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I finished reading The Cather in the Rye today (the ending made me cry), and then helped Tristan watch over James for the rest of the day. Now it’s 8:45 and the sun, although low, does not look as if it’s going to set. I’m floating in Danté’s creek and everything seems to be made of gold. I wish the sun would stay like this forever.

    

 I came to the creek for a swim, half-expecting Danté to be here, but surprisingly he wasn’t. Now that I think about it, I haven’t been here since James was in the hospital. I hear rustling in the bushes. I hope whoever it is doesn’t hang around. They’re interrupting my thoughts.

     

I turn my head and see that new boy, River, step out, the one that moved here a few weeks ago. I’m kinda scared now. I’ve been seeing him everywhere for the past two days. Is he following me or something? He sees me.

    

 “Oh, sorry if I interrupted you. I didn’t expect anyone to be here.”

    

 “Neither did I. And you’re not really interrupting me. I mean, does it look like I’m doing anything?”

     

He gives a small smile. “Fée, right?” he asks.

     

“Mmhmm,” I mumble. He sits near the edge of the water. There is silence.

     

”So, uh…what school do you go to?” he asks, attempting at a conversation.

     

“School? Uh…well, I went to Charles Reeves High a couple years ago but uh…then I dropped out,” I reply.

    

 “Oh, I don’t go to school either. Well, I did, but I don’t plan on going in September. I think after Grade 10 you’ve got all the education you need.”

    

 I turn my head to look at him and, like everything else, he is bathed in a radiant gold. “Where did you live before you moved here?”

   

      “Some town, away from here, not very well-known…” he trails off. A name would be nice, I think, but keep it to myself. Then, abruptly, he asks, “What do you imagine or feel when you close your eyes? While you’re lying there in the water?”

     

I never thought about this and am sort of weirded out by the question, but I close my eyes anyway.

    

 I am more aware of the cool water lapping against my skin now, and how my body seems to be slowly drifting about, totally out of my control. I don’t know how to answer his question and I say so. I open my eyes and see he is looking down, staring at something invisible. Then, without a word he gets up and jumps in the water with all his clothes on. When the water calms down, he starts floating on his back too, and closes his eyes.

     

“I feel like someone’s lifting me up, taking me higher and higher, and I’m just floating around in space or something.”

     

I think about what he says and sort of feel it myself too. Then he says, “Wouldn’t it be great to defy gravity? Just be able to fly and go where you want, whenever you want.”

     

“I think this is probably the closest we’ll come to defying gravity here on Earth,” I say, but still wishing I was able to fly. It’s quiet again and we lie there, staring up at the brilliant yellow sky, our minds filled with thoughts of water and gravity and gold.

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I’m on my way home now. The sky is purple but there are still bursts of yellow peeking out from behind buildings. I am completely drenched from behind and drops of water are falling from my hair, down my face and neck, and seeping into the front of my shirt. A cool breeze passes through and all the stickiness of the hot day is gone now.

     

I open the front door, run upstairs, and think of taking a shower but I wanna keep this cool and light feeling with me. At the same time I am overcome by hunger and my stomach starts to gnaw at itself. I grab a peach and sit on the front porch. Peaches, another wonderful thing about summer.

     

I let the juice trickle down my chin, not caring to wipe it away. I stay on the porch long after I’ve finished my peach and have thrown the pit into the bushes. The sky is completely black now. There is a lone star. We never get stars here like they do in the movies. I don’t know where Aunt Peggy is and I don’t know the time.

     

I go inside, grab my favourite blue blanket and a pillow, and head out to the backyard. On my way out I grab a can of iced tea. Today was a good day.