Tight Friends Become Unwound

Prior to the trip, Otto and I never would have dreamed about quarreling or saying a cross word to each other. We were closest of friends, happy and cheerful, operating in a tight world of “we.” We didn’t need to consider differing opinions or asking how the other felt—we were conjoined and totally united as best buddies. That’s the way the trip started out. But it didn’t stay that way. Our first rub came at the Mississippi River, when Roger criticized Otto for swimming in a forbidden area, and Otto paid for it with a bleeding toe. The spat continued in western Iowa, as we squabbled whether or not to backtrack to Sioux City to retrieve Otto’s lost canteen.  I called that our first “official” argument, as he stormed to McDonalds by himself and I stayed behind at the Little Red Barn.  The next outburst happened in Reno, Nevada, over the logistics of crashing a motel pool.  Then San Francisco, then Big Sur, then Hanford.  All adding up tension. By the time we got to Southern California, the friction was prickly. He and I were barely civil to each other, acting jealous or juvenile and/or trying to out-do the other.  Otto getting stood up by a girl (Denise Latourette) on a double date was the last straw.  He exploded and stayed in a snit for about four days. It might be frivolous to our mature sensibilities, but to a 17 year-old kid, he was bruised and I was battered.