By 9 pm a compelling silence, which seemed to scold our very thoughts, already lay over the sloping velveteen lawns, spotted with Big Wheels and footballs dropped at the call of suppertime. Ghostly white basketball backboards, with perfect untouched white nets, seemed to float above the driveways, which were spotless, with concrete the color of the moon.

"You ever think about our houses?" I mused. "I mean, all our houses," indicating with a sweep of my arm the entire neighborhood. "Sure, they're really nice houses, but - I mean, look at the yards - everything that goes into them. Do you think you ever want a house like this?"

"I don't care about a fancy house," said Brock. "I just want a nice, ordinary one, but with lots of cool things in it."

"Yeah, I'd get an awesome car first, instead of some huge-ass house." Billy said.

"And a boat," I added, "stuff like that. And a gym with a full basketball court."

"Or a swimming pool and a big hot tub. What's the point of having a great bigass house, just by itself?"

We walked abreast, at arm-length from each other, a wide, walking wall of mutually reassuring bravado. We each wore bright summer-colored t-shirts from Pat Magee's Surf Shop (with black and white checkerboard squares or broad diagonal patterns), O.P. corduroy shorts and either hightop two-tone Chuck Taylors or blue-and-black checkerboard Vans.

Cutting away from Pinnacle Road, we ran hunchbacked through a drainage tunnel inch-deep with stagnant rat-splash: why? Because it was a shortcut, our own discovered shortcut, and our conquistadorian minds rebelled against going the ordinary way - it would be giving in to dullness, habit, fear.

"Who would you draft if you got the first pick in the fantasy league? Magic or Dr. J?" Billy asked, his voice reverberating in the tunnel.

"Are you kidding? Those guys together aren't worth Larry Bird," I replied to the others' derisive laughs.

"Awww, man, Bird can't even dunk!"

"You can have your dunks, I'll take the championship - and your money!"

At last we emerged in the backyards of the houses on Dusky Thrush, thick with cedar, thorns and burrs, and scratched our way to the sidewalk, lined with windows flickering a blue TV glow.

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