Something Ive Been Meaning to Tell You

they were all going out in the boat in mixed-up turns, two boys and a girl, two girls and a boy, a girl and a boy, until things wereso confused it was impossible to tell whose turn came next, and nobody cared anyway. They went down the river—those who weren’t riding, running along the bank to keep up. They passed under two bridges, one iron, one cement. Once they saw a big carp just resting, it seemed to smile at them, in the bridge-shaded water. They did not know how far they had gone on the river, but things had changed—the water had got shallower, and the land flatter. Across an open field they saw a building that looked like a house, abandoned. They dragged the boat up on the bank and tied it and set out across the field.
    “That’s the old station,” Frank said. “That’s Pedder Station.” The others had heard this name but he was the one who knew, because his father was the station agent in town. He said that this was a station on a branch line that had been torn up, and that there had been a sawmill here, but a long time ago.
    Inside the station it was dark, cool. All the windows were broken. Glass lay in shards and in fairly big pieces on the floor. They walked around finding the larger pieces of glass and tramping on them, smashing them, it was like cracking ice on puddles. Some partitions were still in place, you could see where the ticket window had been. There was a bench lying on its side. People had been here, it looked as if people came here all the time, though it was so far from anywhere. Beer bottles and pop bottles were lying around, also cigarette packages, gum and candy wrappers, the paper from a loaf of bread. The walls were covered with dim and fresh pencil and chalk writings and carved with knives.
    I LOVE RONNIE COLES
    I WANT TO FUCK
    KILROY WAS HERE
    RONNIE COLES IS AN ASS-HOLE
    WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE?
    WAITING FOR A TRAIN
    DAWNA MARY-LOU BARBARA JOANNE
    It was exciting to be inside this large, dark, empty place, with the loud noise of breaking glass and their voices ringing back from the underside of the roof. They tipped the old beer bottles against their mouths. That reminded them that they were hungry and thirsty and they cleared a place in the middle of the floor and sat down and ate the lunch. They drank the pop just as it was, lukewarm. They ate everything there was and licked the smears of peanut butter and jam off the bread-paper in which the sandwiches had been wrapped.
    They played Truth or Dare.
    “I dare you to write on the wall, I am a Stupid Ass, and sign your name.”
    “Tell the truth—what is the worst lie you ever told?”
    “Did you ever wet the bed?”
    “Did you ever dream you were walking down the street without any clothes on?”
    “I dare you to go outside and pee on the railway sign.”
    It was Frank who had to do that. They could not see him, even his back, but they knew he did it, they heard the hissing sound of his pee. They all sat still, amazed, unable to think of what the next dare would be.
    “I dare everybody,” said Frank from the doorway, “I dare—Everybody.”
    “What?”
    “Take off all our clothes.”
    Eva and Carol screamed.
    “Anybody who won’t do it has to walk—has to
crawl
—around this floor on their hands and knees.”
    They were all quiet, till Eva said, almost complacently, “What first?”
    “Shoes and socks.”
    “Then we have to go outside, there’s too much glass here.”
    They pulled off their shoes and socks in the doorway,in the sudden blinding sun. The field before them was bright as water. They ran across where the tracks used to go.
    “That’s enough, that’s enough,” said Carol. “Watch out for thistles!”
    “Tops! Everybody take off their tops!”
    “I won’t! We won’t, will we, Eva?”
    But Eva was whirling round and round in the sun where the track used to be. “I don’t care, I don’t care! Truth or Dare! Truth or Dare!”
    She unbuttoned her blouse as she whirled, as if she didn’t know what her hand was doing, she flung it off.
    Carol took off hers. “I wouldn’t have done it, if you hadn’t!”
    “Bottoms!”
    Nobody said a word this time, they all bent and stripped themselves. Eva, naked first, started running across the field, and then all the others ran, all five of them running bare through the knee-high hot grass, running towards the river. Not caring now about being caught but in fact leaping and yelling to call attention to themselves, if there was anybody to hear