Summer Solstice

Candy Disasters And Sweet Kisses

“So what got you into collecting hats?” Kaida lowered the fashion magazine she was reading and looked down at Harriett.

Harriett looked up from painting Kaida’s toes and smiled, then gave a casual shrug. Kaida had exited the bathroom wearing her pretty green one-piece swimsuit and Harriett had exclaimed that she had polish in the exact same color, and had insisted on painting her nails.

She was just finishing the second coat on Kaida’s toes, and slid the brush back into the bottle, “I’m not really sure. When I was little, I loved dressing up as a princess. I could put on a tiara or cone-shaped hat with ribbon streamers on it, and be someone else. I guess that just transferred into all different hats. By putting on one of them, I get to be someone a little different, even though I’m still me.”

I put down the purple polish I’d picked to paint my own toes, “That sounds like a good reason to me.”

Harriett giggled, “My parents thought I was joking the first time I asked for a cowboy hat.” She scrunched her face up and lowered her voice a few octaves. “But darling, you don’t even own a horse.” She shook her head as Kaida and I laughed at her impression of her dad.

“I collect polar bears.” Kaida said, a bit slowly, as though she hadn’t wanted to share the information.

“Really? Oh I love polar bears, they’re SO cute.” Harriett twisted the lid back onto the nail polish and sat it to the side, “How many do you have?”

Kaida shifted nervously in the oversized pink chair. I smiled. That’s why she didn’t want to share. Kaida didn’t just collect polar bears, she was obsessed. She picked at an invisible fleck on the cover of her magazine as Harriett stood and turned a questioning gaze towards me. I rolled my eyes, “She has a lot.”

“Oh. How many is a lot?” She looked back towards Kaida.

I leaned to the side to look past Harriett, and Kaida slid the magazine slowly up to block her face. I picked up a pink sequined pillow and tossed it into her lap, “Yeah Kaida, how many is a lot?”

She opened the magazine and sat it over her face, then folded her arms stubbornly, “Mmff-mf-moh.”

Harriett giggle-snorted and turned to look at me, “What did she just say?”

I sighed and slid off the bed, then walked over and stood next to Harriett. “She said ‘I don’t know’.”

Kaida thumped the magazine onto her lap, “Oh for goodness sakes, I have too many! I lost count after three hundred.” She slapped the magazine over her face again.

I shook my head in disbelief, that was a lot of polar bears. But the last time I’d tried to count them, I’d gotten lost around five hundred and… something. “Lots of people collect things Kaida, it’s not that big a deal.”

Harriett leaned over and patted her on the knee, “Honestly, it’s not that bad, at least your bedroom doesn’t look like a bubble gum factory exploded.”

Kaida lowered the magazine slowly and smiled, “So you don’t think I’m crazy?”

Harriett laughed. “No. At least not yet. But you’ve got plenty of time to prove me wrong.”

Kaida gasped and launched the pillow at Harriett’s head. It bounced off her shoulder as she ducked, and I caught it before it could hit me. “Alright, now that we’re all painted and in our swimsuits, lets toss on some clothes and go get some sugar.”

“Woohoo!” Harriett shouted, quickly tugging a sundress over her head. She spun around and ran out the bedroom door. Kaida raced after her, still hopping on one foot as she put on a pair of pajama shorts, and I chuckled to myself. This was going to be a long night with those two running on sugar shock. I turned to follow them out the door, then felt tiny drops of water on my arm. I glanced back over my shoulder at Harriett‘s bedroom window, and saw that it had started raining. The fumes from the polish weren’t that bad anymore, so I slid the window closed and locked it, then tugged the curtains back into place. I grabbed my t-shirt and tossed it over my arm, then headed towards the kitchen.