts were low developing mounds that, from Roger's point of view, had magically appeared since last summer. She was famous for her monkey-like ability to climb anything, but she was not a "tom-boy" in the traditional sense. She loved dressing up and being girly under appropriate circumstances. But she was a country girl, and was right at home skinny-dipping in the creek. Today, her primary goal was to get Roger's shorts off.