AMPHIBIANS

AMPHIBIANS


Chapter 2
“What happened to Mia Farrow?”
“She’s been off the show for almost a year, Mom. Where have you been?” Doug and his mom were sitting on the couch watching a summer rerun of ‘Peyton Place.’
“Well that girl doesn’t look anything like her. She married Frank Sinatra last year, you know,” Doug’s mom said as she sipped her bourbon and soda.
“Yeah.”
“Cut her hair too. I read it cost five thousand dollars.”
“Hmm.” Doug was eating a bowl of ice cream and coming down from the mescaline. It was the best ice cream he had ever eaten.
“She’s just a child. What is she twenty, twenty-one? He’s got to be over fifty.” Doug was not in the mood for this conversation. “I read that she’s going to India with..what’s his name? That Guru. You know, the one with the Beatles. Maha something.”
“Mahareshi Mahesh Yogi.”
“Yeah, that one.” They sat watching the show while Doug scrapped the bottom of the bowl, relishing each bite of the strawberry ice cream.
“Her Mom’s Maureen O’Sullivan.”
“Who?”
“Mia. She was Jane in the Tarzan movies. The ones with Johnny Weismuller.”
“Oh,” Doug said as he set the bowl on the carpet in front of the couch. She certainly knew a lot about Mia Farrow.
They watched the show for a few more minutes and then Doug’s mom asked, “Where’d you go today?”
“Hiking.”
“With who?”
“A friend.”
“Sandy?”
“I’m trying to watch this.”
“Sorry,” Doug’s mom said and sipped her drink. “Who’d you go hiking with?”
“A friend!” Doug was really getting annoyed.
“I’m just asking a simple question.”
“I went hiking with a friend!”
“A boy?”
“Yes.”
“What’s his name?”
“Jeff.”
“Jeff what?”
“Rosen, Jeff Rosen. Now will you leave me alone, please?”
Doug’s mom was petite with bleached blond hair. She had her hair done once a week and never washed it in between visits to the beauty parlor. She wore it in a bubble. She was barefoot, curled up on the coach sipping her drink, watching her son.
Something about him was different tonight, but she couldn’t quite figure out what it was. He was handsome. She had always been proud of his looks. His hair bleached by the sun and his skin tanned to a golden brown. He looked older than his seventeen years.
“Rosen,” she repeated. Doug tried to ignore her. “Jewish.”
He turned to her. “So?”
“There’s a Rosen who’s been playing tennis with Gloria Shapiro at the club. Gloria was the first Jew admitted and now she’s trying to get all her friends in.”
“So?”
“I don’t know, I was just wondering if that might be your friend’s mom. Do you know what his dad does?” Doug had turned back to the television.
“I’m trying to watch TV.”
“What’s the big secret?”
They sat watching the show and his mom reached across the back of the couch and started playing with the hair on the back of Doug’s neck.
“Do you mind?” He pulled away.
“Your hair’s getting a little long.”
“Mother, please!” He pushed her hand away.
“Are you going to get it cut?”
“I don’t believe you.”
“I’ll pay for it.”
“You’re unbelievable!”
“Don’t talk to me in that tone of voice!”
“I’m sitting here trying to watch television and you come in here..” Doug jumped up from the couch.
“This is my house, young man! And if I want to come in here and ..”
“Fine! The TV’s all yours! The living room’s all yours! I’m out of here!”
He stormed out the front door and slammed it shut. Doug’s mom got off the couch and walked to the front door looking through the glass panes. She yelled through the window in the door, “You show me some respect, you little bastard!”
Doug ran to his car and jumped in. He started the engine, looking over at the front door, he saw his mother yelling something at him. “Bitch,” he said.
She was crazy. He had dealt with her emotional mood swings all his life. Living with her was exhausting. He never understood how his father managed to stay married to her. The radio came on and he drove off.
Doug’s mom was crying softly as she watched her son drive away. They had been so close when he was growing up and now he was drifting away. Some days she hardly recognized him. All his life she depended on him for support and now he was like a complete stranger living in her house. Why did they have to grow up into teenagers? It was so much easier when they were little. Everything had been easier. She sat down on the couch and finished her drink, the ice clinking in the glass. Looking down she saw the ice cream bowl Doug had left behind. Still crying, she reached down, picked it up and walked it into the kitchen. She rinsed the bowl, placed it in the dishwasher and fixed herself another drink.
#
A few blocks away, Jeff was sitting on the floor of his bedroom in front of an altar he had made on a short table. He had covered the table with a piece of shiny orange material. Incense was burning next to an arrangement of flowers, leaves, shells and rocks he had gathered during the day with Doug. He sat on a pillow, trying to meditate but his mind kept drifting to his time with Doug. He remembered hiking up the creek with Doug leading the way. He watched Doug take off his shirt, tucking it into the waist of his shorts. The sweat on Doug’s back created a beautiful sheen as the sunlight reflected across his tan shoulders and muscular back. Jeff took off his shirt as they hiked up the creek. He watched Doug undress and saw that he was circumcised just like him. He remembered his tan lines and the whiteness of his upper thighs and butt. He thought about them lying on their backs in the sun and how his cock had begun to thicken. He remembered looking into Doug’s eyes and seeing himself as Doug looked back at him. This time instead of Doug getting up and jumping into the water, they kissed.