One Golden Summer

by Carley Fortune

And just like that, I’m seventeen again, dressed in a terry cloth bathing suit cover-up with a camera strapped around my neck. I’m free from Trevor, from suggestions of cellulite, from the sense that I haven’t taken a photo that feels like me in months. I stare out the window, and I can see eight-year-old Luca and Lavinia leaping off the dock and a yellow speedboat ripping across the water. But then I blink, and I’m returned to my thirty-two-year-old body. I stare at the empty bay, wondering if there’s a way to go back.

He doesn’t see me that way.” “Oh please.” “He doesn’t.” “He does,” Nan says. “When you aren’t staring at him, he’s staring at you. It’s like watching a tennis match.”

“No, it’s because when you speak, he listens. When you smile, he smiles. When you need something, he offers help. When you give him something, he thanks you. You’re peas and carrots—I think you’ve found yourself a lifelong friend.”

“Just see where the sun takes you. And don’t forget: Good things happen at the lake.”

“It sounds like this summer has been good for you,” Elyse says before we hang up. “You sound different.” “I feel different,” I tell her. “I feel like I’ve woken up.”

And it dawns on me. This is exactly where I wanted to be when I was seventeen, but it’s also exactly where I want to be now.

Charlie: And Percy’s thrilled. She woke up singing, “I knew it, I knew it, I knew it.”

Lol

His smile grows. It’s sunshine shimmering over the water. It’s permanent summer.