It was a 1956 Plymouth, which meant I was seven or maybe eight, because I don’t remember how long Bobby mother had owned the car, just that it was two shades of gray, not the most colorful, but better than previous year’s one color choice of black, or my god, much better than the three color experiment of our 1956 Dodge station wagon of Salmon, Black and White. I remember too the gray cloth interior that had a texture like felt, not too durable but certainly better than the vinyl I had been used to.

Bobby and I were best friends and at seven I had no idea why being with him gave me a feeling inside that made me want to touch him whenever I thought of a reason to and why pants stuck out straight in front whenever I did and most of all why I wanted to see him naked, something that I hadn’t completely achieved yet, because it was dark in the bushes when we decided to pull down our pants, but I knew I liked what I saw.

I wasn’t sure what Bobby thought about our adventure and didn’t find anything special about being invited to go with him and his mother to the store in the fifty-six Plymouth and wasn’t expecting anything different until we sat next to each other on the cloth backseat, in our short pants with our bare legs rubbing up against each other, and when I looked down I saw Bobby’s shorts were sticking out in the front just like mine. I looked at Bobby’s face and was greeted by a smile, which when I smiled too, was followed by his hand on the top of my pants and a motion with his head for me to do the same. It was the first time I felt my insides sparkle like they were so happy.

“Bobby, do you and Rodney want to come in with me? If you stay in the car you have to behave.”

“We’ll stay in the car mommy.”

The felt material was so soft against my ass as we sat with our pants pulled down to our ankles as we each gently touched each other and our faces were in each other’s lap. I knew even then it was something I liked; I liked it a lot and left mine there until whatever was going on inside had enough. When I sat up Bobby smiled and I knew we had done something that made both of us very happy and my mind raced about when we would do it again, maybe in the bushes, or in my bedroom and then the thoughts quickly stopped when Bobby’s mother opened the car door.