 I didn't know it then, but that summer would prove the best one I'd have as a teenager. Even though I was worked like an indentured servant, giving every penny of my earnings to Mrs. D, even though I made no friends, and even though I only made it to the beach but once, where I sat on a mildewy boarding house washcloth, exhausted and pale, that whole summer felt like some big fat vacation, just because I was 16 and away from my parents for the first time.