Boys of Summer

by Steve Berman

  Synopsis

  Walt Whitman referred to a “Mad, naked, Summer Night!” In the pages of Boys of Summer, acclaimed editor Steve Berman’s latest anthology, talented authors and fresh voices reveal the allure and excitement of the season for gay teens. June always promises romance. July entices with its raw heat, and August offers a languid fire that will burn out before autumn’s approach. These are stories of young love and adventure, when the sky’s ceiling is a bright blue marvel, when another boy’s laughter at the beach can distract from dull summer jobs.

  Boys of Summer

  Brought to you by

  eBooks from Bold Strokes Books, Inc.

  eBooks are not transferable. They cannot be sold, shared or given away as it is an infringement on the copyright of this work.

  Please respect the rights of the author and do not file share.

  Edited by Steve Berman for Bold Strokes Books

  Speaking Out: LGBTQ Youth Stand Up

  Boys of Summer

  Boys of Summer

  © 2012 By Bold Strokes Books. All Rights Reserved.

  ISBN 13: 978-1-60282-703-5

  This Electronic Book is published by

  Bold Strokes Books, Inc.

  P.O. Box 249

  Valley Falls, New York 12185

  First Edition: May 2012

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

  This book, or parts thereof, may not be reproduced in any form without permission.

  Credits

  Editors: Steve Berman and Stacia Seaman

  Production Design: Stacia Seaman

  Cover Design By Sheri (graphicartist2020@hotmail.com)

  Introduction

  June. July. August. Don’t we ask a lot of these three months, of summertime? We want bright sun shining down on us and nights warm enough for Tshirts and shorts. We want the welcome return of a wide range of smells from coconut to chlorine. We want the surf to be cool against our bare skin as we dare it on the beach, the rivulets of ice cream cool against our hands as we share such a treat with our friends.

  In three months we try to wring as much pleasure, as much frivolity, as we possibly can. Vacations. Weekdays were nothing more than extended weekends. Maybe camp, maybe just lying idle in the grass. Abandoning work, unless you happen to have to work during summer, and then we still daydream about what we could be doing instead.

  And romance. Winter may own Valentine’s Day, but everyone knows the real season for finding love or mending broken hearts is summertime. Teenage boys strut around shirtless. Tan lines are maps to the heart…or places lower on a guy’s topography. All that solar energy a gay kid has absorbed is just waiting to be released through a kiss.

  So here are ten stories that capture the playfulness of the season. What you hold is a permanent June in print, a never-ending July of first loves, a constant August of dog days and even daring adventures alongside the warm water.

  And the best thing is, no matter what the weather outside, no matter how low the temperature might fall, you can always pick up this book and feel the sun shine on your face as you read these stories again.

  Steve Berman

  Portrait of the Artist as a Young Swamp Thing

  Ann Zeddies

  At nearly sixteen, still spending vacation weekends with his parents, in a cottage on a not-too-distinguished part of Jensen Lake, was not Shane Kerry’s idea of how things should be.

  He had his own ideas of what an appropriate vacation should look like. It could be a beach resort on a turquoise-blue tropical ocean, one where his parents could lie in their beach chairs snoozing all day while Shane strolled the warm sands meeting interesting, well-tanned boys of his own age. Or, if it had to be a cottage, it should be a cottage on the grounds of a classic, Adirondack-style lodge with well-groomed trails, a tennis court, and a roaring hearth fire beside which Shane might be seen, looking pensive in the depths of a massive wing chair, long after his parents had gone to bed. There he might be recognized as a night owl and philosopher by a good-looking boy in artfully aged khakis and a faded T-shirt just tight enough.

  Shane had a lot of good ideas about vacations. None of them started with collecting his half-eaten packages of Oreos and pretzels from the backseat of his parents’ Toyota, then helping his dad lug the rest of their gear into the small cottage Shane’s mom had inherited from her mother.

  A normal vacation might even have taken place on Jensen Lake, if Shane’s parents could have owned or even rented one of the larger places down on the point. They were spacious and new, with patios overlooking the lake, where lights were strung and parties happened, and docks where new boats and watercraft were tied up. The people who stayed in those places were always going off for a cruise on Lake Michigan, or a side trip to a gallery in Saugatuck, or having friends over for cocktails on the patio.

  Instead, Shane’s mom was firing up the grill to cook the brats they’d brought in the cooler, while his dad went down the road to buy firewood for the traditional after-dinner campfire on the pebbly little strip they called their beach. Shane dragged his duffel bag up to his room under the eaves. He opened the windows to air out the slightly musty smell. A rickety wooden outdoor stair served as a fire escape. He’d spent many an evening perched out there, watching life on the lake unfold. Rather than go down and make conversation with his parents, he took his phone and his sketching kit, and climbed out the window to the familiar vantage point.

  He tried texting some friends back home. Mark didn’t reply. Jana texted back @ movies. L8r! Shane felt a brief pang of jealousy that people were going to the movies without him, while he was stuck here. But he had to admit to himself that there wasn’t all that much of a social scene for him at home, either. He’d dated a couple of boys, but it hadn’t gone anywhere. He’d dated both Mark and Jana, for that matter. The date with Jana had been an awkward evening at a junior high school dance, after a comfortable friendship that had lasted through middle school and beyond. Toward the end of the evening, she’d asked him if he minded a personal question. He’d known what was coming, and confessed. It had been a huge relief to tell somebody. He’d still not been out to his parents then, officially. Then he and Jana had ditched the dance in favor of a celebratory midnight breakfast at the diner.

  He’d tried a little harder with Mark. There had even been kissing in the back of the indie theater and in a secluded area of a local park. It was good practice, Shane felt. At least he knew how to kiss a boy. But he’d known Mark for years, too, and in the end they’d both admitted it was too much like homework. Diligent but not very rewarding. Safe, but sparkless.

  Shane pushed the disappointingly silent phone away and flipped through his sketchbook. He’d practiced his drawing skills by copying some photos, trying to add a few touches of his own to bring the drawings to life. Here, a dark Adonis brooded with his face dramatically half-lit. On the next page, cleverly posed bodies lounged on a beach that was an idealized version of the one Shane knew. This, too, seemed too much like homework. Shane had faithfully reproduced perfect faces, but they lacked a spark.

  Dissatisfied, he riffled the pages. Only one sketch held his attention. It was a quick, semi-abstract watercolor sketch, all blues and brilliant gold. He’d been watching a boy riding a Jet Ski, but in the painting, the boy had been transformed into a kind of carefree Icarus, careening toward the sun. Shane had captured his own feelings about what he’d been seeing, for a change.

  Distant shouts and laughter distracted him. He flipped over onto his stomach and surveyed the lake. From here, he could see the dock
at the Simmses’ place. The Simmses were apparently in residence. Jason Simms and some of his friends were horsing around in the water. Having a good time. Too cool to invite Shane, even if they’d known he was here. The Simmses came up every year, just like Shane’s family. One of Shane’s classmates hung out with Jason, and Shane had tried to get into their group, but he seemed to be invisible to them. He’d given up trying. But he still fantasized, at times, that he’d somehow become much cooler, that he’d acquired the clothes, the hair, the new iPhone. He imagined strolling into one of their parties and being welcomed. He imagined going over there now. But he didn’t have that much courage.

  He sighed and pulled his sketchbook toward him again. He painted a fractured image of the scene in front of him, as if it were seen from the underside of the water—a confetti of clothing colors and glints of light, viewed from a dark lurking place. Even the sun seemed to shine brighter over there. Money gave them a special sheen. It was a yin-yang of the lake, and the shadow side was where Shane hung out.

  “Shane!” He looked down to see his mother waving her barbecue tongs at him and calling his name. “Come on down, honey, supper’s ready.”

  They sat at the picnic table and ate off paper plates. Shane’s dad had already started the traditional after-supper campfire. At the end of the meal, he poked the paper plates and scraps into the flames.

  “Ready for marshmallows?” he said cheerfully.

  “Sure, Dad,” Shane said.

  “Come on now, let’s have a little enthusiasm,” Shane’s dad said. “Don’t start growing up on me. This is my only excuse to make s’mores. Help me out here.”

  Shane laughed, dutifully. He remembered when this was so much fun—fishing with his dad, toasting marshmallows, star watching and all the rest of it. He didn’t want his parents to feel bad. But it wasn’t enough for him anymore. At times like this he wished he wasn’t an only child. If he had a brother, at least there would be someone to distract his parents’ attention from him. There would be someone to talk to.

  “I got a call from Cindy Huntington this afternoon,” his mom said. “They’ve rented the Garrett place for the summer.”

  “Oh?” said Shane’s dad. “What happened to the Garretts?”

  “I think Cindy said they went to Palm Springs this year.”

  Shane let his parents’ chatter flow around him. As an only child, he was used to hearing a constant stream of irrelevant conversation.

  “You know Cindy and Don’s son Chase is still at home,” his mom continued. Shane’s dad seemed about as interested as Shane was. He grunted affirmatively while spit-roasting his marshmallow to an even brown all over. That was one of the few things he and Shane had in common. They both liked carefully toasted marshmallows. Shane’s mom liked to set hers on fire and eat them charbroiled.

  “You remember Chase, don’t you, Shane?” his mom said. Shane nodded around a mouthful of graham crackers and chocolate. What he meant was that he remembered such a person existed. He’d seen Chase around, but didn’t know much about him, and cared less.

  “I think he’s about your age,” his mom mused.

  Uh-oh, Shane thought. At intervals, his parents would try to prod him into socializing with some offspring of a friend or relative. Shane tried to beam a repressive negative vibration in their direction. I can pick my own friends, he thought. Perhaps this called for some overt distraction.

  “No, he’s a year older,” Shane said. “He’s going to be a junior next year.”

  Shane’s mother did not seem discouraged.

  “Well, Cindy told me they have to make a quick trip back to Chicago, and apparently Chase has some kind of job or something that he doesn’t want to leave. But she doesn’t feel comfortable leaving Chase on his own.”

  “Why not?” Shane’s dad said. “He’s sixteen. Back in the day, he’d have been married and on some wagon train to Santa Fe.”

  “Yeah, seriously,” Shane said, while keeping a mental reservation about the whole married at sixteen thing. “What is he, some kind of short-bus refugee? You wouldn’t hire a babysitter for me, would you?”

  Shane’s mom seemed somewhat nettled. “She told me that a lot of kids in the area have been hosting keg parties and things. There was a big deal a couple of weeks ago with a graduation party in town, where they trashed the house.”

  Things were coming back to Shane now. He remembered a little bit about Chase. He’d been a big gangly kid with a bad haircut and a goofy smile.

  “Chase is a big dork,” he said. “He’d never host a kegger. I don’t think he has ten friends.”

  Parents! he thought. They invent stuff to worry about.

  “Well, I’m sorry you feel that way about him,” his mom said. Now she was clearly irritated. “Because Cindy asked if we could keep an eye on him for the next few days, and I said of course we will. Cindy and Don are very nice people, and it’s the neighborly thing to do.”

  Oh, crap, Shane thought. You mean they’re very rich people and you want to stay in good with them because—he wasn’t sure exactly how it affected his father’s business. But he knew his parents were supposedly friends with quite a few people he didn’t think they really liked. People who invited them to big cocktail parties, but not to dinner or the movies.

  “What do you mean, keep an eye on him?” Shane said. He had a feeling of doom already.

  “Well, I said he could stay with us. I’m sure he won’t be any trouble. Cindy said he works nights, and the poor boy has to eat somewhere.”

  “With us?” Shane said. “What do you mean, ‘us’?”

  “He can have the spare bed in your room.”

  “Oh, wait a minute!” Shane said. He rose from his place by the fire and stabbed his toasting fork into the ground. “Mom! You could have at least asked me!”

  “Oh, for heaven’s sake, honey. I suppose I should have, but it’s just for a couple of days. We can’t make him sleep on the couch.”

  “Why can’t he sleep on his own damn couch?” Shane said. “He’s got a driver’s license. He’s practically an adult. He can drive himself to a motel if his parents don’t trust him to stay in his own house. Why is that my problem?”

  But he’d gone too far with that, and his father decided to get involved.

  “There’s no need to raise your voice to your mother,” he said. “It won’t kill you to share your room for a day or two. I’m sure the Huntington boy is a nice enough kid.”

  “That’s just it,” Shane said, striving to sound reasonable. “You’re treating me like a kid. Like you can just put someone in my room without asking.”

  “Well, I’m asking now,” his mother said. “I’m sorry, honey. I didn’t think it was that important to you.”

  “Jeez. How would you feel if I just offered one of my friends crash space in you and Dad’s room? I like my privacy, too.”

  “I’ll remember that next time. I appreciate knowing how you feel about it.”

  Shane knew his mom had read a lot of books on how to raise children, and he felt as if she were just reciting her lines. But he knew she was really sorry. He couldn’t resist it when she used her Mom-voice on him. His dad hadn’t read any child-raising manuals. His dad just ignored the whole controversy and went on toasting marshmallows.

  “How about you owe me one?” Shane said.

  “I think I can live with that.” His mom smiled.

  Shane felt at least he had come out of this with his dignity. Though he wished he could get a signed IOU. His mom had a tendency to forget what she owed him when the moment for payback came.

  “Want to go out in the boat and do a little night fishing?” his dad said.

  Shane was not sure if this was meant to be a bribe. He didn’t think his father had been paying much attention.

  “Okay, sure,” he said finally. He never knew if his father was trying to get them to bond over fishing, or whether it was just one of those things his dad absentmindedly did and dragged Shane along because he was ther
e. They seldom talked much. But Shane enjoyed floating around doing nothing in particular. Being out on the water gave him a feeling of freedom, especially at night when all the daytime boundaries disappeared into mysterious depths.

  His dad put out safety lights and used the trolling motor to move them around the upper edge of the lake toward the boundary of the state park on the other side. Looking back, Shane could see the little glow of the lamp on the screened porch, where his mother was sitting with her book. There were lights on at the Simms place, and at the Garrett place next door. Evidently the Huntingtons hadn’t left yet. There were people out on the patio. They obviously had company.

  There were a couple of little islands just offshore, with roots and fallen logs providing underwater shelter where fish could lurk. Shane’s dad lowered the lights and the chum bag into the water and put out the poles, and they settled in to wait for a bite. Shane rummaged in the storage box under the seat for some bug repellent.

  “I’m sorry you’re going to be stuck with a roommate,” his dad said. “You know your mom. She’s a soft touch for anyone who needs a favor.”

  “Yeah, I wouldn’t mind if she was the one doing the favor,” Shane said. He wasn’t really that mad about it anymore, but he couldn’t back down.

  “Oh, come on,” his dad said. “Your mom will be doing the cooking and whatnot. All you have to do is sleep in the same room with him. Get over yourself.”

  Irritably, his dad shook the chum bag in the water. Under cover of the darkness, Shane glowered at his back. Now he felt worse than ever. It was like having come out to his parents added a layer of ambiguity to everything. Was his dad mad at him because he was sulking over nothing? Or was he disturbed because he was thinking of Shane sleeping next to another boy, and how it wasn’t the same as if Shane had been straight?

  It wasn’t the same. Shane couldn’t explain to his father how he was worried about what some other boy might say about him. He didn’t know Chase. Chase could go to the other kids, afterward, and say stuff about him. Tell them about how he had to sleep with the fag. Shane didn’t think that would happen. He didn’t want to think that. But it was possible.