Cotton Candy Sky

Copyright Julia Bydulia.

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The air was thick and sweet, carrying the sounds of summer bugs. The wood of the dock beneath my feet was damp and rugged, and it scratched my heels. I clenched and unclenched my toes as I stared at the blue-green water of the lake and considered jumping in.

Behind me, I could hear him breathing. He held laughter in the air he was exhaling, and I could feel the laughter inside of me and surrounding me.

I had waited all year for summer, but, now that I had it, I wasn't sure what to do with it. I tilted my head back and stared at the sky, which was covered in shades of pink. The clouds were floating, grey against all that cotton candy.

Without a sound, I walked on my toes to the edge of the dock and lowered myself so that my legs were dangling off the side. The very tip of my big toe touched the water and sent a shiver up my entire body. I swung my leg and sent ripples through the water, that were swallowed by the other small waves that were moving through the water.

I heard his footsteps behind me, and then he was next to me. He was warm where the water was cold. He pressed his whole left side into my right and I rested my head on his shoulder.

I wasn't sure what to do with summer. I didn't know what to do with the sky, or the dock, or the sticky, sweet air. It all seemed to big for me, surrounding me and swallowing me in waves of pink and blue and green.

I wasn't sure what to do with summer, but, I knew what to do with him.

I laced my fingers through his. I breathed in the air. I looked at the water, watched the ripples and the waves. The summer was too big for me to hold, but, maybe that's not what I needed. I just needed to be a small piece of it, linked together with him.

So there we sat. The clouds kept on rolling and the water never stopped moving, but, I was happy sitting still in the middle of it all.