Only This Summer
By Charles Matthias

	There was a new theater along Main street right across from Old Man Buster’s ice cream shop that Benny so loved stopping by on the hot summer days were it was all one could do to stop panting.  The theater had been part of the city works for some time, having been started before Benny was born and halted several times due to money troubles on the part of the contractors.  When it finally had been finished it had become quite the sensation about the little town of New Hampton.  Every week they had new serials to run: first Flash Gordon, now Tarzan.  And on Saturdays they had a double matinee with some of the latest sci-fi thrillers like “The Brain from Outer Space” or Benny’s favorite, “The Thing”.
	His parents did not share his fascination with monsters from other worlds, but they did join the enthusiastic young otter at the theater to watch the news reels Sunday after Mass.   Most of them were boring, but they did show some fascinating footage of explosions and soldiers every now and then.  Many times his mother would point her webbed paws at the screen and whisper, “Is that Michael?”.  But it never was.  Benny always wondered why his mother thought they would see his older brother on the movie screen.
	Michael was eight years his senior, and had left the home by the small creek only last summer.  Most of his friends had left New Hampton as well.  Their baseball team was now made up of all the women.  Benny and his friends loved to go watch the games on pleasant weekday afternoons eating hot dogs and chips.  It was always a fun adventure to see if they could sneak into the locker rooms and run away with some of the girls’ panties.  
	Most of the time, when he wasn’t slurping up some nice chocolate fudge at Buster’s or being thrilled at the theater, he was with his friends out in the creek swimming.  The creek wound down through the hills out back of town, and there were many places where it pooled before continuing its rush towards the sea.  They all enjoyed frolicking away many a day in those large pools devising contests and games of all sorts.
	One of the smaller otters, Will, came up with a really great way to test one’s courage.  One of the longer and deeper pools in the creek was flanked along one side by a large, steep, rocky hill.  Will had managed to sneak a long cord of rope out of his father’s boat, and tied one end to a sturdy overhanging birch.  Tying the other end of the rope into a knot, Will walked back from the edge of the cliff as far as the rope would allow, then ran as fast as he could, jumping off the cliff side, and letting himself fly out as far as possible while still clutching the rope.  When it snapped taut, Will let go, and plunged into the watery depths, splashing all of the others who watched in amazement.
	Benny and his friends spent hours jumping from the cliff on the rope, swinging out as far as they could go before dropping down themselves.  It was a real thrill, and Benny remembered so many times the fear he’d felt as he let go of the rope and hung in the empty air for what felt like the longest second of his life.  And then the rush of water as he splashed down, the froth surging all over his fur.  There was nothing more exhilarating then that breath of air as he popped back up to the surface, eyes bright and whiskers all bristled in his excitement.
	They invented even more exotic games based on the rope, getting a second and tying it off to another nearby birch tree, and then testing who could jump the farthest.  In some ways, that was even more fun, because they pushed themselves as far as they could go, always eyeing the rocks on the other side of the gully warily.  But they ran and jumped as far out as they could each time.  Benny did his best, pumping is legs and arms with each run, but he was never able to beat the unspoken leader of their little club, Jake.
	Jake was a bit older than the rest, taller and broader of shoulder too, and his father always tried to get him to work in his auto shop.  Jake enjoyed fiddling with the car, but every chance he got he was hanging out with Benny, Will, and the rest, and leading them in all sorts of mischief.  It was Jake who snatched the girls’ panties from the locker room the one time they managed to slip past the guards – the rest of them were too excited or scared to even step past the doorway.  It was also Jake that took the heat for them when they TPed that old hag Mrs. Brinkley’s place.  He was the best friend they had.
	It was a crazy time in the lives of these kids, what with all the news, and their older brothers gone off to the other side of the world.  Swimming, fishing, and general horseplay occupied their days during the summer.  It wasn’t always like that.  In summers past, Benny’s parents kept him inside during the morning, having him read and do math and science and study geography and history.  Michael would be out there in the fisheries with his Dad scaling, cleaning, preparing, and packaging fish all day long.  For some reason, none of the old rules applied anymore, and his parents let him run free with the other young otters all summer long.
	They got letters from Michael every once in a while, and it was always a big deal at his place.  His mother would gather him up and they would all sit around the table as his dad would slowly read his brother’s words. Benny didn’t understand most of it; there were so many names he didn’t recognize and terms that made no sense like “deploy”, “bivouac”, and “shell-shock”.  His mother always seemed to cry after the letters were finished, and his father wouldn’t say anything at all.  Benny found it was best just to leave them alone.  He wondered what his brother was up to, wandering around those jungles that he talked about, looking out for that Charlie fellow.  To young ears, it all sounded very exciting.
	The letters stopped coming sometime in July, and so Benny’s mother grew even more concerned and visibly upset.  Benny spent more and more time in the company of Jake and the other otters and less time with his parents.  The watering hole with the cliff jump became intimately familiar to them as they would lazily swim back and forth, seeing who was the fastest, or who could stay down the longest, or any other number of childhood games.  Sometimes they would relax and just talk.  Other times they would go exploring up in the hills even further, trying to find more new pools.
	Once again, it was Will who invented another game for them.  Along a certain stretch of the creek the water flowed pretty quickly, and would carry them along if they did not resist.  Large slick rocks abounded throughout the curvy pass, and Will discovered that it was quite exciting to just float down stream through the rapids trying to touch as many of the big rocks as possible without once swimming with his tail.  
	They all quickly became addicted to the game, until Joey managed to get twisted about and bruised his head on one of the larger rocks.  Benny and Jake helped the younger otter get home, and they told his parents what had happened.  Benny expected to get a scolding from his own parents, but received not even a word.  Jake told him that any other summer they would have been punished, but not this one.
	One day in the middle of July, some strange visitors passed through town.  Wolves all of them, and dressed in bizarre clothes and playing strange music from their colorful convertible, which they drove through town waving a circular sign with an inverted “Y” inscribed in it as well as slogans promoting peace.  Benny’s parents warned him not to talk to the strangers, but while they were out at the pool, one of the wolves found them playing there.
	“Don’t you kids know what’s going on out there?” the grey-furred wolf accosted them when it reached the shore, keeping clear of the refreshing water.  It had a strange odor about it, and a wine bottle in one paw.
	“Yeah,” Jake called back to it, taking the initiative, “you stink!” Jake splashed his paws in the water, getting the cringing wolf wet. It stepped back further from the side of the pool.  
	The wolf growled, throwing up his arms. “No, the war you idiots.  Don’t you know that the government has taken your older brothers and sent them to kill innocent people?”
	Jake suddenly got very stiff and his face was set in a snarl.  His sleek features became very hard, and he splashed the wolf with water again. “Go away you!  Don’t you dare talk about my brother like that!”
	“Hah, your brother’s a killer!” the wolf gargled, wobbling unsteadily.
	“I said go away.” Jake turned his back on the wolf, and began swimming off towards the other end of the pool.  The wolf continued shouting after him, but did not follow when they all climbed up the other beach and headed up to the other creek further upstream.  Benny wondered just what that was all about, but Jake did not want to talk about it.  So instead they raced each other downstream, and the whole incident was forgotten. 
	The wolves left New Hampton the next day, and nobody in the town talked about them ever again.  It was the sort of thing that happens in small towns; unpleasant outsiders were not discussed because people didn’t want to remember them.  Benny kept seeing the image of Jake going cold at the wolf’s words every now and then, especially when they watched the news reels at the theater.  His mother was even more desperate, pointing at any otter that passed on the screen, hoping that it was his brother Michael.
	It never was.
	He tried asking his mother what was wrong, but she always shoed him away, hiding the tears behind her webbed paws.  Benny’s father also seemed rather distant, and when he failed to take him out fishing together, Benny knew something was wrong.  But there was nothing in the world that parents couldn’t fix, right?
	Still, they played and frolicked as kids will and do.  Baseball was certainly the thing to watch in the evenings, even if it was all the older girls playing.  However, it wasn’t until one night in late July when Jake didn’t show up that he began to worry.  Will had enough money to get them in, but it just wasn’t the same without Jake there to lead them on in cheers and strange catcalls and other mischief. It just wasn’t the same thing.
	Benny went to Jake’s place the next day, and found him working in his father’s garage.  Jake was beating a metal siding into shape, each hammer strike sending sparks radiating about the concrete floor.  Jake nodded when he looked up, his whiskers drooping at the sight of his friend Benny.
	“Where were you Jake?” Benny asked as he came into the garage. “We missed you at last night’s game.”
	“I had to do stuff for my Dad,” Jake replied. “He couldn’t do the work.”
	“Why not?”
	“I’d rather not talk about it.” Jake continued hammering away at the metal slab as Benny stood there not sure what to say.  He peered into the engine compartment, staring at all the gizmos and wires and tubes.  He waited there, knowing that eventually, Jake would come around.
	“Only this summer,” Jake murmured to himself as he examined the metal plate. “Only this summer.”
	“Why only this summer?” Benny asked quickly.
	“Because our parents don’t want us growing up to be men yet.  They want us to stay kids, unlike our older brothers.  They’re afraid that if we grow up, we’ll leave them and then die in some foreign land.” Jake sounded quite distraught.  Benny had never seen anybody like this.  Even when he had broken his leg two years ago and his mother had been a nervous wreck, she’d never been this sad.
	“Because of our brothers?”
	“Yes.”
	“Because we become killers when we grow up to be big otters?” Benny asked, remembering the words of the lupine.
	Jake dropped the hammer with a clatter and got a fierce look in his dark eyes. “Never say that!  Our brothers are heroes.  They are heroes for all of us.  You should be proud to have a brother like Michael.  I’m proud to have had a brother...” his voice trailed off and he sank back against the car resting his thick arm against the frame.
	“Jake? Are you okay?”
	He nodded. “I’ll be fine.”
	Benny stood there in the garage with the sinking sun burning up the afternoon about him.  Though he did not understand everything that had been said, he knew what his friend needed.  He looked down at his good dear friend for many minutes before patting him on the shoulder. “Hey, want to go for some ice cream at Buster’s?”
	Jake looked up, and his whiskers twitched in amusement. “Sure.” Benny and Jake then scampered off into town and had two big waffle cones of chocolate smeared with nuts and whip cream.  It was a treat of summer.  And for the rest of that afternoon, Jake was more like himself, laughing and cracking jokes, and then suggesting all sorts of mischief they could get into as the afternoon wore on.
	Spending all one’s lazy summer days out by the pond or in the theater tended to make it move faster than one realized.  August was already here, and with it brought another surprise.  A letter arrived one day that left his mother in tears for hours.  When Benny had come in seeing her like that, and had asked what was wrong, she had just picked him up and hugged him for the longest time.
	It wasn’t until his father got home that evening that the answer was made known to him.  In a shaking voice his father announced after reading the letter that had been in his mother’s hands. “We regret to inform you that your son, Michael Lansing was injured during combat.  He is in the best of care and will be returning to you as soon as he recovers from his injuries.” 
	His older brother Michael was coming home.
	The rest of August became a blur to Benny as his home became quite a festival, with his mother going between euphoria and worry in the space of a heartbeat.  His father spent a good deal of time with him, and they no longer watched the news reels after Mass anymore.  Even his friends had heard the news and seemed excited about it.  Jake was the only one who remained distant among all of them.
	When the train came pulling only a few days from September, most of the town was there to watch as many of their boys came home.  Michael, injured in combat, was greeted with special warmth.  Benny jumped into his older brother’s arms, hugging his fur close.  All four of them were close and crying and cheering for joy for so long.  Benny did not see Jake or his parents there at the train station that day.
	The next few days were spent at home as his mother pampered Michael and made him recount all of the tales from the war.  Benny sat in rapt fascination at the adventures described, even some of his friends came over to hear Michael’s stories.
	It was a week before school started up again, and summer was winding down.  Benny was showing Michael all of the things that he had done, including the rope swings into the lake and the creek that they swam down, as well as where Jake had hidden the girls’ panties.  While they were pausing at the swimming hole, Benny made sure to say hi to all of his friends.
	However, one of them came swimming up out of the lake, and rushed up to Michael to stand there, wide-eyed and shivering. Michael edged backwards, his hand dropping to his side to reach for something that wasn’t there, and then with a strange look on his snout, stood erect, his tail swatting Benny in the side accidentally.  Benny stared at the large bulky figure of Jake quivering before Michael. 
	“Michael Lansing, did my brother die like a hero?  Did he die fighting bravely?” Jake asked in a hoarse whisper.
	Michael starred down at the smaller otter, his face blanching at the words.  Benny stared back between the two and then at the weak form of his friend, noting the need and the urgency in his words and posture.  The jaunts and barbs of a foolish wolf were still there embedded in his flesh, pulling and tugging at him, causing unceasing pain.
	Finally, his older brother answered in a strong voice. “Yes, Jake.  Your brother did die a hero.  He saved us all.  You should be proud of him.”
	Jake stood up taller, and Michael patted him on the head with his webbed paw, rubbing at the fur. “I am proud, sir.  I am very proud of him.” Jake’s eyes brightened and then he jumped back in the water, and enjoyed the last of the day.  Benny couldn’t help but feel like it was the best summer he’d ever had.