There was ferocious splashing. Gray water lifted in great white fans. Rennel stood up and walked up the bank, snorted and puffed, flexed his muscles. He flung his hair out of his eyes and posed on the bank, ran his hands over his body and strolled over to Laura. A thin gray film covered his body. It dripped from his hair.

There weren’t any other women. A few people talked in groups, but the rest sprawled, looking feeble in the sun. The bodies were thin and soft. Scholars’ asses flattened and pinched by the sticks.

Carlotta was like a red balloon floating in the water. I couldn’t see her face. Sam spoke to her with a serious expression. He reached out and touched her. She leaned into his hand, held it against her. She sat down on the bank and stretched her legs out. Sam patted Carlotta’s head in its shawl and climbed onto the bank. He came toward me, spoke to other people on the way. He stopped in front of me and sat down, smiling. His prick was big and soft. The matted mud in his pubic hair was beginning to stiffen.

“This is nice, isn’t it?”

I watched as Laura and Rennel stepped into the water and then dove at the same time. They surfaced and swam noisily toward the far bank. A race.

“When are you leaving for New York?”

“Day after tomorrow. I’ve been thinking when we come back we’ll have some money. I don’t know how much. It would be nice to go together with some real friends and buy a farm. With a big house that we could all live in and work together. With enough people we could be practically self-sufficient. Like Rennel could keep a car running and Laura knows about animals. That guy with the glasses near Carlotta is a fantastic electrician. He can set up a little generator with just a trickle of water. As long as we could get a place with a stream on it, he could manage it. He’s a history major.”

Sam’s eyes were bright. He looked anxiously at me.

“What about medical school?”

“Oh, well, I applied and they refused me. It was amazing. I got this three-page letter that was so polite! They talked about how their school were meant to supply India with the doctors they need and an American would naturally be drawn back to his fatherland. It really made me want to go there.” He nodded enthusiastically.

A thin man talking to the man in glasses yelled over his shoulder at Sam, “Was the theory of natural catastrophe Bentham or Malthus?”

Sam looked surprised. “I don’t remember!” He trotted over to them.