From May to December With Love

In July

        Independence Day was definitely a night for celebration. It was a bright, sunny day with temperatures up to 70 degrees. I invited Emma to come hangout with me that night. Of course, I had a few small fireworks to shoot off. I pulled into her driveway and she came outside. She was beautiful as she always was, but this time she wore faded, black skinny jeans and a bright pink t-shirt. Much more casual, but still stunning.

                “Well, hello Emma.” I said in a causal voice, trying to jokingly sound lower pitched.

                “Well, hello David.” She attempted to mock me but it wasn’t quite there.

I laughed, “Nice try.”

                “So, what’s the plan today?” She asked curiously.

                “Oh nothing much. Just a surprise.” I say as I look over and wink at her.

                “Surprise, huh? I guess I don’t get a say whether or not it stays a surprise?”

                “Absolutely not.” I say sarcastically and can’t help but once again smile. 

                “Fine.” She crosses her arms and fake pouts but smiles after.

I turn up my music in the car to make her feel better. She had become accustomed to my genre of music, probably because she listened to it so much, but she relaxes when she hears it. The song starts playing, Angels and Airwaves’ Tunnels to be exact, and she starts to sing along to it. I do the same and we drive off. We sing along to all of the songs that come on and she drums my dashboard, getting a little wild and letting go. I enjoyed the enthusiasm as we laugh at all the people in their cars staring us down, but we had no care in the world.

                We spent about 20-30 minutes driving until we reached where I wanted to take her. It was a community park that no one really came to anymore. Just a wide open field with a small playground and train tracks beside it. We got out and I went to open my trunk to grab the small-grade fireworks. I showed them to her and then Emma looked at me with a face of confusion and excitement piled all into one expression.  We shot off a few of the noisy firecrackers and some bottle rockets. When we expended those, we hung out on the children’s playground and played around. We were much too big for any of the equipment, but it didn’t stop us from trying. We laughed until sunset when Emma wanted to go explore. She grabbed my hand and pulled me over to the old train tracks.

                “Where does it lead?” She asked me.

                “Just an old rail yard. I don’t think there’s much significance to it anymore though.” I told her.

She stood there and looked at me, pondering her thoughts. “I’ll race you, let’s go!” She said then turned around and bolted down the tracks.

                Stunned, I say “Wait, what? Emma? Hold on a second!” and chase after her. “Give me a chance to catch up!”

                “Not a chance!” I hear her yell down toward the end.

When I finally catch up to her, she’s looking at a large warehouse, so I grab her and pick her up.

                “Hey wait, that’s not fair, I won!” She half laughs, half yells.

I set her down to catch my breath.

                “Damn, maybe I really should have played football.” I say with my hands on my knees.

                “You’ll be fine.” She looks at me in sarcastic disappointment of my abilities.

                “If you’re so sure about that.” I say and smile.

When I finally catch my breath, I look up at the yard. Train tracks leading every direction, train cars abandoned, and covered in graffiti, and the storage warehouse. 

                “Pretty awesome of a place, isn’t it?” I ask her.

                “It is, but I’m more intrigued with the grammar of these “artists”. Gesturing air quotes. “Just look at it. “N3w M0ney? What the hell?” She points out.

I smirk at the comedic tagging attempt. “Since you dragged me over here, let’s go closer to the warehouse.”

With no problem from her about it, we walk over to it, as we walk, I hold her hand. She’s surprisingly still warm to the touch despite it being darker and colder out.

                “It really is bigger the closer you get to it.” She states.

                “I wonder why it’s been left abandoned. We still have trains all over Michigan.” I question.

The sky gets darker as we look around and so I told her I had one more surprise. I had saved a larger volcano firework that I carried in my book bag. I pulled it over my shoulder and grabbed it from my bag. When it was unwrapped, it just looked like a black prism with a cardboard base and fuse. I told her to step away about 10 feet then lit it. I ran back to meet Emma and watch it. The fuse dropped to the inside of the volcano and the colors began to erupt from within. Blue, white, red, green, yellow, pink all shot out rapidly one by one and then repeating. The area was illuminated with bright lights. I reached my hand down and held Emma’s hand. She looked up at me, and I looked into her eyes. We smiled at each other, then she looked down shyly. I took my hand to move her chin so she was looking at me. She closed her eyes, our breaths had shortened and I leaned in closer to her until our lips touched. That night, under the stars and the lights of the fireworks and moon, I kissed Emma for the first time. The fireworks weren’t the only spark to explode that night. I knew with that kiss, that I was in love.