It was an earthworm, thick with loamy soil. "You!" he said, casting about for a curse of sufficient vehemence. "You!" She hopped from foot to foot in front of him, clearly delighted with this reaction. He reached out for her and she danced back. He took off after her and they were chasing around the yard, around hopscotches and tag games and sand castles and out to the marshy woods. She skidded through the puddles and he leapt over them. She ducked under a branch and he caught her by the hood of her windbreaker. Without hesitating, she flung her arms in the air and slithered out of the windbreaker, down to a yellow T-shirt that rode up her back, exposing her pale freckles and the knobs of her spine, the fingers of her ribs. She took off again and he balled the windbreaker up in his fist and took off after her. She stepped behind a bushy pine, and when he rounded the corner she was waiting for him, her hands clawed, digging at his tummy, leaving him giggling. He pitched back into the pine needles and she followed, straddling his waist and tickling him until he coughed and choked and gasped for air. "Tell me!" she said. "Tell me your secrets!" "Stop!" Alan said. "Please! I'm going to piss myself!" "What's that to me?" she said, tickling more vigorously. He tried to buck her off, but she was too fast. He caught one wrist, but she pinned his other arm with her knee. He heaved and she collapsed on top of him. Her face was inches from his, her breath moist on his face. They both panted, and he smelled her hair, which was over his face and neck. She leaned forward and closed her eyes expectantly. He tentatively brushed his lips across hers, and she moved closer, and they kissed. It was wet and a little gross, but not altogether unpleasant. She leaned back and opened her eyes, then grinned at him. "That's enough torture for one day," she said. "You're free to go." # She "tortured" him at morning and afternoon recess for the next two weeks, and when he left school on Friday afternoon after the last bell, she was waiting for him in the schoolyard. "Hello," she said, socking him in the arm. "Hi," he said. "Why don't you invite me over for supper this weekend?" she said. "Supper?" "Yes. I'm your girlfriend, yeah? So you should have me around to your place to meet your parents. Next weekend you can come around my place and meet my dad." "I can't," he said. "You can't." "No." "Why not?" "It's a secret," he said. "Oooh, a secret," she said. "What kind of secret?" "A family secret. We don't have people over for dinner. That's the way it is." "A secret! They're all child molesters?" He shook his head. "Horribly deformed?" He shook his head. "What, then? Give us a hint?" "It's a secret." She grabbed his ear and twisted it. Gently at first, then harder. "A secret?" she said. "Yes," he gasped. "It's a secret, and I can't tell you. You're hurting me."