"Spanish Moss" by Ethan Hightower

In Ethan Hightower's "Spanish Moss," the narrator is a young man about to enter high school, dealing with the pressures of growing up. He and his friends, Blake and Tommy, are in a rush to prove themselves "experienced," grown up and mature, before they are freshmen, though none of them are entirely comfortable with the way they decide to suddenly grow up. The three have a lot of internal conflicts, and then are confronted by an external conflict that forces them to understand that their desire to grow up doesn't matter very much in the grand scheme of things. (What are words?)

The title ties in well to the story. The piece opens with Spanish moss and closes the same way, and it adds a sense of finality to the story, so the reader feels no ambiguity to if the story is finished or not. The way that Hightower conveyed the emotions of all three characters, though the piece was in first person, was very strong. As a reader, it was easy for me to tell that Blake was nervous about everything and Tommy wanted to put up a facade of cool. None of them were comfortable, and it showed. The imagery in the piece was also wonderful - I could see the forest, the creek, and the Spanish moss. I could tell that the body in the bag was a small child's without having it explained in detail. Very well done.

It's obvious that the three characters are at least upper middle class, but I wanted to see more detail of that. Trig's parents were doctors, and Blake's father was a lawyer, but how did that translate into their lives as far as material value? Tommy's allowance goes to one joint, but how much is that? I got the idea that these boys were sheltered and soft, but I wanted to see more.