Sebastion's Folly

I had seen my cousin in the early part of the summer and we'd had a fantastic couple of adventures. One at his rowing teams regatta and one later that night at the celebration sleep over at his folks place. It was pretty clear that Tim was taking our relationship to a whole new level than it had ever been before. We'd been close, as cousins, but we only saw each other in the summer because we lived in completely different areas of the country.   My family had a summer home up north, on the Great Lakes, and he didn't live too far from there so he, and his family, would come up to visit for a long weekend sometimes. It was the weekend after the fourth of July - his team, his boys eight especially, had a really great outing during the 4th of July regatta and they got the next weekend off. So they, his family,  came to our summer place.  Bobby was a good friend of mine from out west. He was up at the same time and I was looking forward to having him and Timmy meet each o...

It was late afternoon by the time the regatta was over. Timmy's team had loaded their boats and equipment on the trailer and into the vans and the medals and trophies had all been handed out.  Timmy's eight took gold but the team was a distant third overall - good enough for them to pick up a team trophy and be happy. Last years squad was fifth overall and the eight was a distant fourth.  Later on we all reconvened at Timmy's folks place. Eight rowers and a coxswain and four "others" - myself and three boys who helped cary equipment earlier. So thirteen 12 and 13 year old boys - left pretty much to ourselves in the pool house while Tim's folks went out to a restaurant and our kid brothers had their own sleepover in the house. The housekeeper, Kay, was the only "adult" person around and I think she was just there to keep the house from burning down.  When I took my overnight bag to the back Tim greeted me. A big kiss on the lips and a hug. I guessed t...

 My brother and I looked like brothers only he was, clearly, a couple years younger than myself. My cousin Timmy and I were the same age and we looked like twins.  We'd known each other from afar for many years. He lived in Ohio and I lived in Texas and we'd only see each other during short visits in the summer - when my family would travel north to our summer home.  Timmy went to the same school my father went to and he was rowing there also. It made me horribly jealous because rowing was just a summer activity for me and, of course, Timmy was living the family heritage and I could only read about it, hear about it and watch it from afar.  None the less we liked each other a lot. One summer we traveled through town and Timmy's rowing team had a regatta downtown. We got up early and went down to the boathouse and watched the team warm up and prep the boats. They won the first heat easily and then the second was close to start but they pulled away about halfway throug...