I was waiting for almost an hour when I looked up from aggravating a crawdad with a stick...It was Tammy....my summertime friend from Ohio. She always spent the month of July with her Grandma who lived a half mile away. We were 10 years old and had went swimming in the same spot for the last three years together.
She had long brown hair, wore gold wire rimmed glasses and always waved to me as she walked across the meadow. I always waited until she got there before I would jump in. As Tammy came down the creek bank, I pulled off my shirt....danced out of my pants and jumped in to splash her!
My expert six foot cannon ball dive barely got her wet as she smiled when I came up. Tammy said,"That was lame, watch this!" She shook her pink flip flops off, dropped her blue jean cut off shorts and smacked in the water right by me. She popped up and I dunked her while laughing and shouting,"You dive like a girl!"
We splashed each other for a few moments while laughing and wrestling in the three feet deep water.
We climbed out on the bank, sat on our favorite old log and dried our faces off with my gray t-shirt. I asked Tammy,"Hey, why didn't you take your shirt off this time?" She looked at me funny, got up, crossed her arms and said,"Because I'm a woman now...I...I..am kinda different."
I was just blank and asked,"What do you mean...you look the same to me." She dropped her arms and pulled back on her shirt and said,"These...I have these now." I leaned forward while looking and at a loss for better words said,"They are bigger than mine...they look like they got stung by bees."
Tammy laughed and shouted,"You are so silly...these are just girl things...you have boy things and I have girl things...that's all!" Truly innocently, I said,"Let me see then." Tammy grinned and said,"No...you don't need to see." I was flustered and immediately dropped my white undies to my ankles and nervously said,"Chicken...bach..bach..chicken!"
Tammy whipped off her shirt and pulled her panties to her knees and shouted,"There...I'm no chicken....and see...I...was...right. We then both became very silent and just stared at each others bodies. Tammy dropped her panties to her feet....stepped out of them and flipped them towards me.
They landed on the old log as she ran and jumped in the water.
I immediately followed and we splashed each other, swam and floated around in the little swimming hole. We talked about school, family and argued about dogs and cats. Tammy got out first and I really noticed that she was different than last year. She took a white bow from her shorts and tied her hair back.
We laid our clothes on the ground by the old log and leaned back on it to get dry in the sunshine. Tammy raised her hand, made a peace sign with two fingers...laid her left hand index finger on top and said,"Pick a piece of pie...any sky that's in your eye...pick a piece of pie." I moved her hands to a little white cloud and said,"That's my piece of pie....the sky that's in my eye...that's my piece of pie!"
We played the game as she held her hands all across the blue summer sky. We laid back against the log...side by side and began to toe wrestle. Toe wrestling turned into tickling...tickling turned into wrestling. I had her in a headlock when she started laughing hysterically....I kept yelling,"Say uncle!" and she kept laughing.
We were on our knees and I finally just let her go and she pointed to what she was laughing at and giggled out,"BBBBee sting....you got one too!" I looked down and there it was....swelled and looking like it had a few times before when I had to pee...but I didn't have to pee!" I wasn't stung by no bee...I had no idea what caused it to swell up like that!" It did feel kinda good though.
Suddenly Tammy shouted,"Get it...catch that frog for me!" A little toad frog saved my day. I ran and caught it right by the bank. I held the little toad in my right hand and gently handed it to Tammy. I grinned and said,"Now we're both gonna have warts." I was just glad that the toad frog took her mind off of my swelling.
Tammy laid down again by the log, put the little frog on her belly and petted it. As I watched her, my swelling got worse...I decided to cup my hands over it. She looked up at me and asked,"Does it hurt?" I said,"No but it's still swelling up." She looked at me like never before and said,"I feel a little funny...maybe we should go swimming again."
I darted for the swimming hole and she ran fast behind me...still holding the little toad frog. We splashed again, swam and she let the toad swim from one hand to the other. It was getting late and the bottom of the sun was sitting on the tree tops. Tammy gave the little toad a kiss and let it go on the creek bank. We got dressed and Tammy untied her hair to let it dry better.
I walked with her a ways in the meadow. She stopped...made the sign with her hands and said,"Pick a piece of pie...any sky that's in your eye...pick a piece of pie." She then looked through her finger triangle at me...leaned forward...gave me a kiss on the lips and ran away from me through the high meadow grass.
I felt like jumping, laughing, crying and going after her at the same time. I just stood there as she turned every few moments and waved. She was my friend...I made the pie sign and whispered the rhyme. I can still see Tammy...walking in the sunset....in my slice of pie. Life, is the treasure of life.
