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girls’ giggles. We stood out on the lawn first and I held onto a beer in a plastic cup until it was warm. I hadn’t acquired a taste for it yet and, to tell the truth, I was afraid it might make me throw up. We were in a part of Annapolis I’d never visited before, but I could see the spire of the capitol building, so I knew about where I was.
    “Yo, brother, what’s yo name?” a tall boy asked me, blowing cigarette smoke not quite in my face. “I’m Clevon.”
    “Monk,” I said.
    “Monk?” he laughed. “What the fuck kind of name is
Monk?”
    Right at that second I didn’t want to tell him my real name was Thelonious.
    Another guy came up and the tall one said, “Hey, Reggie, this here is, now get this,
Monk.”
    “Kinda looks like a monkey, don’t he?” Reggie said.
    “What’s your real name?” Clevon asked.
    “Ellison,” I said.
    “That your first name or your last name?”
    “Last.”
    “What’s your first name?”
    “Theo,” I lied.
    Clevon and Reggie looked at each other and shrugged, as if to say Theo was an okay name not worthy of ridicule.
    “Why they call you Monk, little brother?” Reggie asked.
    I didn’t like the way “little brother” sounded. “Just a nickname,” I said.
    Doug came back over to me and said, “Come on, Monksie, let’s go inside.”
    “Monksie,”
Clevon and Reggie repeated into their cupped hands as they chuckled.
    “Let’s go back to the beach,” I said to Doug, following him toward the house. “This is boring.”
    “Let’s go inside first. Don’t you want to see some girls?”
    As a matter of fact, I did want to see girls, more than anything. But what I was going to do when I saw them was anybody’s guess. I just hoped none of them would call me
little brother
or ask me my name.
    The lights were dim inside and the center of the floor, of what I took to be the living room, was studded with gyrating dancers. Doug started bopping and pointing at people as we moved across to the other side. I didn’t know Doug all that well, but still I was amazed that he was familiar with so many people. He stopped beside a couple of girls. They had to nearly shout to be heard over the music.
    “Some party!” Doug said.
    “Yeah,” the girl said.
    “This your sister?” Doug asked.
    “Yeah.”
    Then they watched the dance floor for a while. Doug was now my hero, the way he had talked to that girl was amazing to me. Then he turned to her when a slow song came on and said, “Dance?”
    “Yeah.”
    I was left with the sister. She was pretty, wearing a skimpy sundress which showed her shoulders. There was a turning light somewhere and every few seconds her neck and thighs became clear to my view. Her skin was beautiful. She caught me looking and I apologized.
    “I’m Tina,” she said.
    “Ellison,” I said.
    “Dance?”
    “Okay.”
    I worried about more things in the following three minutes than I ever had in my life. Had I put on deodorant? Had I brushed my teeth? Were my hands too dry? Were my hands too moist? Was I moving too fast? Was I actually leading? Was my head on the correct side of hers? I held her loosely, but she pulled me close, pressing into me. Her breasts were alarmingly noticeable. Her thighs brushed my thighs and as it was summer I was wearing shorts and could feel her skin against mine and it was just slightly too much for my hormonal balancing act. My penis grew steadily larger through the song until I knew that it was peeking out the bottom edge of the left leg of my pants. Tina became aware of it and said something which I couldn’t make out, but included the words “baby” and “all right.” Then someone switched on the lights and I heard the voices of Clevon and Reggie saying, “Look at Monkey’s monkey.” I ran out of the house and down the street toward the Capitol.
    I made my way to the city dock where I found my older brother with the family boat and some of his friends. He asked if I was okay and I told him I was and