Read Bat Summer for Free Online Page A

midgets off kites like Moran. Now, there’s something worth getting caught for.
    â€œWhere are we going?” I ask.
    â€œYour place. Come on.”
    Perfect. That’s exactly what I need.
    If Tom was here, he’d know what to say. What am I thinking? If Tom was here, we’d be halfway to my place already. He’d race us back for cigarettes and naked women.
    I roll under the door with the garbage bag. Rico slams the door shut and whips down the alley. I have to run again. You hardly ever have to run when you aren’t being bad.
    I hope Elys isn’t home.
    â€œElys?” I call out. The house is empty.
    â€œWow, that is a big TV set. You get cable?”
    It figures that Rico would be interested in the television. Now it’s going to take me forever to get him upstairs so that he can show me the dirty magazines, give me a cigarette and leave. I want to get the whole thing over with before Elys shows up.
    He plunks himself down on the couch and grabs the remote.
    What would Tom do? What would Lucy do? What would I do if I were someone else?
    I walk over, take the remote from his hand and say, “Do you want to smoke or don’t you?”
    Rico follows me upstairs to my room. When we get there we open the garbage bag, pull out the mags and smokes and light up. We kneel by the window to blow the smoke outside and use my green plastic Viper Station as an ashtray.
    The smoke itches my throat. It’s like sucking warm dust. I want to cough, but I swallow instead. I won’t give Rico the satisfaction. His cigarette smoke keeps getting in my eyes.
    â€œYou ever smoke before?” he asks me.
    â€œOnly second-hand,” I say.
    Rico nods. “You’re a smoking virgin. I just ruined you for life. You’re addicted now, Ter. There’s no turning back.” He grins so wide he loses his eyes.
    Rico puts out his butt in my Viper Station. The plastic melts. He opens one of the magazines and starts flipping through.
    â€œI found these under my brother’s mattress. He’s too embarrassed to say anything about them missing. I mean, what’s he going to do, tell Mom? Ha.” He passes one to me. 1 go through it slowly. Fortunately there are a lot of pages with words on them. I want to see a naked woman, but I don’t want to see a naked woman.
    I’ve seen my mom naked a few times accidentally. It wasn’t that interesting. It was kind of like seeing a baby naked. You just can’t think of your mother as a woman that way. Other women, you just can’t help but want to see them naked. I try not to think about it too much.
    I watch Rico look at the centerfold. He’s slouched against my wall and he has another cigarette in his mouth. I can’t see his face. I can only see this naked lady with huge tanned tits and shiny lipstick on puckered lips on the back of the page he’s looking at. She’s upside-down.
    I think about being a bat. Bats are mammals so they must have sex. I wonder if they do it upsidedown or flying? I think about bats doing it while flying.
    Maybe I am interested in the magazines, but there’s no way I’m looking at them with Rico here. Idon’t think it’s respectful to look at naked women when someone else is in the room. It’s just not right. Rico did this to me. I can’t help looking at that upside-down naked woman and thinking about bats doing it while flying.
    I reach for another cigarette to make like I’m more interested in smoking than I am in naked women. I just sit there and smoke and it feels like my lungs are filling with car exhaust. My eyes are leaking. My mouth is pasty. I still can’t stop thinking about bats doing it in mid-air. Then my mind changes the bats into naked women with wings and it just keeps getting stupider.
    I’m trying to shake it out of my head when Rico looks up. He’s got this startled look on his face.
    â€œWhat time is it?” he asks and looks