I used to love the feel of a hot summer sun on my skin. Lying on my back in the treehouse, trying to get a tan but getting severely bored instead, I still felt comfortably warm. Until the sun felt painful in the form of a sunburn, making sleep impossible.
When the days get too long and too hot, and not even the nights are cool, the pool beckons. My sister and I drag ourselves to the pool down the street, often with our cousins or to meet friends. I cannonball into the water and relish the feel of cool, clean liquid over my body.
I feel hot cement beneath my bare feet. A cold ice cube brushing my lips. A hot fire against one side of my body on a cool evening in the mountains. Long, lush grass soaked in irrigation water as I run through the backyard at midnight.
When the summer days turn cooler, I mourn their passing.
