That Summer Feeling

by Bridget Morrissey

“I mean, when I look at you, I have to squint,” I admitted to Stevie. “It’s like staring into the sun.”

“Do you like coffee?” Mason asked me. All I could think to say back was “Absolutely. It’s so good. Coffee rocks.”

We as a society do not yell the words hee-haw enough, and once I discovered how much joy came from doing so, I became an unstoppable hee-hawing force of nature.

“By the way, do you think birds are real?”

“Chattahoochee” by Alan Jackson.

“Last night, one of our campers had a big ask of us. And she asked it so much we had to go home and figure out what it was she kept shouting at us to play. So we spent all afternoon on this. We even printed off the lyrics just to be sure we don’t mess this one up. Garland, this one is for you. Hee-haw!” At that, the band started playing “Hoedown Throwdown” from Hannah Montana: The Movie.

No matter how old I got, I could always find new ways to be young again.

I liked men. And women. Anyone, really. And I hadn’t let myself hold space for it, because I’d been so obsessed with ticking off boxes for the life I thought I needed to have that I didn’t pay much attention to the life I wanted to have.

“I work part-time as a waitress in Chicago, and this couple that always comes in to see me roped me into it,” she explained. “The girl, Dee, she’s got a big show where you talk about your life and your secrets and all that kind of shit. Did I Forget to Tell You.

It’s rare to find a man like that anymore.” “Lucky for me, I’m looking more at women these days,” I blurted out, which constituted me coming out for the first time, and I’d done it to Marge, my crotchety, brass-tacks teammate with bad knees and big opinions. “Oh. That’s fine,” she told me. “Love who ya love. It’s sure not bothering me.” “Thanks, Marge,” I said. “I will.”

“There’s a thing a lot of people say about women when they date other women,” she continued. “I’m sure you’ve heard it. We fall in love too fast. We rent the U-Haul and move in together after a week. And that’s always annoyed me, even though to be perfectly honest, it’s happened to more than one of my friends. I still thought it was a boring generalization and that people lacked imagination. Until I met you.” She laughed, remembering. “I saw you and thought, Oh yes. Wherever she asked me to go, I’d follow. And then you told me my fucking brother was your soulmate.”

“If this involves nudity, I just want to say that I think it’s weird you do it as siblings. Putting it out there, but letting you guys know I’m committed all the same.” “There’s no nudity,” Andrew told me. “Not literally.” I didn’t have the energy to explore what that could possibly mean.