"What 'd you want to do?" asked Pete the oldest of the four boys.

 

"I don't know. You're the smart one going into the sixth grade." Dan the skinny, blond said..

 

Pete stood up, grabbed an apple from a low hanging branch, took a bite and tossed it at his younger brother, Ed.

 

"What's that for? Why did you hit me with that apple?" Ed stood up and lunged at Pete who sidestepped and laughed at the smaller boy who found himself crashing into the trunk of the old apple tree.

 

"Okay guys, cool it," I said. "We got five days left before school starts. Let's have some fun." I turned and looked at Pete. "Is fifth grade hard? Maybe we should study."

 

"Shut the hell up." A chorus of voices yelled at me. 

 

"Studying sucks. Jim, you must be nuts," Dan said.

 

"Fifth grade is okay if you get old lady Thompson for math," Pete said. "She leaves her grading book open on her desk. You can change your grade. But don't go from a D to an A. D to C is okay."

 

"We can raid old man Carter's garden. I bet there's still some good tomatoes," Ed said as he threw his jack knife into the grass and buried the blade into the dirt.

 

"No, nothing left in that garden," I said. "Checked it out this morning. Looks like he's getting ready to till it over for the winter."

 

Pete, sitting Indian style and having a huge smile covering his tanned face said, "We can sneak over to Rosemary's house and see if she's out back in her bikini. She's almost fifteen and looking cute."

 

"Get real, Pete, girls?" Ed said. "We get caught and we'll spend the last few days of summer in our rooms." He walked around the tree kicking rotten apples that have fallen as he mumbled something under his breath. It sounded like girls-right.

 

"Hey." I jumped up and pointed across the field to the next neighborhood. "Mr. Lewis has two big Plum trees in the back yard and I bet they need picking." I looked at Pete and Dan. Ed was still walking in circles. "We can raid one tree and have enough plums until school starts."

 

Pete, his eyes getting wide said, "That sounds good. He doesn't know who we are so he can't call our parents. I do like plums." He looked at Ed still walking around. "Will you stop that crap." He pushed him to stop.

 

"Hey," Ed said. "I'm all in. Dan's the fastest, he can run accros the field and check the place out."

 

We all discuss on how to attack the plum tree while Dan crossed the field and reconed the house and backyard.

 

An hour later back under the apple tree with our shirts holding our loot of purple plums, we claimed victory. 

 

"Boy, I thought for sure that hound dog was goin' to get me," Ed said.

 

"Yeah Dan. How come you didn't tell us about the dog?" asked Pete.

 

"Didn't see the mutt. We got away right?"

 

"Yeah, we did good," I said.