It was Jay’s birthday. I had invited all our friends to a surprise picnic barbecue at Snug Harbor. Everyone turned out on that hot sunny day. It was also a farewell party. Jay and I were moving to California.

We ran around tossing a green giant ball across the lawn. I remember Beth’s long legs moving lithely under a tiny plaid schoolgirl skirt, braids hopping as she caught the ball and threw it back. (Beth was at the time Mitchell‘s girl. He couldn’t make it to the party, but she came anyway.) Keith took his shirt off, running after the ball, self-made tattoos gleaming in the sun. All our cheeks and shoulders were pink that day.

That night, Beth and I climbed the tree right next to our picnic table. I had been checking that tree out all day, considering its limbs. It branched out pretty high up, and once it did, it was a good tree to hang out in. Keith gave both of us girls a boost up and we hung out fifteen feet high talking and giggling while everyone else stayed on the ground. I had noticed a dead branch earlier that day, but at night, it slipped my mind until Beth stood on the branch I was hugging and attempted to hang off the dead branch. I heard it crack and immediately wrapped my arms and legs around her swiftly downward moving body. I lost my balance reaching for her and we both steadied ourselves hugging each other and the tree for dear life.

We went home all scratched up later. The party moved to our living room. Keith stripped all the way to his tattoos, completing the picture of a tree on his chest with the root on his penis becoming more and more visible. There were about ten people in the room and the sexual energy was apparent though no one crossed the line from sexy to sex.

Jay and I had been in Keith’s bed before. He seems to belong in the stone age, spending most of his time chiseling rock and carving wood into sculpture when he’s not tattooing himself. When he made love to me it was like being taken by a caveman, rough and primitive, then afterward gentle with a wet warm washcloth on my ravished body. He and Jay in tandem was the kind of overwhelming feeling I dream about recapturing to this day.

At the party, Keith was frustrated at how slow the atmosphere of sexy-to-sex progressed. I assured him it would eventually get there. People were obviously entertained by his nudity and blatant sexuality. Beth left before midnight, taking most of our sexual energy along with her. In the end there was Keith, a female friend, Jay and I rolling around on the futon outdoors on the porch. It was okay, not quite as hot as the day had been, but a good romp with friends is never a bad way to end an evening.