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"You think I'm making it up?" I shrugged.

"How would I know if you were or you weren't?" I asked, and he folded his brow.

"Because I'm telling you," he said gruffly.

"So tell me." I countered.

"Ahh--" He waved at me and looked away.

"I'm sorry. Tell me," I asked with more enthusiasm. It wa

s easy to see he wanted to tell me.

He sat on a big boulder.

"It was funny, actually," he said. "We were studying science and something called conju... conje

"Conjugation?"

"Yeah, that's it, but it was about worms," he said nodding at my can.

"So?"

"So, she started to expand the discussion. How's that for vocabulary, smart boy? She began to talk about how important it was to know about human reproduction, and we got into it that way. She was, what's that word that my dad uses about my sister? Pro... something."

"Promiscuous?"

"Yeah, that's it." he said. excited. "She was promiscuous. I was certainly not the first boy she fooled around with. To tell you the truth, she scared me. but I went along so as not to be pussy, and one thing led to another."

"What do you mean, led to another?"

"You know, another. Touchy -feely first and then undressing and then conjugating. With her it was like following directions to put something together. First you do this and then you do that. I was excited. but I felt like I was back in school. I didn't do it with her again. She tried to get me to come over to supposedly study, and when I didn't want to, she found someone else. The joke around school became, who had Sarah for breakfast lately? Get it?"

He waited for my response. but I said nothing. I completed reeling in the line instead.

"You don't believe me, huh?"

"It's not important whether I do or not," I said. "You are weird."

You want to stop saying that," I said, spinning around on him.

He shrugged.

"I guess you have reason to be weird."

"And what exactly is that supposed to mean?"

"With what happened to your sister and all. They never found her body. huh?"

I stared at him. "I'm just asking."

"I don't like talking about it." I said.

"Did your mother think it was that old guy who owned our house?"

"I said--"

"All right." He was silent.