“How ‘bout me enjoying the moment for once?” –Alanis Morissette, “Thank U”--to get pleasure from; relish
--to have benefit or use of
I sat on the hill beside him, smiling up toward the sky. Lazy on our last summer of true freedom—where we could go where we wanted, sleep in when we wanted and be whoever it was we wanted to be instead of who we were meant to be for once. Mostly we sought out the air-conditioned comfort of malls, movie theaters or restaurants. But today was too beautiful to do that. So today we chose to sweat it out atop the grass on the largest hill in the county.
“Pluto,” he said suddenly.
“Pardon?” I said back, opening my eyes from the comfortable doze I had been enjoying.
“That cloud,” he said, pointing. “It looks like Pluto.”
“How can you tell?” I asked
“The tail and the ears. They’re perked up like they always were when Mickey was happy with him for some reason.”
We sat in silence for a moment, contemplating.
“Oh!” I said in sudden realization. “Pluto the dog!”
“Of course,” he said and I could hear his grin. “What did you think I was talking about?”
“The planet,” I said, gesturing toward the sky in explanation. “You know? The big ball of ice the farthest from our sun?”
“Oh,” he said. “That never would have occurred to me.”
“Yeah well not all of us think with cartoon minds,” I said.
“True but some of us are forced to baby-sit our four year old brothers every Saturday, which if you remember from your childhood so long ago is prime cartoon time,” he said.
“How you suffer,” I said because that’s what I always said. Being the baby of my small family unit, I have never been able to relate to the trials and tribulations of one who is the oldest of seven. Or was it eight now? I had lost count.
“I get by,” he said and I could hear the shrug in his voice.
“Brave soul,” I said.
“So do you like it out here?” he asked, gesturing to the expanse that stretched out before us. None of which I could see in my horizontal position but knew by heart all the same. While sitting at the top of Coburn’s Hill was hardly the same as sitting atop one of the Adirondack mountains as we had done together so many times, you never would have known it from the way he asked the question.
“You ask me that every time,” I said, sighing only because it was true.
“Not every time,” he said. “We don’t come up here that often.”
“At least three times every summer since I’ve known you,” I said. “Counting all the Fourth of July celebrations our families have had up here.”
“And how many summers have you known me?” he asked.
I counted quickly on my fingers. “Five I said, holding up as many fingers.
“Not that many,” he said.
“Oh yes my friend,” I said.
“Are you sure?”
“Positive,” I said. “Amazing, isn’t it?”
“Yeah, I guess,” he said. “And anyway if I ask you that every time we come here it’s because you never seem to be enjoying yourself when we get here.”
“I never said I wasn’t enjoying myself,” I said. “I am actually happy you picked to come here today. It’s a nice change.”
“But you’d rather be in the movie theater, right?” he said.
“Well…the new movie with what’s-his-face looks pretty good.”
“Oh yeah,” he said, rolling his eyes. “Oscar-worthy if you ask me.”
I stuck out my tongue at him but he didn’t see.
“So why did you want to come here today?” I asked, covering my eyes with my arm to block out the brightness of the midday sun.
“Keeping with tradition, I suppose,” He said. “We might not be able to do this next year once we’re off into the far away land known as the Real World.”
“Please, let’s not bring that up again,” I said. “I’m trying to enjoy myself, not get depressed about going off in our different direction at the end of summer. We’ll talk about it then. Let’s not talk about it now.”
“Okay,” he agreed. “But you do like it up here?”
“Yes!” I said. “I do. I love it up here. I love being up here with you. I just don’t want to talk about…”
“Unpleasant things? He suggested when I trailed off.
“Yeah,” I replied.
“Me neither,” he said.
“Then stop bringing it up.”
“All I said was that the cloud looked like Pluto the dog,” he said.
I raised an eyebrow, remembering the way the conversation had begun. Suddenly I started laughing and he joined in after a moment.
He took my hand and we sat for a while longer, enjoying the silence.
What was your first thought when he said the cloud looked like Pluto?
Back to Words Index
Back to Writing Out Loud Index