...

...

Tuesday, April 28, 2015

At the Start of Summer

"A day like the days I remember, a day like other days."*
I have to start writing my goodbye to Gainesville, so I'll start with the very end, at yet another start of summer. 

We left the springs around 6pm, and sped down country roads back toward Gainesville, with the windows down, and we had all tactfully agreed without speaking on country music- up loud. Everyone ate at Bev's Better Burgers, and everyone had the day off work except for me so I was sober-ish and drove while everyone slept in the car after, windows still down. Everyone's heads were tilted back toward their head rests, limbs pushed out away- already sunburned, breathing the deep heavy breaths of a day spent swimming. Swimming in water so clear it still almost makes me cry. Swimming and not just swimming but tumbling, jumping from shaky docks into the mouths of that water below, and not just swimming and jumping but mixing rum and cokes into Styrofoam cups, and sitting in the sun and watching everyone else enjoying their afternoon off. I drove everyone home and fought the urge to pull over and run wild in the moats of flowers that have suddenly taken over all the roads around Gainesville. The sun was still out, and my friends were still sleeping in the car, and I felt like how parents must feel watching their kids sleep. The whole world and everything in it suddenly seemed like enough. 
*Donald Justice, Variations on a Text by Vallejo