Coming of Age

“Childhood is tricky business…” Maurice Sendak
Balthazar is awoken by the sound of the front door slamming. A car engine outside revs and Balthazar thinks that it almost growls like a mechanical dog. He can see the rain on his bedroom window. He stares at the drops dripping down the glass. He thinks of Lucy, the girl he likes. She’s tall, too tall for a girl in 3rd grade. But he likes her, the way she picks him up to reach the peaches hanging over the fence by the railroad track and then how they sit together with their backs pressed against the chain-link fence with peach juice all over their mouths. When the trains rumble by they make the ground vibrate and this gave Balthazar an erection, just like walking through mud barefoot does, though he isn’t really sure what it was all about, though he’s heard rumors. Lucy asks Balthazar to show her his and she will show him hers. They are standing back off the road in a thicket of trees with both of their pants down around their knees. Lucy touches his little dick and looks at it like they looked at a dead bird the week before, poking at it with a stick. Balthazar takes a close look at her vagina. He likes what he sees but has no idea why; it kind of confuses him and makes him feel lonely.