By the time the sun re-emerged the caterpillar had crawled across the sidewalk and into the grass—leaving us more than a little red-faced, not to mention uncertain as to what had just happened. Mostly, I think, we were just relieved.
“I couldn’t do it,” said Kevin wistfully, “Not with the kid here.”
I raised my eyebrows and looked at him, as if to say: f*****g what, dude?
He started to smile but caught it.
Orley elbowed me. “Hey, hey, why didn’t you?” He looked at me earnestly, calmly—as though he were all ears, all understanding. Then he deadpanned, “It was the gay thing, wasn’t it?”
And then they both laughed, falling about on the grass, even as I ignored them, thinking about it.
“I don’t know. It just ... it felt like ...” I looked at them in the sun. “Like we would be killing our
