I thought I would post a little more of the book, Coy, Jr.  This is the first part of Chapter 6, when Coy takes up where he left off with Ilene Crabtree.  Keep in mind that Coy is only 15 years old and growing up in a time when there wasn't a steady stream of sexual inuendos flowing through the TV, movies and tabloid magazines.  He is truly clueless when it comes to girls.

Chapter 6.  Ilene
  
    It was a blistering hot Monday afternoon and me and Woody had caught a ride to the parts place with Uncle Lonnie, who was headed over to Goat Run to look at some rabbits.  We picked up some master links and half links for Woody’s mini-bike’s chain and started to walk back home.  Our trip was going to take us right past Ilene Crabtree’s house, which I can’t claim to be by accident.  Before I left the house I made double sure all the swelling had gone out of my face.  The last thing I needed was to have to explain that I had an abusive Mama.

    Ever since that day when Ilene asked me to the school dance, I knew what a moth felt like being drawn to a flame.  I was absolutely scared to death, but hoped to catch a glimpse of her anytime I was in town.  When we got there, she was sitting out on the front porch steps.
    “There’s ol’ Ilene Crabtree, Coy, Jr.  You gonna say hi?”  Woody was grinning like a possum eating grapes and steadily elbowing me in the side.

    “Of course I’m going to say hi.  But you got to act right.  Promise you will.”  I didn’t trust Woody any farther than I could throw him.  If anybody could say the wrong thing, it was Woody.

    When we got a little closer, she put one hand above her eyes to block out the sun and waved at us with the other.  One minute later we were sitting on the Crabtree’s front porch talking about school and stuff with Ilene.  She was telling us about one of the teachers fussing at somebody, but I wasn’t really listening.  I was looking at her and thinking.  And I’ve got to say, this was the first time I had ever thought about stuff like this.  The more I looked at her, the more I realized how little attention I had ever paid her.  Her dark brown hair was pulled back away from her face by a wide, blue hairband.  Her hair fell softly down her back, to just below her shoulders.  It was so straight and neat, not a single hair sticking out, but it didn’t really look fixed or nothing.  It was just pretty and shiny.  I could tell it smelled good just by looking at it.  Whenever she moved her head a ripple would go through her hair like when a rock hits pond water.  Her brown eyes were always kinda half shut, but would fly wide open every now and then when she said something important or surprising.  She had a hint of a giggle in her voice most of the time.  I counted seventeen little freckles on her cheeks and nose.  They seemed to stand out since she had been in the sun for a while.  And her teeth were as straight as any I had ever seen, even on TV.  Her lips were pink and smooth, not wrinkled like I always thought lips were supposed to be. You could see that she had pierced ears, but she wasn’t wearing any earrings.  The lobes of her ears looked like they would be as soft as a marshmallow.  I wanted to reach over and pinch them.  I started looking at the curve of her neck.  It was graceful the way it seemed to flow down to her shoulders. I had seen her nearly every school day since I could remember and some way, some how, I just didn’t notice that she was so attractive.  And then I started thinking about the fact that I had never thought of anybody as being beautiful unless somebody else did too.  Everybody thought Wanda Jo Suggs was pretty.  But nobody had ever mentioned the fact that Ilene Crabtree was downright fine.
    My study was interrupted by a screeching sound coming from inside the house.  It was a familiar sound, but I couldn’t put my finger on just where I had heard it before.  Woody had jumped up and was cocking his head side to side to get a better listen.  He had a look on his face like somebody had asked him the square root of seven thousand.  The screeching kept on and lured Woody all the way over to an open window.
    “Ilene, what on earth is making that racket?” Woody asked, “Have you got a baby brother or something?”
    “Woody, that doesn’t sound like a baby brother to me.  It kinda sounded like a baby pig.” I said without considering that it might actually be a baby brother or something.
    “Yeah, Woody.  I guess you could say it’s my baby brother.   That’s Cromwell.” Ilene was beginning to frown a little.

    “Cromwell?  You got a brother named Cromwell?  Coy don’t we got some Cromwells in our family?” Woody was as serious as he could be.

    “Naw, Woody.  I don’t know of any…” I was getting embarrassed because I just called her brother a pig.
    “I’ll bet you don’t have a Cromwell like our Cromwell.” You could see Ilene was not happy about this Cromwell fellow at all.  The screeching had stopped and Ilene’s big sister Rhonda walked out the front door with something sitting up on her shoulder.  I did a double take then realized it was a MONKEY!  Woody had stopped dead in his tracks.  The monkey wasn’t making a sound.  It was sitting there staring at Woody.  And Woody was doing the same thing.  The monkey leaned over and put his little hands further out on Rhonda’s shoulder, looking at Woody and sniffing the air.  Woody started to slowly move around Rhonda, never breaking eye contact with the monkey.  Woody and that monkey were just like two dogs meeting for the first time.  I was waiting on one of them to sniff the other one’s back end.
    “Fellows, meet Lord Oliver Cromwell,” Rhonda introduced him like he was guest speaker at the Lion’s Club.  Then, I swear that monkey smiled.  Never being one easily fooled by false gestures of friendship, Woody was still wary of him, but was beginning to move a little easier.
    “Can I touch him?”  Woody whispered, never taking his eyes off of Cromwell.
    “Sure.  Just be easy with him,” Rhonda cautioned as she wrapped his leash around her fingers a couple of more times.
    With his pointing finger extended, Woody slowly moved his arm toward Cromwell.  Cromwell was smiling again as Woody got closer.  Woody was smiling, too.  And then, like a dadgum cobra, that monkey’s fangs popped out and he latched onto Woody’s finger.  He grabbed a hold to Woody’s arm with his hands and feet while wrapping his tail around him and stayed clamped down on his finger.
    Rhonda had a look of panic on her face as she desperately tried to peel the monkey’s hands away from Woody’s arm.  Woody was standing on his tiptoes showing his teeth to Cromwell and making a hissing noise.  They must have communicated on some primal basis, because Cromwell let out a blood-curdling screech and leapt onto Rhonda’s head.  I could tell things were getting under control now because you could see it on the girls’ faces.  It must be normal for him to sit on her head.
    Woody was still holding his finger out.  He didn’t say a word, just changed his hissing sound to an inward sucking noise.  Blood was dripping off his finger and splattering onto the gray boards of the porch floor.
    "Are you okay?  We need to clean that bite right away and put some ointment on it,” Rhonda said as she reached above her head and stroked Cromwell.  “He’s had shots…he doesn’t have any diseases.”  Rhonda reassured as she reached out with her free hand and took Woody’s arm.  Woody had an expression of total astonishment on his face, he would look at Rhonda and then look at his finger.  Rhonda, then his finger again.
    Rhonda walked over to the screen door, Cromwell on her head and leading Woody by the arm.  Opening the door, they disappeared into the darkness of the house, Rhonda apologizing to Woody and scolding Cromwell in baby talk, Woody never saying a word.
    “Daddy said if he bit one more person, he was gonna hafta go.  Rhonda is going to be very upset.  That monkey is like a baby to her.”  I could tell Ilene was worried about the situation.
    “Then don’t tell your father.  It’s just Woody.  I promise he’s been bit by worse things than a monkey.  And in worse places for sure.”  We started laughing and sat back down on the steps.  Things got quiet as I leaned back and propped my elbows on the next step up.  I looked out into the yard, not really focusing on anything, just feeling uneasiness creeping up on me.  Ilene was sitting a step below me facing toward the yard, bent a little at the waist, her arms crossed and on her knees.  I looked down at her, noticing how small her waist was and how neatly her shirt was tucked into her jeans.  She turned her head and looked over her shoulder at me.  I quickly darted my eyes upward then back down to her face, trying to be nonchalant.
    “What are you looking at?” she said teasingly with a grin on her face.
    “I’m sorry.  I didn’t…I wasn’t…I mean I…” words stumbled out of my mouth as I grew increasingly red.
    “Yes you were.  You were looking at me, weren’t you?” she continued to grin, never taking her eyes off of my face.  I was completely lost at that moment with no idea of what the right answer might be.  This was uncharted territory.
    “Yes, I was looking at you.”
    “Why?” The word lingered on her lips.  I could feel the blood rushing to my face and ears.  Should I make up something, tell her she had a bug on her back, tell her she sat in something, or had a hole in her shirt?  I almost jumped up and ran.  Then she leaned back, put one hand on my knee, the other on the step and brought herself up beside me.
    “Why were you looking at me, Coy?”
    “I like to look at you.” I said it, but it felt like somebody else did.  She was still smiling.
    “I like for you to look at me.  And I like looking at you, too.”  She gave my knee a squeeze and leaned over and kissed me on the cheek.  This was the greatest event in the recorded history of mankind.  I realized that I had been waiting my entire life for this moment and didn’t even know it.
    “Your eye looks a little puffy...have you been in a fight?”  Ilene was squinting one eye and kind of leaning back looking at my face.  I could tell she was comparing my eyes with one another.  Now I was going to have to explain how it happened and that’d be it.  Nobody wants to get involved with a bunch of rednecks like my family.
    “Uh...naw...I haven’t been in a fight.”  My first lie to Ilene.  I hated it.
    “It looks kind of swollen and a little dark underneath.”
    “Oh, I know.  It was from last week.  I stepped on a rake and it flew up and hit me!”  God, now I was using Woody’s lies.  I was gonna screw this whole thing up before I even got started.  Nobody with a half a grain of sense would believe that one.
    “Kinda like the Three Stooges, huh?”  Ilene grinned and poked me in the ribs with her finger.
    “Want to go to the picture show Friday night?”  I figured I better nip this thing in the bud.  This was a bold move, but I was on guard for the rug to get snatched out from under me at any moment.
    “Sure.  That’d be fun.” She said and I could have sworn she blew in my ear.
    “Okay.  Then you’ll meet me there?” This was getting easier as we went along.
    “How about you come over here and we’ll walk together.  About six-thirty?”  Ilene asked.
    “Yeah.  I’ll come over here.”  This was a piece of cake I thought to myself.  A big ol’ piece of cake.  In reality, she had me eating out of her hand and I didn’t want to stop.