But none of that mattered. In Cabrillo Elementary, I was the celebrity. The other kids sat around and listened to all the stories I told them about the horrifying things that went on in that spooky old house. No one dared call me a liar because no one else wanted to spend a night there to disprove any of it.
From that time on, Sally had a strange expression on her face whenever she looked at me. With maturity and hindsight I can interpret it now. Had we been just a couple of years older we would probably have swapped one another our virginities. But that didn’t happen to twelve–year–olds in white, middle–class Santa Barbara in those days. And anyway, we didn’t get the chance. Her family moved from Santa Barbara that next summer. I never saw her again.
***
What Great Truth did I learn th
