This is a true story. All the characters in this story we over the age of consent when the story took place. All these events took place during the course of one very long and hot summer when I was growing up, just on the change from boy to man and still full of the innocence and wonder that seemed to characterise kids back then.
I had just finished my exams and depending upon the results, would either go on to a sixth form school some miles away or have to get out and find myself a job. I wasn't particularly worried; I felt I have done enough (just), to get the grades I wanted and besides the results came out at the end of summer and that was light years away.
Right now I just wanted to enjoy a complete summer with no school work; and enjoying the summer meant never-ending games of football with the gang, long walks out into the countryside and occasional swimming at the local baths if there was the money to go.
No different really from every other summer except this was the last one of our childhood and we knew it, whatever happened after this summer things would never be quite the same again.
We had all grown up together, Mike, Dave, Roy and me, bright kids from a working class mining village in Yorkshire. Roy and I had wider aspirations and went on to take higher exams and then I went on to college and Roy went into the police force and an early death in a car crash. Strange but he always said he would die young.
Dave went into the local steel works and Mike down the mine. They would both later be caught up in the strikes and watch the demise of their respective industries under the brutal care of Margaret Thatcher.
But that was all in the future and the only cares we had at the start of that summer was getting a football to play with and the chances of an illegal bottle of beer at one of the more remote, and understanding, rural off-licences we knew of in the area. Sue changed all that.
Sue was 'one of the boys'. She had started hanging around with us about three summers before and just sort of hovered on the fringe of everything we did. She came with us on our long and rambling walks out into the countryside, walking for miles in whatever direction the wind was blowing; and she would watch as the boys climbed trees and fooled about; not really taking part but always there.
Occasionally she brought a friend along and they walked with us or sat and talked as we played football for hours, faces close together as young girls do, brushing hair from their eyes as they discussed matters of current importance, arms clasped around their knees; but the friends came and went and only Sue stayed. She was part of the scenery. Almost by default she became one of the gang.
In that final summer Sue was changing into a fine young woman; her body changed from a gangly tomboy into a young woman with a slim and athletic figure with small, budding breasts and for the first time that summer we began to notice the difference.
The effect on us all was slight and subtle in the beginning, the boys began to include her more in their games, made room for her to sit with them when they were talking, sly glances at her bust or her rear as she walked with them. She was still 'one of the boys' but whenever she was present there was a slight change in the group, just as a breeze ruffles leaves on a tree or stirs the grass in the fields, Sue began to have an effect on us, she began to be noticed.
She herself seemed to be unaware that any change was taking place; she tagged along where ever we went. We used to play football on some spare ground near the railway, usual stuff, from 2 to a 100 a side depending on who was there and who wanted to play. The game lasted until people got fed up and went home or it got too dark to play anymore. Sometimes Sue would get roped in to play but usually she was content to sit on the grassy bank and just watch.
We four lads would usually get together straight after breakfast and head for whatever adventure we had planned for the day and more often than not Sue would 'just turn up' and join us, walking along slightly behind, talking in her usual quietish manner to whoever walked with her; but boy could she run; whenever the games turned fast Sue could out run any of us.
Sue was a sprinter; graceful and long legged she ran with a freedom and speed that left the rest of us following lamely up behind her. She became our mascot and would be proudly brought to the front of the gang whenever a foot race was called for.
Most boys hated running against her and soon she was the unchallenged champion of our area. I guess she soon got used to ending a race and being bowled over by four cheering lads – she would disappear under us laughing and gasping for breath.
It was one of the few times that I remember her being outrageously happy, laughing and shouting with the rest of us, just glad to be alive; most of the time she still seemed happy but in a much quieter way, kind of reserved – don't get me wrong, she was never unhappy, but she had a quiet about her that made you think of still waters, of someone waiting for something, a sort of sleeping beauty air about her.
One evening, after everyone had gone home, the four of us were laying on the grass bank talking and watching the lights come on in the houses across the fields. Sue had not been with us that day and as usual, whether she was there or not, the conversation drifted around to sex, or our lack of it in our cases.
If she was there Sue would join in with some gossip about who in her class was 'doing it' and with whom. We all joined with lewd comments about the people we were talking about and said that we 'wouldn't touch them with a bargepole' but secretly wishing that we could with anything.
Girls who had 'done it' were creatures of mystery and awe to us. We pretended to be men of the world and talked with authority about all things sexual when in reality we were all pathetic virgins who had never even seen a girl undressed, let alone know what to do with her if we were ever luck enough to meet one without her clothes.
We bluffed and blustered about our conquests and we all knew we were lying. That's the problem with growing up together, we all knew all there was to know about each other which made the bragging just a little bit harder to pull off in a convincing manner. Usually if you went a step too far someone would be able to shoot you down and leave you to pick up the pieces the best you could.
Anyway this particular evening the conversation had worked its way around to sex and Dave was recounting the escapades of one of the 'sluts' in school and were discussing in some detail the probable shape and dimensions of this girls fanny when suddenly Mike sat up and said to Dave, "How would you know? I bet you've never even seen one".
We all froze; this was too near the truth for all of us. I happened to know that Dave had never seen one as we had admitted as much to each other one day not long before as we walked home from school. Eyes went down to the ground in an attempt find something interesting on the floor in the gathering gloom as Dave tried to bluster his way out of it.
"Of course I bloody have, seen loads."
"Whose?" Said Mike not willing to let him off the hook so easily.
"My sisters" said Dave.
"Doesn't count." Mike snorted, "She's too small and anyway we've all see your sisters'!" Pretending anger and seeing a way to divert the question Dave launched himself at Mike and they rolled over down the banking.
We all followed and sat on Dave who had ended up beneath Mike. "Come on." Mike laughed pushing him easily away, "Who else?"
"Sue's." Dave said in quiet desperation.
We all burst out laughing, "Sue's? Sue hasn't got one. An' even if she has you've never seen it."
Gasping under our weight Dave continued with his lie. "I have too. Gerrof me."
"When?" We all asked simultaneously.
