John

I once knew this man, horribly, sweaty and blubber lipped, who used to date our teacher. He would walk down the sidewalk in the center, as if he owned the town. Sometimes he held her hand, but most of the time he would stare off into the distance after giving us money to get candy or whatever we wanted.

Then, one time hiding on my balcony, we slungshot a small paperball at his head. He picked up the ball of paper and unwrapped it. "We know." He looked up quickly and we only had just enough time to duck. Les said that we should blackmail him but all of us lost our courage each time we saw him.

He was a marauder, taking and giving pleasure to all. The whole town lived in a constant state of sexual suspense, as if his suspicion gave rise to some rainbow of vibrating physical pleasure. Everything that was wrong made us want to outdo each other, in sin and depravation. The whole Grade 6 class was titillated to hear when Marcia Brook was finger-fucked by her cousin Darlene.

He just moved away one day. The day he left it rained for eleven hours. After graduation, I moved away.