Page:Jay Little - Maybe—Tomorrow.pdf/131

 classrooms bigger and cooler. It wasn't as big as it is today. When I started there, those side wings just went up to the center building. We never even had a gym then."

"They've sure got a nice one now."

"You know it," Gaylord admitted.

"I never was around so many naked kids … Sure's a big class … I was a little embarrassed standing there naked. Lot different from swimming naked in a creek."

I'd like to see you naked, Gaylord thought again. I shouldn't but I would like to. This he kept to himself but he did say, "I'm still embarrassed."

Rogers said, "Hell, the first day I didn't know whether to take my clothes off or not." Then sheepishly, "I didn't even have any trunks."

"What did you do, go naked?"

"Nooo … I wore my shorts. Lucky I had those on, huh?"

You are lucky, Gaylord thought … you're fortunate without even knowing it … I wish I were like you. They passed under a metal sign extended across the road. Gaylord read the lettering: "You are now leaving Cotton, Texas. Come back again real soon." He turned to Rogers. "Isn't that silly? 'Come back real soon.' Isn't that something?"

"Does sound silly." He looked at Gaylord. "Must have been a farmer that worded that sign. They're hicks … I know … I was one. Still am."

"You're not either. I think you're swell."

He uttered the words so seriously and with so much force that Rogers was startled.

"That's right. I'm a city dude now, ain't I?"

"You sure are."

Rogers frowned, and, holding his nose, asked, "What's that awful smell, Gay?"

"It's that darn sewage plant over there." He pointed left to a flat white slab, with a small building at one side.

"Where?"

"See, over there between those Negro shacks. I feel sorry for those poor Negroes living so close to it." 121