There wasn't a sound coming from the pool, though the lights were on there, soPaulie didn't bother going in. He just walked the path around the chainlinkfence that kept woodland animals from coming to drown in the chlorinated water.It wasn't till Celie giggled that Paulie realized they were in there after all,not swimming but sitting on the edge at the shallow end, their feet in thewater, resting on the steps going into the water. Paulie stood and watched them,knowing that he was invisible to them, knowing he would be invisible even if hewere standing right in front of them, even if he were walking on the damnedwater.

Then he realized that Celie was only wearing the bottom part of her two-pieceswimming suit. Paulie's first thought was, How stupid, she's only eleven, she'sgot nothing to show anyway. Then he saw that Deckie had his hand inside thebottom of her swimsuit and he was kissing her shoulder or sucking on it orsomething, and that's why Celie was laughing and saying, "Stop it, thattickles," and then Paulie understood that Deckie liked it that she didn't haveany breasts yet and he knew just what Deckie was and in that moment relief sweptover Paulie like a great cleansing wave because he knew now that despiteDeckie's beautiful tan and beautiful body and charmed life, Deckie was the sickone and Paulie didn't want to be like him after all.

Only then did it occur to him that even though Celie was laughing, what Deckiewas doing to her was wrong and for Paulie to stand there feeling relieved of allthings was completely selfish and evil of him and he had to do something, he hadto put a stop to it, then and there, if he was any kind of decent person at all,and if he didn't then he was just as bad as Deckie because he was standing therewatching, wasn't he? And letting it happen.

"Stop it," he said. His voice was a croak and between the crickets and thebreeze in the leaves and the thwang, thunk of the tennis match, they didn't hearhim.

"Get your hands off her, you asshole!" Paulie yelled.

This time they heard him. Celie shrieked and pulled away from Deckie, lookingfrantically for the top of her swimsuit, which was floating about ten feet out.She splashed down the steps into the pool, reaching for it, as Deckie stood up,looking for Paulie in the darkness outside the chainlink fence. Their eyes met.Deckie walked around the pool toward him.

"I wasn't doing anything, you queer," said Deckie. "And what were you doingwatching, anyway, you queer?"

The words struck home. Paulie answered not a word. They were face to face now,through the chain link.

"Nobody will believe you," said Deckie. "And Celie will never admit it happened.She wanted it, you know. She's the one that took off her top."

"Shut up," said Paulie.

"If you tell anybody, I'll just look disgusted and tell them that you and Iquarreled and you warned me you'd do something to get me in trouble. They'llbelieve me. They know you're a weasel. A sneaking weasel queer."

"You can call me whatever you like," said Paulie. "But you and I both know whatyou are. And someday you'll mess with somebody's little girl and they won't justcall the cops so your family lawyers can get you off, they'll come after youwith a gun and blow the suntan right off your face."

Paulie said all that, but not until Deckie was on the other side of the pool,walking into the poolhouse. By then Celie had her top back on and was climbingout of the water. She didn't even turn to look at him. Paulie had saved her, butmaybe she didn't want to be saved. And even if she did, he knew that she'd neverspeak to him again as long as he lived. He'd seen the wrong thing, he'd done thewrong thing, even when he was trying to do the right thing.

He didn't want to go to bed, not with Deckie lying there in the next bed. Hethought of taking a swim himself, but the thought of getting in the water theyhad been using made him feel polluted. He walked away into the brush.

It got dark immediately under the trees, but not so dark he couldn't see theground. And soon he found a path that led down to the stream, which made thatcurious rushing, plinking sound like some kind of random musical instrument thatwas both string and wind. The water was icy cold when he put his bare feet intoit. Cold and pure and numbing and he kept walking upstream.

The trees broke open over the stream and moonlight poured down from almoststraight overhead. The water had carved its way under some of the trees liningthe banks. None had fallen, but many of them cantilevered perilously over thewater, their roots reaching out like some ancient scaffolding, waiting forsomebody to come in and finish building the riverbank. In the spring runoff orduring a storm, all the gaps under the trees would be invisible, but it was theend of a dryish summer and there wasn't that much water, so the banks wereexposed right down to the base. If I just lay down under one of these trees,when it rained again the water would rise and lift me up into the roots like afish up to an octopus's mouth, and the roots would hold me like an octopus'sarms and I could just lie there and sleep while it sucked the life out of me,sucked it right out and left me dry, and then I'd dissolve in the water andfloat down the river and end up in some reservoir and get filtered out of thedrinking water and end up getting treated with a bunch of sewage or maybe in atoxic waste dump which pretty much describes my life right now so it wouldn'tmake much difference, would it?

The bank was higher on the left side now, and it was rocky, not clay. The stonewas bone dry and shone ghostly white in the moonlight, except for one place,under a low outcropping, where the rock was glistening wet. When Paulie gotcloser he could see that there was water flowing thinly over the face of therock. But how could that be, since all the rock above the overhang was dry? Onlywhen he stooped down did he realize that there wasn't just shadow under thatoutcropping of stone, there was a cave, and the water flowed out of it. When thestream was high, the cave entrance must be completely under water; and the restof the time it would be invisible unless you were right down under the overhang,looking up. Yet it was large enough for a person to slither in.

A person or an animal. A bear? Not hibernation season. A skunk? A porcupine?Maybe. So what? Paulie imagined coming home with spines in his face or smellinglike a skunk and all he could think was: They'd have to take me away from here.To the doctor to get the spines out or back home to get the smell of me awayfrom the others. They'd have to ride with him in the car all the way down themountain, smelling him the whole way.

He ducked low, almost getting his face into the water, and soaking his shortsand the front of his T-shirt. He was right, you could get into the cave, and itwas easier than it looked at first, the cave was bigger inside than it seemedfrom the size of the opening. The spring inside it had been eating away at therock for a long time. And if there was an animal in here, it kept quiet. Didn'tmove, didn't smell. It was dark, and after a while when Paulie's eyes got usedto the darkness it was still pitch black and he couldn't see his hand in frontof his face, so he felt his way inward, inward. Maybe animals didn't use thiscave because the entrance was underwater so much. Bats couldn't use it, that wasfor sure. And it would be a lousy place to hibernate since there was no gettingout during the spring flood.

The water from the spring made a pool inside the cave, not a deep one, but pureand cold. The cleanest water Paulie would ever find in his life, he knew that.He dipped his hand into the water, lifted it to his mouth, drank. It tastedsweet and clear. It tasted like cold winter light. He crawled farther into thecave, looking for a place where he could lie down and dream and remember thetaste of this water straight from the stone heart of the earth.