Miles is a safe place for my busy mind.
With him, I release the river’s edge and go.Float.
Let go of control.
He lets my soul melt into all its emotions without making me feel weak or guilty, I’m still… just myself.
Miles puts his hands on my towel and guides me to walk in circles on the sand.
“What are you doing?”I laugh.
“We have to move to warm up from the cold water,” he plays around.
Our minds both jump to that memory, and we burst out laughing as he nudges me around, I tighten my towel until he wraps his arms around mine, and we unintentionally tangle our feet.
We laugh.He’s someone who makes me laugh.Someone with whom I’ll always feel free to be my inner child again.
We should never forget our inner child.
We never wonder why we grow up and completely forget how to play like that child.
Maybe we should never forget how to play in life.
Miles folds one arm beneath his head, resting it on the sand.I glance at his green gaze, fixed on the starry sky, and we stay there for a few more minutes.
When we get into his car, my body is slowly warming up under his extra sweatshirt, but I still can’t feel my toes.Not a single one, nor my hands, nor my feet.
I notice a CD album tucked into the passenger door and grab it with my very non-existent toes.
Miles is still outside, loading the bags and towels into the trunk.When he gets in, I ask, “Can we listen to this one?”pointing at the CD, the one with Miles’s, Asher’s, Finn’s and Elliot’s names on it.
He grins at me.“Of course!I’ve heard they’re pretty good, you know,” he says, sliding the CD into the player.
“Well, I’m hoping to get concert tickets soon.”
“I’ll see what I can do about that.”
Miles and his friends are keeping the band “rolling”, as they said.Their jobs, projects, twists and turns of life won’t pull them apart.There will always be time for their music together, as he told me.These are his friends for life.
I rest my head against the seat as I listen to his quiet voice softly singing along with his own voice coming from the car speakers.
We drive through the green mountains, past trees each more distinct than the next, and as we ascend, the blue horizon unfolds beyond Miles’s window.
Then my eyes focus back on his face.
He is driving.
The music is playing.
The night is settling in.
And I close my eyes in the car.
The End
EPILOGUE
Four YearsLater
