Dream Boy Read Online Free PDF Page A

clothes in the weeds beneath the marble child, and Roy lies down along
him. Roy is content to be still like that for a long time, sometimes watching
Nathan and sometimes not, his open hand on Nathan's face. Their legs tangle in
the weeds. Nathan can see the distended fabric of Roy's shorts, but he does not
touch the place directly and Roy abstains from asking. They lie together, heat
fields enfolded, kissing awkwardly now and then.
    Roy
says, "When we do this, you can't tell your parents.
    “I
won't.”
    “You
can't tell your friends either. This is a secret.”
    “I
know.” Nathan feels some desperation he cannot name, like a slow sob.
    “I'm
not your boyfriend.” Roy rests against Nathan as before, but they have
each become still. “I have a girlfriend. And I don't need to do this if I
don't want to.”
    Nathan
receives the words all the way to the center of his bones. He watches Roy's
face, trying to see through to his mind. It is like the silence on the bus,
this moment. It is like Roy squaring his shoulders to the front of the bus.
They lie together for a long time. Nathan watches the pond with Roy's shivering
belly under his hand. Roy's large thigh stirs in the grass. The crickets drone.
Finally Roy says, in a tenderer tone, “We better get back.”
    Nathan
stands and finds his clothes. Roy dresses close to him. The night has filled
with sounds. From the shadows overhead come calls of night birds, and from the
distant darkness echoes the yowling of a faraway cat, the singing of frogs, the
murmuring of wind in branches. One shrill thin cry shivers along Nathan's
spine, sounding almost human. A bobcat, Roy says.
    In the
backyard, in the shadow of the barn, Roy braces Nathan, holding tight.
“Bring my books in the morning. I’m going on home.” No more parting
than that %'s shadow vanishes.
    In the
kitchen, Nathan drinks sweet tea standing by e sink. The house is quiet except
for the drone of the Revision.
    Then
Dad is in the room. “Is that you son?”
    Nathan
sets the glass carefully, quietly, onto the sink. “Yes sir.”
    The
sweetish smell of his Old Spice clouds the kitchen. He has come from the living
room. He is standing in shadow. “You been out for a walk.”
    “Yes
sir.”
    “Where
did you go?”
    “Out
to the pond. There's a graveyard out there.” “Who did you go
with?” “Roy. Next door.” Very softly. “He's a nice
boy” Dad says.
    He
comes forward into the light and Nathan backs away. He considers Nathan from
beside the refrigerator. Dad is wearing his white boxer shorts with the stained
front, his white tee shirt with the torn sleeve and cigarette burns. The
whiteness of his flesh, the softness, make Nathan look away. “There's a
Western on the TV You ought to come watch it with your dad.”
    “No
sir.”
    Dad
ponders this. He opens the door of the refrigerator. “All right. Then go
on to bed.”
    Nathan
has been holding his breath. Released, he slips quietly upstairs, without
turning on the light. He waits at the window until he is calm. He listens to
make sure Dad goes back to the living room.
    Across
the yard Roy's window is dark. So it remains.
     
     

Chapter
Three
     
    In the
morning, a heavy mist has settled onto the yard, and Nathan can hardly see the
bus as he heads into the cloud zipping his jacket. His own books and Roy's are
crooked in his arm. The idling motor guides him to the haze of the yellow bus.
Roy straddles the driver's seat gazing out the window at the dismal morning. He
says nothing, closes the door and turns on the headlights.
    The
rutted road tosses Nathan from side to side on the seat. The inside of the bus
is like the sky this morning, a silence condensing around every sleepy face.
Everyone says good morning to Roy pleasantly, distantly. No hello is returned
by Roy with any sign of hidden feeling. Nathan searches but finds no evidence
of a girlfriend in these faces. But this thought hardly brings any peace.
Nathan already knows Roy has a girlfriend at