HIS CLOSEST SUMMER FRIEND was Robert, who was thoughtful and plump and had a twin sister, who was thin and boyish and the only girl who could beat him up. Like most of his friends Robert was older than he. Robert helped him learn to swim, taught him tennis and chess, and resisted others who wanted to exclude him from games because of his age. Robert did things he thought admirable but odd, like keeping a twice-daily record of home barometer readings and using only one piece of toilet paper after defecating. Robert had a strong sense of right and wrong and was accepted as a leader because of it. One day when he and Robert were taking turns shooting Robert’s BB gun on the beach Robert killed a sea gull. Robert made him promise not to tell anyone (and for a long time he didn’t). As Robert got better at chess he got better, but he could not beat Robert. Then one day at midgame he saw more future moves than usual and won. Robert challenged him to another game, which he also won. He thought Robert would be pleased, but Robert was angry and silent. He thought he would never lose to Robert again, but the next day Robert beat him three times. His second closest summer friend was James, who was not so good at chess as Robert but whom he could not beat. One day Robert suggested a trick: the next time he played James, Robert would sit behind him as a spectator; he would pass his hand slowly over the board, and when it was nearest to the piece to move Robert would tap him on the back. He would then test the piece in the available squares, and at the right one Robert would tap him again. In this way he beat James game after game for a week. James gave chess up and would not even watch when he and Robert played thereafter. Robert felt bad about the trick and tried to lure James back but couldn’t. When he was twelve and Robert fifteen they began to discuss religion. Robert believed in God, whereas he himself had doubts. He could not convince Robert of his viewpoint even though Robert could not answer his arguments. They also talked about sex: Robert took the Catholic line that all sex outside marriage and not for procreation was wrong. He more and more doubted this, and they finally dropped the subject. One day on the beach James’s sister Sue, a faintly pretty girl, asked him to find out what Robert thought of her. She said she cared for Robert but suspected that Robert did not care for her, because her breath was bad. He said he would talk to Robert but also he would test her breath there and then. She blew into his face; her breath was sweet. He got an erection and, excusing himself, went into the ocean and stayed there until the erection was gone. He asked Robert about Sue, and Robert said he liked her. He reported this to Sue, and that was the last he heard of it. During the summer between Robert’s junior and senior high school years Robert kept to himself, took walks alone along the shore, didn’t go to the movies or beach parties or on the evening visit to the ice cream parlor. The next summer, after Robert’s graduation, Robert announced that in the fall he would be entering the priesthood. Robert was friendlier then, but he and the others were uncomfortable now that they knew Robert was to become a priest. One day when they were sitting in the shade of Robert’s bungalow playing word games those opposite Robert saw that one of Robert’s testicles was exposed, caught between leg and bathing suit. At a covert conference on the far side of the bungalow Sue was picked to explain the situation to Robert. She whispered into Robert’s ear; Robert disappeared into his bungalow and was not seen for two days. When the war started, everyone but Robert went into the service. After the war Robert was sent to the Philippines to teach. He heard from his mother that Robert had not wanted to go abroad. He also heard that Robert had become principal of a Philippine school; he was not surprised, because Robert had always struck everyone as a born leader. Eventually Robert was returned to the States. When Robert was thirty-nine, he thirty-six, married, with two children, he had dinner with Robert. It was the first time he had seen Robert since Robert became a priest. He was taken aback at how small and passive Robert was and at the homey quality of Robert’s speech; he remembered Robert as sure, severe, and elegant. In his first novel, for reasons he did not understand, he represented Robert as a comic, neuter character. Since then he has avoided meeting Robert. Robert is now the chaplain in a local prison, and through bits of information he understands that Robert has a drinking problem. Robert’s twin sister, he will learn, is happy as a Madam of the Sacred Heart and is the author of influential papers on the teaching of mathematics. Sue will die in a public institution after schizophrenic disintegration. He will wonder if she and Robert would have done better had they gotten together and will decide no.