When they were done smoking, Leon smothered the small fire he had built, and they tapped out their pipes, cleaning the bowls with fresh leaves. They checked their bait, and Leon replaced his, finding that most of the worm had been nibbled off the hook while they smoked. Then both stuck their poles firmly into the ground and slouched down again on the creekbank a few yards apart.

Hunger told her to go, and by now Theresa would be wondering where she had got off to. She’d have to make up a story—not too much of one, the shorter the better, and the more likely it would be accepted as true. Still she sat there, as if she knew that as soon as she took leave, something interesting would happen.

As casually as he might reach for pipe and tobacco, Leon unbuttoned the front of his trousers and rested his hand inside a few seconds before drawing out his dick. Shaking it to erection was a matter of seconds. He stared down at it seriously and pulled the foreskin up over the head. When he let it go, the head throbbed and bobbed like a creature separate. He tapped the stiff thing from side to side and back and forth, then let it alone to arch and subside.

Clovis watched unblinking, wondering what would happen next. Glancing at his companion, Floyd did not change expression. He too watched with as serious a face as Leon’s. Then he undid his lower buttons and brought out his own dick. It was already hard. Clovis stared first at one, then the other.

Looking every few seconds at each other’s actions, but not looking into each other’s face, the boys began to masturbate.

The impulse Clovis had was to step out and show herself, to say, “You boys don’t have to do none of that, for here I am.” But the automatic reserve and consideration animals accord each other’s sexuality kept her where she was. She boiled inside. She trembled and took hold of the log on both sides of her seat. She hated them! How could they do that and leave her out?

Common sense reminded her they did not know she was there and available, but she let her passionate resentment of what they were doing blaze away and consume her mind.

It was not long before both boys achieved orgasm with involuntary, unchecked body twitching. After resting, they shook their limbering dicks matter-of-factly, and put them back inside their clothes. Leon wiped his hand dry with leaves, Floyd his with a bunch of Spanish moss he reached up and pulled from a tree limb.

What would they have done, Clovis asked herself furiously, if a fish had gone for their baited hooks while they were doing that? As her mind pictured the conflict, it became ridiculous, and she found relief in silent laughter.