The Sandy River

He was floating down the river. He was alone. The inner tube was from a gas station off of the interstate. He was wearing cut-off jeans and high-top sneakers – Doctor Jays that were purchased during the previous school year. Later that day one of the sneakers would fill with water and sink to the bottom of the river.
There’s a bend in the Sandy River as it approaches Dodge Park. The river is shallow and rocky before it comes round the bend into the deep water under the bridge. The bridge is one section of the original Burnside Bridge in Portland.
The park sits under the bridge. A sunny riverbank looks across the river at a shady steep tree-lined bank. There’s cold running water in the parking lot. His aunt washed her hair in it one afternoon. She claimed cold water was best for washing hair. She used Beer Shampoo.
The walk to the rapids above the park is made short by the bend in the river. Across from the entrance to the park is a trail. A short walk for a long float. His mother brought him to the river that day. She had a lawn chair, Hawaiian Tropic, Harold Robbins and Tab. He had his inner tube.
There was never anyone on the beach upriver of the bridge. He floated until he hit the gentle rapids. He bounced off the rocks and spun round until he was under the bridge once more. It was sunny. The air was hot. It smelled like the trees and the cold river. He rode down, walked out of the river in the park past his mother and the other sunbathers, crossed the parking lot and the road to the path leading to the spot above the rapids. He never smiled. Or laughed.
On his last trip down the river some people were on the bank of the river above the bridge. A woman in a bikini was lying on a man. The man moved his fingers under the bikini bottom between her legs.
The boy floated past. He wanted to put his fingers in the woman’s bikini bottom. He could do it just like the man. He was ready now that he had seen the proper way to do that sort of thing. He wanted to tell somebody.
The current carried him downriver. He stayed near the beach for the rest of the afternoon. His shoe filled with water and was lost forever.