Chapter 1

My brother, Ray, had asked me to go swimming with him, over at the Sunoco quarry. It was an old, abandoned, rock quarry between Groton and Poquonnock Bridge. You had to sneak around out there, because it was posted property. Sunoco had purchased the property some years before, years after the quarry had already been shut down. I don't know what plans they had for it when they acquired it, maybe some kind of storage facility. The quarry had one section of it that had filled up with rainwater, to a depth of thirty or forty feet, and a lot of the local children went swimming there. It was popular mainly because it was fun to jump or dive off the rocky ledges, and because there were no adults out there to check on what the kids were doing. At night, it was a great make out spot too.

This time I'm remembering was when I was fourteen years old. It was right before the Gordon sisters moved into the house behind ours. It was on a Monday in late June. I wasn't caddying at the time, because the golf course was always closed on Mondays, so that the groundskeepers could get the course back in shape. The course took a beating after a week of heavy play by the club members and the guests at the Griswold Hotel.

My Cousin Billy showed up at the quarry, right after we got there. He arrived with three of his friends. Five minutes after Billy got there, Margaret Tracy pulled up beside John Gracia's car, the one Billy was riding in, with four other girls. Margaret was driving her dad's car.

Ray and I knew enough to stay away from Billy and the older kids. Margaret didn't like me at all, and I tried to stay away from Billy and his friends whenever she was anywhere around them. In fact, if I'd have known that my cousin and Margaret were going to be there, I'd have stayed away from the quarry that day.

Seeing them all walking towards us, Ray and I both decided to jump into the water. There were nine of them, Billy, John Gracia, Tommy Spicer, Herbert Martin, Margaret, Glenda Porter, Karen and Barbara Gower, and Diane Torres. Karen and her sister, Barbara, were going out with Tommy Spicer and John Gracia. Glenda and Diane weren't going with anyone that I knew of. Herbert Martin was the oldest of the boys, he was kind of retarded, and had been kept back in school at least four times. Billy and his friends were always trying to fix Herbert up with girls. The reason they did this was because Herbert's father used to always let Billy and his friends have parties over at his house. They had some kind of a deal that they gave Mr. Martin the money, and he would buy them the beer and wine for the parties, and then leave it in his house for them to drink at their party. Billy and all his friends liked Herbert okay, but, part of the reason they let him hang around with them was because Mr. Martin was always doing them those types of favors.

Billy walked over to the edge of the quarry, looking down at Ray and I treading water, twenty feet below him. "Jackie, why did you two jump in like that?"

"We didn't want to wait and get thrown in, Billy." The water was cold, but we both knew we were safe as long as we stayed out in the middle, away from the ledge. Cousin Billy couldn't swim. Billy just laughed, walking back to where his friends were. Ray and I treaded water, discussing what our best options might be. We'd left our shirts, pants, and shoes, up on a rock about five feet from where Cousin Billy had been standing. Sooner or later, we were going to have to climb up out of the water to retrieve them. Perhaps our jumping in hadn't been the best plan for avoiding trouble.

After about ten minutes in the water, Ray swam over to the rocks, and started climbing up to where we'd left our clothes. They waited until he had dressed himself before John Gracia and Tommy Spicer picked him up and threw him back into the water. Ray managed to turn in the air, so that he landed feet first. Everyone was looking down at us and laughing about what they had done to Ray. Herbert Martin then picked up all my clothes and threw them down into the water too.

"Herbert, you're a fucking retard!" Even as I yelled it, I knew it was a mistake for me to have done so. All the guys, except for Billy, were yelling insults and threats down at me, daring me to come up and say that to Herbert's face. Billy was looking at me, but he wasn't smiling, or joining in the taunting. "I'd come up there and kick his ass, if I knew the rest of you wouldn't jump on me too." Herbert was nineteen years old, but he wasn't really that much of a fighter. I had little doubt that I could more than hold my own against him.

John Gracia was Billy's closest friend at that time. "You think you could kick my ass, Jackie? Come on up here and try it if you do. I promise no one will jump on you, except for me." John was shorter than I was, but he was three years older, and about twenty pounds heavier. I knew he could fight, I'd seen him in several fights over the years in the neighborhood. He wasn't anywhere near the fighter that Billy was, or that Tommy Spicer was either. Except for Herbert Martin, John Gracia was the best I could hope to face as an opponent. I didn't want to fight any of them, but, I wasn't going to let them get by with throwing all my clothes in the water. I really felt like I had to do something about it. If I didn't, none of them would respect me.

"Billy, do you promise to keep everyone else off me if I come up and fight Gracia?" I looked up at Billy's face, not really expecting him to agree to what I was asking. There was a code of honor about things like that. If Billy gave me his promise, I had nothing to worry about as far as all of them ganging up on me.

"He'll probably kick your ass, Jackie, and he wouldn't need any help from us to do it. You'd be better off staying down there in the water." The tone of Billy's voice told me that he wanted me to stay where I was. Billy didn't want there to be any trouble where my father could later claim that he wouldn't stick up for his own family. Putting friends before family was a serious sin as far as my father was concerned. Most of our family felt that same way about it. It was okay if we fought among ourselves, but we had to stick together against non-family members.

"I'm not afraid of John. I think I can kick his ass, Billy. I'm not coming up there though, not unless you promise to keep everyone else away from us." Billy turned away from me, walking out of sight. This was another signal to me that he didn't want me fighting John Gracia. Herbert and John Gracia stayed at the edge of the quarry, yelling their threats down to Ray and me, having a lot of fun describing all the things they were going to do to Ray and me the next time they caught us on dry land. Everyone else had turned away from the quarry ledge when Billy did.

I heard Margaret Tracy's loud whining voice, chastising Billy because she thought he should have promised what I asked for, just so that I would have come up and got my ass kicked. John Gracia, seeing an opportunity to act tough in front of his friends, started in complaining to Billy also.

"You're just protecting that prick, because he's your cousin, Billy. You should have let him come up, so I could shut his big mouth for him." He sounded pretty convinced that he could handle me easily.

"Are you sure you want to try him, John? You're liable to find out that it wasn't Jackie I was trying to protect." Billy sounded more than a little bit angry. He didn't like people yelling at him about anything. "Margaret, you just better keep out of this. You're only trying to start trouble. Jackie didn't do anything to us, and Herbert shouldn't have to thrown his clothes in the water like he did."

"You really think that skinny fucker can beat me?" John Gracia walked over to Billy when he asked that, but I wasn't able to tell what else they were saying to each other. I was getting tired of treading water. After another five minutes, Billy came back to the edge of the quarry.

"Jackie, are you sure you want to fight John? Come up if you do, and I promise it will be just you and him." There wasn't any way I could refuse to come up, not after Billy gave me his promise. I started climbing up the rocks. "John, give him a few minutes to get his breath back after he gets up here. I don't want you to just jump on him." Ray had rescued all my clothes from the water, and was climbing up behind me. He looked like he didn't think this was such a good idea.

As I climbed the rocks, I started having my own doubts. One thing I was sure of, John Gracia couldn't possibly hit me as hard as my own father had done on several occasions. That hadn't killed me, or done me any permanent damage. I might get my ass kicked, but I doubted Billy would allow him to hurt me too badly. We were family. If Billy stood by and let me get badly hurt, he'd have to answer to my father for it. I was counting on him knowing that without me having to say it. By that same token, John Gracia was Billy's best friend. In case I managed to beat him, I'd have to remember that. Billy wouldn't allow me to beat John too badly.

I finished climbing out of the quarry, and sat down on a rock to rest. I was swimming in my underpants, so when Ray passed me my clothes, I wrung the water out my pants as much as I could, and then put them back on, along with my sneakers. I left the socks off, but I didn't want to be hopping around barefoot in a fight. I took as much time as I reasonably could, trying to get myself calmed back down.

My father always told me that the best way to fight was with a clear head and a relaxed mind. He said excitement only tired a person out quickly. I'd seen him fight quite a few times, and he usually looked very calm and relaxed. I knew he really believed what he was telling me. Finally, I stood up and started walking over to where Billy and his group were standing. Billy came forward to meet me.

"Jackie, there's no biting or eye gouging. Fists and feet are okay, but no stomping after someone gets knocked down. You can wrestle if you want to. When you're both down on the ground, punching is all right. Is all that okay with you?" I looked at John who was standing about fifteen feet from us. Everyone else had backed away from him, they were standing or leaning against the two cars they had come in. I nodded to Billy that it was all right with me. "Okay then, go ahead and fight."

Billy stepped back, and John started walking slowly towards me. He had his hands up in a boxing stance, and a confident smile on his face. I just stood there, trying to calm myself, remembering to take some deep breaths. I kept my hands down by my sides as he approached. As soon as he got close enough, I tried to kick him in the nuts. It was more of a move to arrest his forward motion, than any real attempt to do him serious harm. I think we were both surprised when he walked right into it. He was more surprised than I was though, and I hit him with a good left hand to his face as well. After that, I quickly stepped back a few steps to see how he'd react to it.

"What the fuck? Did you guys see what he did?" John turned around and looked at the spectators. I guess he was expecting them to protest to Billy in his favor. Whatever he expected, I moved right in behind him, punching him twice in the back of his head, and twice more on his flank, one above each kidney. He dropped to his knees, groaning, and trying to protect his head and sides, at the same time. I stepped back again, waiting for him to get up. I heard Billy yell something at me, but I didn't understand him. He was bending down soon after that, saying something to Gracia. He was whispering it to him. I saw John shaking his head side to side, and then he got back up on his feet and charged after me. He tackled me to the ground and we spent the next few minutes rolling around and trading blows. I'd have to say he got the better of this particular exchange, hitting me more than I managed to hit him. I did throw an elbow square into his nose, causing some blood to flow from both sides of it. He cut my face though, when he punched me, driving some sharp edged rock up against my cheek. I managed to move him off of me long enough to scramble back to my feet, and to move away when he tried to grab my legs to bring me back down.

I noticed that in the time we'd been rolling around on the ground, he had tired out more than I had. He had some trouble summoning up the energy to stand up and come after me. I took advantage of that by boxing him more, and then moving back out of his reach. He kept having to chase after me, hoping to wrestle me back down to the ground again. He was trying to dive after me for about the third time when I moved in, catching him on the side of his face with my knee. It wasn't as solid as I would have liked it, but he was already tired, and I think he was looking for a way to get the fight ended. He wanted some way that didn't result in a total loss for him. He was tired, and he had lost confidence in his ability to win. I saw him looking over at Billy, hoping, I thought, for some intervention.

"Are you satisfied, Jackie?" Billy's deep baritone voice sounded in my ear, and he had both my arms pinned with his hands, pulling me back from John. I was going to tell him I wasn't, but then he started squeezing both of my biceps with his very strong fingers. He did it hard enough that it was hurting me. "How about it, John, haven't you pounded on him enough yet?" John looked over at us and nodded his head up and down. He was satisfied. "Jackie, that's enough. I'm not going to let you hurt him. Tell him you've had enough." Billy whispered this to me, so low that I was the only one who could hear him.

"I've had enough too." I yelled it loud enough that everyone could hear me. Billy released my arms, and then went over to help John get up on his feet. I saw him telling John something too. John didn't look like he wanted to do any more fighting anyway.

"Nobody really won, so we'll have to call it a draw. Is that okay with the two of you?" We both nodded that it was. Billy made us both shake hands, and then he made Margaret go over to the ice bucket in John's car to get beers for John, Ray and me. She didn't look happy when she handed my beer to me. Billy brought out his church key and opened all our beers with a well practiced flourish. "That was a good fight. Nobody got hurt, and it showed that both of you knew what you were doing." Once Billy told us how it was going to be, there was no appeal. It was a draw. Everyone there to see it knew I'd kicked John's ass, but Billy knew that his way would keep the two of us from having to do it all over again.

Diane Torres was a year older than me, and a year ahead of me in school. She was dark skinned, with hair so dark it was almost black. Her eyes were the darkest brown I'd ever seen. As soon as I was standing by myself, she came over to stand next to me. She wasn't as nice looking as Margaret Tracy was, not even close, but she was better looking that Barbara and Karen, and I liked her looks better than Glenda's too. We started talking together, and she told me that she had been rooting for me to win the fight, if only because it would anger Margaret.

Diane had been one of Billy's girlfriends during one of the many times Margaret and Billy had been split up. Margaret had a history of treating all of Billy's ex-girlfriends badly. Unlike most of Billy's ex-girlfriends, Diane still liked him after he dumped her. Her being there in the group must have angered Margaret. For that reason alone, I liked Diane. After a few minutes, the two of us drifted further away from the main group. We were sitting on an outcropping of rock ten minutes later, when Ray came over with my socks and shirt.

I had been getting along pretty well with Diane, at least I was until Ray came over to sit with us. He was cute for a twelve year old, and he had blond hair and real fair skin. With his deep set blue eyes, and that big dimple in his cheek, some older girls found him adorable. Soon, Ray had Diane laughing at all his jokes. When I excused myself, five minutes later, neither of them seemed to notice my absence at all.

I walked over to John Gracia's car, getting myself a second can of beer. Glenda Porter was the girl that Billy and his friends were trying to fix Herbert Martin up with. It wasn't that she was that picky about who she made out with, but Herbert wasn't somebody that most girls would want people knowing they had made out with. Billy was trying to coax Glenda into the back seat of John's car, to sit next to Herbert, but he was meeting stiff resistance from her. Margaret was standing close by, urging Glenda to cooperate. I think Glenda was either thirteen or fourteen years old at that time. Herbert was nineteen. Billy and his buddies were getting desperate to find someone for him. With Diane sitting with Ray, and Glenda not even willing to go sit next to Herbert, the boys were afraid their plans for a big party over at Herbert's house that next weekend were in serious jeopardy.

"We just want you to sit with him and be a little friendly, Glenda. What's the harm in that? You're always asking to hang around with us, but you're never willing to help us out when we ask you to."

"Billy, he's almost twenty years old, and he's still in the ninth grade. I never said that I'd be his date. I thought you had brought Diane for him." Glenda seemed very uncomfortable to be refusing Billy's request, but also pretty determined that she wasn't going to sit with Herbert.

Barbara Gower, John Gracia's girlfriend, decided that she'd solve everyone's problem, hopping in the backseat to be with Herbert.

John Gracia got this really pissed off look on his face for a minute, after Barbara got in with Herbert, but then he just walked over to Glenda, grabbed her by the hand, and walked off, away from the car with her. She didn't resist him when he took her hand and led her away.

Billy and Margaret were both smiling after Barbara got in the backseat with Herbert. Other than John, none of the others seemed surprised by Barbara's actions. Billy went over and got in the front seat of Margaret's father's car with Margaret sitting behind the steering wheel. Tommy Spicer and Karen were already in the back seat of Margaret's dad's car. Since all four doors of Gracia's car were open, I slid in on the front passenger side.

"Herbert, stop touching me there!" I turned around to look when Barbara said that. Herbert had his hand on Barbara's breast and she was trying to remove it with both of her hands. She was protesting, but she was also laughing when she said it. I just sat there, facing backwards, drinking my beer and watching Herbert and Barbara. He was trying to kiss her while he groped her outside her blouse. "Herbert, stop that. Jackie's sitting up in the front seat, and he's watching us. Please, be good." Her words didn't seem to have much, if any, effect on Herbert. He did stop squeezing her breast, but only because he wanted to put his hand between her legs to touch her crotch. I noticed that she was still laughing as she screamed at him to stop.

She had hold of the offending hand with both of hers, but, Herbert still managed to rub up and down on her jeans covered crotch anyway. Soon enough, Herbert was also kissing her. I turned around, but tried adjusting the rear view mirror so that I had a good view of them. After five more minutes with the two of them kissing, I turned back around to look. It looked to me like Barbara's hands were now assisting Herbert's, instead of resisting him. She was also squirming her butt around while he felt her up.

Five minutes after that, Herbert had her laying down on the backseat cushion, and he was on top of her, dry humping. She had both her hands on his butt, and was encouraging him by her hand movements, and by the things she was saying to him. After another few minutes of this, I saw Herbert sitting up and undoing his belt and opening his pants.

I got up as soon as my beer was finished, and went off to look for a good place to take a leak. I looked over at the other car, Spicer was making out with Karen, and Billy and Margaret were kissing, with her straddled across his lap. Margaret had all her clothes on though, so I knew they weren't as close to doing something as Herbert and Barbara were.

When I'd left the other car, Herbert had his pants and underpants down by his ankles, and I saw Barbara trying to wiggle out of her too tight jeans. In those days, girls shrunk their jeans by climbing into the bathtub with the jeans on, as soon as they brought them home from the store. The jeans would shrink to fit their body.

I wandered over to where Diane and Ray were still sitting. Watching Herbert and Barbara in the backseat had given me a terrific boner, and I had to take a wicked leak too. "I need to take a leak, Ray, why don't you guys go over to the cars and get yourselves some more beer?"

"Are they all making out over there?" Diane asked the question. I noticed that Ray had lipstick smeared on his face, so I knew that they had been kissing at least.

"Spicer and Billy are making out with their girls. I think Herbert is probably doing it to Barbara by now. I don't know about Glenda and Gracia."

"Barbara is doing it with Herbert Martin? I thought she and John were going steady?" Diane was staring over at the two cars. She sounded very interested in what was going on over there.

"Go take a look for yourselves. He had his pants down when I left, and she was trying to get hers skinned off too." Diane got up off the rock they were sitting on, and practically dragged Ray over to Gracia's car. After they left, I unzipped and managed to take my leak over the edge of the quarry. I had almost finished when Glenda came walking up to me.

"Whatcha doing, Jackie?" I looked around for John Gracia, but I didn't see him. "John went for a long walk. Today isn't going that well for him."

"I thought you were with him?"

"Not really. I just wanted to get away from Herbert. John is really steamed at Barbara. He told me that she's done this before. He said he thinks she likes Herbert. He sounded like he was actually jealous of Herbert Martin."

"He should be. When I left them, they were pretty close to doing it. Herbert had his pants off and Barbara was trying to get hers off too. Diane and Ray went over to watch them."

Glenda was already halfway over to Gracia's car. She was scurrying right along too. I saw Ray and Diane sitting in the front seat of Gracia's car, looking into the back. I zipped back up and walked back to where everyone else was. Before I even got very close, I could hear Barbara urging Herbert on. I saw both her feet raised up and then I saw Herbert's naked butt moving up and down. They already had an audience of three, so I didn't see how one more could hurt anything.

It didn't surprise me to see how excited Ray was to be watching someone actually fucking. He was twelve years old. The way the other two were acting was a surprise though, especially Diane. Glenda already had a little bit of a reputation by then, but I hadn't ever heard anything about Diane fooling around with any boys other than Billy. Billy had broken up with her, saying that it was because she wouldn't do very many things with him. I had been surprised to even see her at the quarry with the others. She was turned around in her seat, up on her knees, raptly staring at the rutting couple in the backseat. Her eyes were opened really wide, and she seemed in some type of a trance as she watched and listened to Herbert and Barbara in the throes of intercourse. When Herbert lifted up off of Barbara and started spurting his seed all over the place, some of it got on Diane's arm. I thought she'd be revolted, but, instead, she took her other hand, and began rubbing the cum all over her forearm, like it was some type of skin lotion.

Even after he was finished, Herbert's dick didn't seem to get any smaller. He kept milking it with his hand as he stayed up on his knees, right above Barbara. Diane stayed right where she was, right up until the time that Herbert reached back and began pulling up his pants. She got up then, and began walking back to the rock she and Ray had been occupying when I came over to them. Ray followed after her, but Glenda stayed right where she was. She and I were standing right there watching, when Barbara reached up and guided Herbert's dick to her open mouth. Herbert stopped trying to pull his pants back up as soon as Barbara wrapped her lips around his dick.

I only watched for a few minutes before turning around and going after Ray. I was telling Ray it was time to head back home when the three of us noticed John Gracia striding purposefully towards his car. I quickly told Diane and Ray what Herbert and Barbara were doing when I left them, and both of them started running back to the car again to see it for themselves. Gracia got there before the two of them did, and there was an immediate angry reaction from him. He was reaching in from the front driver's side, trying to get his hands on Barbara, and screaming at the top of his lungs that she was nothing but a dirty slut and a cheap whore. She was screaming back at him that he was just jealous that Herbert was a better screw than he'd ever be. Herbert was trying to pull up his trousers, and to stay away from John and Barbara's fight at the same time. He wasn't having much success with either attempt.

Billy and Tommy finally had to come over and lead John away from his car. As soon as John left, Herbert managed to get his clothes back on. He immediately took off, walking away from all of us, heading back towards Groton. I got Ray by the arm and headed off in that same direction. We needed to get home anyway, and I wasn't sure about how wild things were going to get. If Ray hadn't been there, I might have stayed. I knew my father would hold me responsible for anything that happened to Ray while he was with me. After watching Diane, I was a little worried that things might get out of hand. I was a little jealous too. Ray wasn't happy with me forcing him to leave. According to him, Diane had been so hot that she was practically begging for it. Ray said she got hot after watching Herbert and Barbara going at it.

I was finally able to calm him down by reminding him that we needed to be home to get our room cleaned up before our father got home from the sub base. My father had made a passing comment about how we weren't keeping our bedroom up the night before. The way my father did things, if he came home that night and he didn't like the way our room looked, we'd be in big trouble. If we failed to clean our room, after him saying something to us about it the night before, we were going to have to stay in our room, cleaning it until he was satisfied.

Once he got it into his head that we weren't listening to his every spoken word, my father would keep us in our room for at least a week, while he performed nightly room inspections. It wouldn't matter how clean our room was, we wouldn't be able to pass his inspection, not until he was certain we'd learned our lesson about listening to him when he talked.

We cleaned our room really well, so that when my father came home, he was satisfied with it. Ray and I were both happy to have escaped so easily. At seven that night, while Ray was watching television, I went outside and walked over to Diane's house. She had a brother, Ricky, that was my age, and he and I had hung around some during school. When I got to her house, Diane was sitting outside on the stairs. I asked about Ricky, but he was over at a friend's house. I sat down beside her on the stairs.

"Did anything interesting happen after Ray and I left today?" I wanted to get her thinking about what happened out at the quarry.

"I don't know. After Herbert and you guys left, John gave Glenda and me a ride home. I've never seen him so mad. He got away from Billy after you guys left, and slapped Barbara in the face. Billy had to wrestle him down on the ground and talk to him. It was the only way to get John to leave Barbara alone. When Billy let him up, he made him drive Glenda and me home. Barbara stayed with Karen and the others. They all might still be out at the quarry. Margaret hasn't brought her dad's car home yet."

"Do you still like Billy, Diane?"

"I don't know. It doesn't matter if I do or don't, because he loves Margaret anyway." The way she said it, you could tell that she still liked him. They had only gone together for about a month, and that was back around Christmas time. Billy had told everyone after they split up that Diane was too straitlaced for his tastes. Really though, everyone knew it was because he and Margaret wanted to get back together again.

"Did you like watching Barbara and Herbert today?" She put her head down a little, and then gave it a quick up and down nod. She looked a little embarrassed to be asked such a question. "You should have stayed to see what Barbara did next. It's too bad John got back when he did. Herbert is pretty big, don't you think?" Again, she nodded that she did think that. "I noticed he got some of his stuff on your arm. I watched you rubbing it in." This time she didn't nod, and she didn't look up at me either. She seemed ready to get up and run inside her house. "Ray's only twelve years old, and you're fifteen. I think you might have scared him. I don't think he's ever kissed a girl before."