Thanks for returning. The Chapter 1 disclaimers apply. Please keep Nifty going with a generous contribution. Be safe—always.
Noah gets to know the Tacoma boys, and finds himself liking them every much, especially Shelby. Noah drops his façade for just a moment as he tells the McGowans his secret. And, Eric and Noah get a very special treat they will never forget.
CHAPTER 16 ERIC AND NOAH
<Eighth grade, Tuesday, August 19>
[NOAH]
The phone woke me up and it made me mad. I wondered what was so important that somebody had to call me this early in the morning. Then I looked at the clock and saw it was just after ten, which made me even madder. I like to get up early and not let the day go to waste. But Doctor No-Spine told me that when people are depressed they want to sleep away the day. While the part about people being depressed made sense, and it is rare she makes even that much sense, it really had nothing to do with me this morning since I knew I wasn't depressed. I was just tired and I needed the extra sleep.
Anyway, I answered the phone and was pleased that it was Eric. He was one of the people who kept me from being depressed by being such a great friend. "Hey, Eric."
"Did I wake you up?" he asked.
"No," I lied. "Why do you think you woke me up?"
"Because you sound like you just woke up."
I really couldn't lie to Eric, especially about something as dumb as being woken up, so I told him he had woken me up.
"Dang, Noah, you keep sleeping in like this you'll be turning into Scott. My dad said Scott would sleep in to the crack of noon if he could." Eric was like me, he was an early riser, a morning person, except when he wasn't.
"Well, I don't like wasting the day, but looks like I got a good start on doing that this morning."
"No worries. When you getting over here? We want to go to the rec center and shoot hoops and stuff."
"Soon as I shower and have breakfast," I told him.
"Shower? You're just going to work up a big sweat."
"You make a good point, but I like starting the day clean. If I didn't shower I would be adding b.o to b.o and you would all need gas masks."
"We only need those when you fart." I laughed at that. See what I mean about Eric being a great friend? He doesn't feel sorry for me like Dr. No-Spine and my mom do. He just gives me a bunch of crap like he always does and then we move on. I need to start giving him some back as soon as I get over being tired all the time.
I got into the shower, checked to see if I had any pubic hairs grow overnight (that would be a no), and got myself all clean. I wondered what kind of sex we would be having at Eric's house. I knew from what Eric said that there would be sex. His friends were all horny dudes and liked to mess around. I just wasn't sure how much I wanted to mess around. I mean I was ready to get off with some guys; I just didn't want to go too far, if that makes sense.
I had some breakfast, left a note for mom reminding her I was spending the night at Eric's, and went into the garage to get my bike.
I got a brief shiver when I strapped on my helmet. I can't help but think about not reminding Bobby to put his on. I know that sounds dumb, but it's what I think. When I don't think it there is something in me that decides to make me think it.
Maybe I should tell Doctor Sabine, also known as Doctor No-Spine, with a PhD in psycho-bullshit. But she would say something about concentrating on birds with red feathers, thinking the symbolic match with Bobby's red hair would make me feel better about it all. Like I said, psycho-bullshit.
Telling Eric about these feelings is a possibility. He is very intelligent, a great listener, and he says things that make sense to me. I need to get him into meditating. In fact I need to do it more; maybe that will help fuck up that stupid demon in my head. Doing it with Eric would be cool. He can sit for a long time like I can. Meditating with Bobby didn't work, he was way too ADHD.
I was going to invite everybody to my house again to go swimming and then spend the night in the cabana which has plenty of room. But those are Eric's friends and it's his party, not mine. Besides, Nicky would want to get involved and Lisa would want to show off her boobs to Chase and Scott again. She told me all about them getting naked in the cabana yesterday. I'm just glad they didn't go stupid in there and start fucking.
I rode off to Eric's house, wondering what kind of fun we were going to have. I was getting tired of being morose most of the time.
Fun was what we had. Eric, Scott, the Tacoma boys, and I ended up at the recreation center, meeting up with the twins, Danny, Carl, Marty, and Rich. We played workup, some soccer, shot hoops on the outdoor court, chased each other around, went to Bob's Burger Barn and bought whatever we could afford for lunch, then went back and played some more. It was past four when we all quit and broke up. I went with Eric's group to his house where his mom had dinner going.
Dinner was lasagna. It was really good and there was plenty of it. After dinner it was wiffle ball in the backyard, then a movie, and finally games. Scott and Chase headed to Scott's house a little after nine and the rest of us ended up in Eric's bedroom.
We all knew we were going to be doing sexy stuff, we just didn't know what. I knew I wasn't going to do much. Maybe give and get a BJ, but nothing more than that. I just knew I wanted to do something. All four of Eric's Tacoma friends were really, really cute. I mean, really cute.
I liked Shelby the best. He's really a nice kid, and is pretty smart. He's small like me, and has the sweetest smile. Mason is a lot like him, but he's a bit shy. Adam is a big kid and a jock all the way. Liam is just plain cocky. He sure does love sex. I don't know if I've run across anybody who likes sex the way he does, and that says a lot seeing as Mayfield is the horn dog capital of the state. I could tell the way he thought when we were all together in the pool the day before. The dirty stories on Nifty would say he oozed sex.
While we all ended up getting off, we didn't go nuts. I mean it wasn't like we had a wild orgy. That would be hard to do with Eric's parents downstairs. This was less than what we could have done in the cabana.
We started off by getting naked. We thought about playing strip poker, but ended up doing it quicker than that. We drew cards with low card taking something off. If there was a tie then both guys took something off.
I won't bore you by describing the whole game, but I will tell you that Liam was naked first. I was surprised how much hair he had for thirteen and he had a pretty big dick, too. Adam was next. He had hair, too, but it was scattered around. His dick was maybe a quarter inch shorter than Liam's. I'm talking dick size when everybody had a boner. I was naked next. Of the guys in the room, only Eric had ever seen me naked, so I made sure to walk around and give them a good look.
"You're really cute," Liam said. "I mean I thought so in the pool yesterday, but seeing you naked makes you even better." I could feel myself blushing when he said that.
Eric was next. He didn't have hair yet either, unless you count those tiny, almost invisible, blond things as being pubic hair. Mason was the last one, so he pulled off his briefs, which was all that he had left. He barely had hair, maybe a dozen little wisps of hair showing. His boner wasn't much bigger than mine, making mine the smallest of the group.
Now that we were all naked, hard, and horny, we talked about what we would do next. The talk didn't last long, because Liam had his lips around my boner before we could decide anything. He grinned, looked up, and said, "I gotta get me one more cock to notch on my belt, and this one is really fine."
Liam did a really good job on me. I found out later he learned how to give blow jobs from Dillon, an older friend of his, when he was ten. Dillon was now sixteen, but when Liam was ten and Dillon was thirteen Liam got a sexual education.
"Me and Dillon still mess around," Liam told me later, "but he's got into girls now, which is cool. It's just not my thing. I swallowed cum the first time I ever sucked a cock and loved it. I was a ten year old cock hound."
I came twice that night, once with Liam sucking me and the other doing a 69 with Shelby. I was happy to get off with Shelby because I liked him so much. Shelby might have still been hairless, but he shot some really sweet cum into my mouth. Shelby and I slept next to each other while Mason slept in Eric's bed with Eric. Adam and Liam were next to each other on the floor a few feet away from Shelby and me. I was surprised that nobody did somebody's ass that night.
I found out later from Eric they all decided not to do anal sex. They agreed not to put any pressure on me to do something I might not have been ready to do.
The next morning I showered with Mason and we jerked each other's soapy boners almost to an orgasm. We ended up wanting more to finish and rubbed our hairless dicks together under the shower water. By the time we finished cumming the water had started cooling down. It would be awhile before the next shower.
We got dressed and had breakfast. Scott and Chase joined us after Eric called to tell them breakfast was being cooked up. I think Scott and Chase did something together both nights, but we were all in "don't ask, don't tell" mode, so I am only guessing. But even two straight guys get horny after talking about girls; I've seen it happen.
Eric's mother made us French toast and bacon. It was really good. After breakfast Eric and Liam showered. They got off quicker than Mason and I did, so there was enough hot water for Shelby and Adam to shower. Since they were boyfriends and did a lot together they just showered without the sex.
We ended up at my house, and with Lisa and the rest of the family being gone for the day, we were able to skinny dip. It was a lot of fun, and while we did a lot of dick, ball, and ass grabbing at the pool, we didn't go much farther outside. The only thing that happened beyond playing around and groping was when Shelby and Eric disappeared into the cabana for about a half-hour. We all knew they didn't go back there to look at baseball cards. There was something special between Shelby and Eric and we all understood that. They both knew it would be a long time before they saw each other again.
I have to give Adam credit for letting Shelby have sex with Eric during the visit. I think I would have been just as generous with Bobby under similar circumstances, but I can't say for sure. I know that much later I was able to be as generous with Eric as Adam was with Shelby. Eric told me the next time I saw him that the two of them did the "wild thing" twice in the cabana that afternoon, with each of them being the bottom.
We had lunch at around one, then swam some and played games until we got tired. We finally had to get dressed because everybody had to be at Eric's house by five to get picked up. We got there by four-thirty. Garrett and Wolf were already at Eric's house. They ran out to greet us when they saw us coming up the street.
"We had so much fun," Garrett said. Garrett was a bubbly kid and loved to talk. "Chandler and Korey are awesome and they have the best pool. It even has a diving board. We swam naked and that was way fun."
His brother, Mason, told him about swimming at my pool. Mason was the quiet brother of the two.
"We jerked off and sucked and did all kinds of stuff," Garrett went on. "Don't worry, they said it was okay if I told you guys. Chandler can almost put his boner in his mouth. He's a swimmer and a diver and can make himself into a pretzel. It was too short to get in his mouth but he licked it with his tongue. That was, like, way way awesome. I wish I could do that."
"Our friend Lars can suck his own dick." Eric told everybody. Eric was right; I've seen him do it, and believe me it is an amazing feat to look at.
We finally got into Eric's house and, since his mom was home, that was the end of the sex talk. It wasn't long before Shelby's parents showed up anyway. Before we knew it, we were all hugging and hoping we could see each other before next summer, and then they were all gone. I could tell Eric was sad to see his friends go.
"That visit wasn't near long enough," Eric said, "but it was fun. I like all those guys."
"But you love Shelby," I said. That fact was pretty obvious as far as I was concerned.
"Yeah," he said quietly. "I guess I do."
We walked out and sat on the back deck. "You're staying for dinner, right?"
"Yeah, since my family won't be home until late." My dad had business in Seattle today and took the family with him. He was cool about me staying behind to be with Eric and his friends. He said it was good for me to do things with my peers, which was what I thought, too. Turns out we were both right. I was feeling much better than a couple of days ago.
After a dinner of pork chops and mashed potatoes and vegetables with chocolate cake left over from yesterday, I went up to Eric's room with him.
"You doing okay?" Eric asked right out of the blue after I sat at his desk and he sat in his chair.
"I don't know. I guess I'm doing better. It really hurts sometimes."
"My mom says it takes time to get over something like that and that I shouldn't talk about it. But you're my friend and I was just wondering how you were doing, especially after all the stuff we did last night. The sex stuff, I mean."
It was funny how neither one of us wanted to use the words died or killed or dead or something like that. We both were talking around it, kind of like Dr. No-Spine, who spent most of her time getting me talk about blue skies with clouds and red flowers and birds singing. My mom was the same way. Everybody was walking on eggs around me and trying not to upset me. Only Marty called me on my shit, especially when I decided the best thing was for me to dork out and try drugs and alcohol. Eric was about to join Marty as one of my honest friends.
"You can go ahead and say `Bobby was killed' if you want," I said. "It won't bother me if you do. Nobody ever wants to be honest with me. They act like I was made of glass or something." Well, in some ways I was, but I wasn't about to admit that until I started healing up inside. And even then that fucking demon was stuck in me and making me scared of him and scared of telling anybody what was really bugging me.
"I don't know what to say," Eric said. "I don't have any kind of experience with things like this. I just know you're my friend and I love you as my friend and I want you to be the happy Noah again. If I can help you, I want to help you."
"I bought booze and weed from Randy, you know," I said matter-of- factly.
"Yeah, I know," he said, almost whispering. "Did you get drunk and shit?" he asked. I knew I had shaken him up. Eric doesn't cuss much at all.
I shook my head and said I didn't even though I tried. I wanted to find out if it would make me hurt less. "But a friend who knows about that kind of stuff stopped me."
"It was Marty. When we found out you bought stuff from Randy, I wanted to go to your house. He said it needed to be him talking to you."
"So, you've known about this since I saw Randy?"
"Yeah, I did. Marty is a good guy and a good friend. Since he quit all his boozing and stuff he's really changed."
"Except for sex," I said, giggling. "He's always going to be a first class horn dog."
Eric giggled, too. "He wouldn't be Marty if he wasn't. I'm gonna miss him at school this year." Marty would be at the high school instead of at the middle school.
"That makes two of us," I said.
The two of us talked a bit longer. Being around Eric made me feel good and just talking made me feel better. I had a good time with Eric and his friends the last two days. They made me feel more human. I finally said I had to go and we both stood up.
Eric was a couple of inches taller than me and for a moment I just stood there and looked up at him. He was really a cute guy and the couple of times I had sex with him had been special. I was wondering if we would ever do something like that again. I took a couple of steps over to him and gave him a tight hug. I mean it was really tight. Feeling his body and his warmth made me feel very safe.
It was different than hugging skinny little Bobby. Eric was not a big kid for thirteen. He was slender, but there were muscles in him that Bobby didn't have. He had an athletic body. I'd forgotten how toned his body was until I hugged him. I looked up at him again and felt my heart thumping hard and fast. I wanted to kiss him and I could tell from his look he wanted to kiss me, too.
We stood like that, holding each other. I was wondering if we might end up on his bed making out, but it didn't happen. He lightly kissed my cheek and let me go, quietly saying, "It wouldn't be right yet."
I knew exactly what he meant by "it". I was both disappointed and happy he didn't want to do "it." After I got home and thought about what he said, I was very pleased he stopped things there. Doing something like that was one of the reasons I was on the way to falling in love with him. He was just so special, so very special. And only somebody really special would ever be able to join Bobby in my heart.
<Eighth Grade, Wednesday, August 20>
[NOAH]
I knew where I needed to be that day. I'm not sure how I knew, I just did. After breakfast I left a note on the fridge for my parents, went to the garage and pulled on my helmet. I was certain I would never be able to put my bicycle helmet on again without thinking of Bobby and how he died not from being hit by a car, but from his head hitting the ground hard after losing control of his bike when he didn't have his helmet on. It was all so senseless, and was so much my fault for not nagging him one more time.
I rode out of town, past Bobby's old trailer (his mom and Tyler had moved to an apartment in town), around the turn where the accident happened, and to the McGowan's farm. It is the first time I'd been at the turn since the accident, and I had to fight myself not to stop and see if there was blood on the pavement. I knew there wasn't, but that image was in my head.
The McGowans were happy to see me, just like I knew they would be. "We were wondering when you'd make your way out here," Maggie McGowan said. "I didn't think it would be this soon, but I was hoping it would be."
"When I woke up this morning, it just seemed like coming here was what I was supposed to do," I said.
"You are a very bright and perceptive young man."
John came into the living room and sat in his recliner. I talked to them both about what I'd done and felt over the last month, including buying all that crap from Randy and how Marty kept me from being stupid.
We talked about Bobby and what he was like and how his life had been getting so much better. "Why did it have to happen when things were going so good for him?" I asked. "Those assholes Lenny and Duke were in jail, and he was getting better at baseball. He was going to move out of that crappy trailer. And he had you guys—he loved you guys, you know. He was always saying how much you helped him and how much he loved you. He said you were his grandparents."
"Noah, sweetie, we can never know why people are taken from us when they are. There are reasons for that happening. I lost a grandson who drowned. Bobby had become like a grandson to me. John and I loved him with all of our hearts. We were proud of how he was getting his life together."
"But he died when he was so happy. He died coming to your place because he loved being here."
Maggie got up and sat next to me on the couch and put her arm around me. I was fighting tears. "Think of it this way, sweetheart. Things were getting better. He was becoming happy in ways he'd never been before. His whole life was changing around for him. And he got to experience all of that. Think how sad it would have been if he had never known that happiness in his life. Think how much sadder it would be for you if you had never been able to see him become happy. For the rest of your life you can remember what his life was like this summer. That is the Bobby you can remember. That is the Bobby you will love the rest of your life. God had plans for Bobby that you and he knew nothing about."
I could only nod, trying to make sense out of what Mrs. McGowan was telling me.
"Bobby loved you a great deal, you know. You were the number one thing he talked about when he visited us."
"I loved him so much," I sniffled. "He was...was...my boyfriend."
"Yes, he was and it was beautiful. Just like what you said at his service was beautiful. The two of you showed how wonderful love can be at any age between any two people. It is a lesson many never learn."
The tears were dripping down my cheeks. I made no attempt to wipe them away. I made the only hint of what my demon was like that I would ever make to anybody for a long, long time. "What if...what if..."
"Say it, son," John said. It was the first time he had said anything.
"What if maybe what happened was my fault?"
Maggie pulled me close. "Never think that. There is no way on God's green Earth that you could have any fault in this. You didn't forget to put his helmet on."
"I did. I forgot to remind him when we talked on the phone."
"You are not responsible for somebody else's action, no matter how much you may think otherwise."
I let the conversation end there, not convinced in any way that they were right. But that visit with the McGowans had been good for me. I thought about the things Maggie McGowan told me. They helped subdue my demon when he came to visit me with what she said about responsibility. But her words couldn't get rid of the demon, they couldn't kill it off. It would be a few years before that would happen. But looking back at it, I sometimes wonder if maybe I didn't want to kill it off then. Maybe I really wanted the accident to be my fault because I loved Bobby too much to admit that it had been entirely his fault. Maggie McGowan was the only person I confessed my sin to for a long time. As quickly as I'd opened my soul, I closed it again.
After the talk, John McGowan and I took care of the horses. I then saddled up Cranberry, Bobby's favorite horse, and took her for a ride around the fields. It made me feel good to be on the horse and to ride alone for awhile. I got back in time for a late lunch.
When it was finally time to leave for home, I gave John and Maggie McGowan each a hug. "I love you both," I said, sincerely meaning it.
"We love you, too, Noah," Maggie said.
"Amen to that, mother," John said.
As I rode home I realized that the McGowans loved me, just as they loved Bobby, and I loved them just as I loved my grandparents. The ride that day would not be my last one out to the farm. I was a steady visitor there, and as time passed I found myself a companion to go out there with me.
<Eighth grade, Thursday, August 21>
[ERIC]
My mom drove Noah and me to the Feed Mart, but not because it was a long way off. Nothing in Mayfield was a long way off. I think she just wanted to watch us get onto the locomotive. She knew how excited I was, since I never did shut up about it all of yesterday and this morning.
We insisted on being there by twelve-thirty, even though Mark said the train wouldn't be in Mayfield until one-thirty. But I knew the CCP&P trains weren't on a strict schedule. They could be late, they could be early. Hell, they might even be on time. Whatever, I knew the train wasn't going to wait for us, but I knew there was no reason we couldn't wait for it.
"It's like an insurance policy," Noah said. "Being there early means we get to cash in." Mom just shook her head and got us there early.
Sure enough, we could hear the whistle at ten to one and by one o'clock the train was stopped at the Feed Mart. Mark climbed down from the locomotive and met us. I introduced him to my mother.
"Things went a bit faster than we thought at the Clark Pass mill," Mark said. "That got us here a little bit earlier. I'm glad to see the two of you ready to roll. I told Sherm, the engineer, that you guys would be early. He said you better be because he wasn't waiting. We set out and picked up our cars here on our way out east this morning."
Mark helped us aboard the lead SD40-2 locomotive. The trail locomotive was an SD40-2 as well, painted in the CCP&P's green, brown, and yellow paint scheme. Noah and I were both wearing our CCP&P hats. Mark introduced us to Sherman, who told us to call him Sherm, and we were underway.
This trip was no less exciting than our first time in the locomotive. One difference was that while Jerry, the engineer on our first trip, was nice, Sherman was just totally awesome.
We got to blow the whistle at the grade crossings, like Jerry let us do. But it was much different now that the tracks had been upgraded to a little bit faster speed.
"Thirty to thirty-five works for me," Sherm said. "No need to move faster on this line."
At a spot where the tracks were away from the highway we came to a stop. "This is one of only two sidings on this part of the line," Mark told us. "We're going to pull in here and wait on the gravel train to come through. We only need to do this on the days we start this train in the mornings."
I knew there were reasons that on some days the run to Clark Pass left Centralia in the mornings and on some days it left in the early afternoon. Sometimes it even ran in the middle of the night, but that was more common on the Harbor Subdivision. It all had to do with the schedules of the businesses the railroad served.
Mark threw the switch and we pulled our two locomotives and seventeen cars into the siding. After throwing the switch back to the main, Mark walked the length of the train and came back on board the locomotive.
"Should be about fifteen minutes for the gravel train to come by," Sherm told us. "I met your friend, Kevin," Sherm told us as we waited. "He's a very a nice boy, and so are you two. He doesn't know squat about trains though. You two seem to be really interested."
"Yeah, we found out when we became friends that we both love trains and we both love baseball," Noah said. "It's why we're best friends."
I saw an opening here and decided to jump into it. "Kevin told us that...um...we can, like, talk to you about certain issues if we ever needed any help with them." I was hoping he wouldn't take that the wrong way. I mean I wasn't coming on to him or anything. He was an adult after all.
But all he did was smile and tell us he had some experience with the subject I was hinting at. "If you ever have any questions, Kevin has my phone number and other information. You're welcome to stay in contact with me."
"Cool," Noah said. "Two of our baseball coaches are partners, but I don't know if we could ever go to them for advice like that. It would be cool to be able to talk to somebody we trust."
I agreed with Noah, even if he went beyond my hinting to be somewhat blunt about the subject. I mean, if my catcher and friend Kevin trusted him that was good enough for me. On top of that we all trusted Mark, and he trusted Sherman, and that was another vote in his favor.
We talked some more until we saw a light way down the tracks. Pretty soon that light separated into the three triangular lights that all locomotives have in the front and then the gravel train was on top of us. It was carrying about thirty empty cars, open hoppers. I saw that the lead locomotive was an SD40-2 like ours was, but was surprised to see a couple of dirty, worn out looking, gray GP-18s trailing it.
"Where did they come from?" Noah asked. He was as surprised as I was. We watched the CCP&P as much as we could and had never seen them.
"We just picked those up," Mark said. "They will go to the paint shop soon and will look as good as new. The mechanical department has already dealt with getting them into running shape. Business is growing and we needed the extra power. They are in way better shape than they look."
Like almost all short lines, the Centralia and Clark Pass bought its locomotives used, usually from the big Class One railroads. These two were old and Mark said they got them from a regional line in the Midwest.
After the gravel train cleared, Mark moved the switch for the siding. The CCP&P was a dark railroad, meaning it had no signals. Every movement was governed by track warrant, where the dispatcher radioed the engineer permission to use the track. We soon got our clearance. Sherm repeated his instructions back word for word, as he was required to do.
Sherm eased us back onto the main. We stopped when all of the cars cleared the switch and waited for Mark to reset the switch to the main. While we were waiting, Sherm beckoned me to his big comfortable seat. He got up and had me sit down.
"I'm giving you each a chance to do something special." I knew exactly what he had in mind, and the thought of doing it had my heart racing a zillion beats per second. Sherman had talked about how the throttle worked after we left Mayfield—in fact so had Jerry on our first trip. He went over some things again. He reassured me he would be right behind me. We adjusted the seat as Mark came into the cab.
"Whoa, I see the experts are going to drive this train. Very cool."
Sherman helped by releasing the brakes and all I had to do was set the throttle to the proper notch. Because Sherm had made such a great stop, we had virtually no slack to take up and our start was very smooth as the two big units effortlessly started up our little train. The reason we had two units was because of the steep grades from Kentburg to Clark Pass. At least two units was standard on this run. Pretty soon I had us up to thirty and Sherm had me ease up on the throttle. From there we rolled along the flat straight track for about five minutes. I blew the whistle for a couple of grade crossings. I was feeling very important and very powerful.
I was brought back down to earth when Sherm told me it was time for him to replace me so he could stop the train.
"No offense, but stopping a train is a great deal more complicated than starting one. Anybody can start one, but it takes a trained engineer to stop one." Sherman brought the train to a smooth stop and then let Noah take over the controls. Like me, he got about ten minutes of running time, with a couple grade crossings to whistle for.
Noah relinquished his seat to the engineer as we neared Centralia. We didn't need to stop the train for Sherman to take over. We both talked Sherm and Mark's ears off all the way to the CCP&P yard. It had been a day we would never forget.
Mom was waiting for us at the yard so we could both get right home for dinner. Once again Noah and I went into babble mode as we told mom everything that happened on the trip. "And the gravel train had two GP-18s mom!" I said enthusiastically. I don't think she was real impressed, but she did act interested. I knew dad would love hearing the news when he got home from work.
One thing Noah and I agreed on was that when we saw Kevin we weren't going to make a big deal out of us being able to drive the train. He wasn't into trains like we were. He was more into Mark, who he couldn't have, and Sherman, who I think he could have if he wanted him. Whatever, we would tell Kevin eventually, but we weren't going to rub his nose in it. Sometimes you have to know how to treat your friends properly, even if they are big, tough catchers.
Next: Girl Trouble