Eddie felt a dusty taste in the air as the baseball thumped into his glove. The hot summer sun had dried up the mud that had filled the field a few weeks earlier, and as he ran to catch the ball, he had kicked a little cloud of dirt into the air. He grabbed the ball out of the glove with his other hand, and lobbed it back at his friend Mickie.

"Too short, again!" she cried as she lunged forward in vain to try to catch the poorly thrown ball. "Honestly, you really throw like a girl sometimes!"

Eddie winced at the comment, but mostly took it in stride. He wasn't that into baseball, or any sports for that matter, but he often played catch with his friend, because it was something she loved to do. Mickie, by contrast, was quite good at throwing, catching, running - anything to do with sports and fitness.

"And you throw like a boy," he replied, as her next pitch rifled straight at him.

"And that's a good thing. Right?"

"I guess so. Hey, let's go ride up to Paradise."

"Aw, don't you wanna keep playing catch?"

"I'm kinda bored with it," Eddie admitted, "I can't keep up with you!"

Mickie smiled at him. "Alright, sure, Paradise it is!" They both threw their mitts into their bike baskets, jumped on the bikes, and rode off together.

Growing up in a small rural midwest town in the 1970's meant young kids like Eddie Kettler and Mickie Waller had to find their own ways of having fun. American society in general had been going through great upheavals, but in places like Prairie Falls, it seemed like life was still stuck in an even earlier era. There just wasn't a whole lot for twelve year olds to do in the town, which consisted of barely fifteen hundred people, and now that school was out, the two friends had weeks of long empty days to fill. There was a public swimming pool, but that got old after awhile. And there was a baseball team, but Eddie wasn't interested, and it was only for boys, so that was out for Mickie too. So they created their own activities, like going to Paradise.

"Paradise" would have seemed like a very ill fitting name to any of their parents, but they loved hanging out in their secret hideaway. It was basically an old abandoned dump site, out past the edge of town, concealed by a maple grove and accessed by crawling through a culvert. Digging through the dirt on the banks of the creek yielded many treasures, like old pop bottles from decades past, decapitated dolls, and old faded magazines. Most of the girls Eddie knew would have turned up their noses at a place like this, but he'd known Mickie would appreciate it, tomboy that she was. And sure enough, it had become their favorite place to come to, just the two of them with the place to themselves, and no adults getting in their business.

"I feel like there's just nothing going on in this town all summer," Eddie lamented, swirling a stick in the mud as he dipped his bare feet into the creek. "It gets so boring - at least we have this place."

"Yeah, and this stupid town doesn't even have a girls' softball team," Mickie complained. "The only thing I have coming up is a week at camp, then it's back to Nothingville."

Eddie felt a twinge of sadness knowing Mickie would be gone for a week. He could hang out with his friend Danny, it would be fine, but he felt most comfortable around Mickie. She occupied a weird in-between space for him. He was reaching that age where he felt a little uncomfortable around girls. They were changing, becoming more alien, and he wasn't sure how to act around them anymore. And being around boys, he felt pressured to act with bravado, something that wasn't natural for him. But Mickie, she was just her own person. She just did her own thing, and he could exist alongside that without trying to be anyone or anything.

Mickie brushed the dark bangs of her shortish shaggy hair off her sweaty forehead. "It's getting so hot." She leaned back, knees up, looking up at the few clouds dotting the sky. "That cloud looks kinda like a princess."

Eddie peered up. "Oh yeah, I see it." The bottom part of it widened out like a gown, and the top part had swirls that looked like long flowing hair.

"Hey Eddie," Mickie looked over at him. "You ever wonder what it would be like to be a princess?"

Eddie felt a sudden unease, like he'd sat down on a thorn. "What?! Why would I think that?" he stammered.

"I don't know," Mickie answered matter-of-factly. "Little girls are always wondering about it, I just wondered if little boys ever did."

"That would be weird," Eddie blurted out a little too sharply. His face felt hot. Maybe it was just the sun.

"Well I'd rather be the king than the princess," Mickie mused as she threw a pebble into the water. "The king runs everything. The princess just sits around and looks pretty."

"I - I guess so, yeah. But what's wrong with looking pretty?" He asked hesitantly.

"Nothing, I guess. Just kinda boring." She flung another rock, this one flat, and it skipped along the narrow surface of the creek and plopped onto the opposite bank.

They sat silently for awhile, and Eddie discreetly examined Mickie's face as she continued to gaze upwards. Is she pretty? He'd never thought of her in that way before, really. But now that the thought was in his mind, he realized she was. There was a hint of a curve forming in her body, a roundness smoothing out some of her edges. Was she changing too, like the other girls? Would she become alien to him? He did not want that, and forced himself to turn away, to not look at her. He needed her to just stay the same, to just be Mickie.

Eddie turned his back to his friend and started digging deeper into the dirt, looking for treasures with his stick, trying to push away uncomfortable thoughts. A few inches down the stick hooked on something. He used his hands to dig around it, testing the stick periodically to see if the mystery item could be pulled out. Finally, with a little spray of mud, the stick yanked the prize from the dirt, and it flung through the air towards Mickie. It was a filthy old bra, caked and stained from years underground, and it flopped unceremoniously onto her head.

"Eww gross!!" she yelled, spitting out bits of dirt from the strap slapping against her mouth. Eddie laughed uproariously, the discomfort of a few moments ago fading completely. Mickie pulled the bra off her face and jumped up, making a beeline towards Eddie, who backed away, lost his balance, and careened backwards into the creek. Now it was Mickie's turn to laugh as she jumped on top of him and pulled his hands through the straps, so the cups rested on his chest. Eddie splashed water up into her face to get her to move off him, and struggled up onto his feet, slipping around in the muddy water as he untangled himself from the sopping soiled brassiere. Mickie was shrieking with delight.

Eddie steadied himself on the bank and then whipped the bra as far away as he could, before Mickie could create any more mischief with it. "You throw your bra like a girl too!" she chortled.

"Would you please shut up!" Eddie pulled off his soaked shirt and wrung out as much water as he could. "Let's go home, I'm all wet," he said in a pouty voice.

"Oh Eddie, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to make you mad," she said with genuine empathy, but still unable to stop chuckling. "We can go." They crawled back through the culvert and got back onto their bikes and headed towards town. Eddie was quiet, trying to sort through the unsettled feelings bobbing around inside of him. He felt like he'd dug up more than just an old bra out there, and he couldn't figure out quite what it was.