On a Summer’s Day

On a Summer’s day so still, even the chipmunks stopped skittering, my love and I lazed about the lakeshore. Except for being named Long Pond on the local map, I would have had a hard time calling it a small lake or a large pond. I never knew the difference, just the same with creeks and brooks.* As with many things, it was the size that mattered. I just didn’t know when one became the other. Suffice to say, the day was so hot, I had nothing better to do but ponder such things aloud. And Angela listened and smiled wryly, because she had nothing better to do than listen to me and the cicadas drone.

We slathered ourselves slick with sunscreen and took two fat innertubes out of the dockside shed and placed them in the water. Angela tried gracefully to plant her bottom in the center, but failed miserably. I handed her two umbrellas after she had settled and then I just flopped backwards into mine. We opened our umbrellas and meandered about the pond slowly as there was barely any breeze at all.

We held hands or intertwined our legs, as if there really was a chance of drifting apart. Twice we laid our umbrellas upside down on the water surface so they could float while we took a dip in the cool, clear water. Later, we showered and supped. I built a little fire with twigs by the pond to keep the critters and skeeters away. We shared a bottle of wine sitting on cushioned Adirondack chairs, awaiting the stars to blink awake as they did in that divine darkness. And Angela listened to me tell talltales of make-believe constellations. What would you like to do tomorrow, I asked.

The same again, please, she replied, smiling sleepily.

*Ever the seeker of useless knowledge, I took the time to find out the difference between ponds and lakes and…there is no scientific demarcation, except to say a pond is smaller than a lake. I also read sunlight does not reach the bottom of a lake, but really the person who names it makes the call.

The difference between brooks and creeks: size again, but it gets a little more scientific in that you can step across a brook but have to jump across a creek.

There will be quiz later.

#middleaged #manspov

#middleageddating #lastfirstkiss #love #kissing #summer #shortstory #fiction