“I’m sorry I had to holler for help, Michael, but I’m glad you came and got me. He and Mother lived in a tiny apartment and scraped along through the tail end of the 1940s, first by themselves and then with a son. The other two boys began cruising in a circle on the grass off to one side, laughing at their buddy’s encumbrance. “What’s the matter, asshole? This particular piece under this introduction is important in setting the scene for the really juicy stuff, but this one contains no sex. We played together when we were little, we shared our toys with almost no arguments, we took each other’s part automatically in dealings with other kids (like the famous incident with the Three Bullies) — we cooperated to what was undoubtedly an unnatural degree. We looked very much alike: dark auburn hair, gray-green eyes, lots of freckles, a certain sharp narrowness in the nose.
