We’re going on a walk only a few blocks be back before streetlights turn on, I quickly texted my parents, not checking to see if they even got my text before Grace started blasting music, and us and Harper were on our way, slowly turning the corner onto 15th street, lugging along 4 blankets.

 As we turned, I reserved my attention to all the construction at the end of every driveway to my right. There were giant potholes filled with water that we all closed in on. We began splashing each other with the water, trying to not get too much of our feet wet as we kicked the dirty water with our fake Walmart crocs.

“I aa scared aa dentists and the dark….p..tty girls and starting conversations, oh all my friends are turning green, da da da da dee da dee la lee lo la la la. OOH, OOH OOH…aaaaaaa… LADY RUNNING DOWN TO THE RIPTIDE TAKING AWAY TO THE DARK SIDE, I WANNA BE YOUR LEFTHAND MAN!” We all suddenly started “singing”. If you can call mumbling through half the song and yelling the other half with no particular tune, singing.

Grace and Harper were staying the night at my house in late June, and we were upset by the view of the sunset, or the lack thereof, from my house, so we decided to walk to the baseball fields by the Wellness Center. Thinking back, that wasn’t the smartest decision, because, though there were trees placed in the most unfortunate spots a few blocks from my house, there were even more trees at the fields, and even sitting at the tops of the bleachers wouldn’t give us a good enough view of the western edge of the sky.

Once we finally stopped waking up anyone who may have been asleep in all of Nebraska City, we kept walking toward the fields.

“HI……….HI……………HOLA!” I could hear Harper yelling to nearly every car that passed us on the road as we were crossing the small concrete bridge. 

“Harper,….. Haaarpeeeer….. HARPER!” I startled Harper so much that she jumped up and asked sharply, 

“WHAT?”

“Stop yelling at everyone that passes us I’m trying to listen to the stream. I actually want to enjoy this and not hear you barking at every car that passes like a dog.”

“I agree, Harper. SHUSH!” Grace added, only semi-jokingly.

“ Ok! Ok! Jeez, I’ll stop!” Harper sighed over-dramatically.

It was finally quiet enough for me to think. I could smell a grill nearby, someone must have taken advantage of the uncharacteristically cool summer air. I could also smell rain, though it hadn’t rained for a while. We’d have to be careful not to take too long, or we might get caught in the rain. Though that wouldn’t be horrible. I’ve always wanted to walk in the rain at night.

 As we finished crossing the bridge and came out of the cover of the trees, we could finally see the sunset. Tendrils of soft oranges and pinks filled the sky, as if the sky was  the palette God had used when He had painted each of the flowers that still thrived into existence. It was breathtaking. I had never been able to fully see the sunset, and now, there was nothing constricting my view. The thin clouds, instead of covering this beautiful masterpiece, enhanced it, the water molecules shining orange as if they were diamonds refracting the light into the world around them. 

“ZOOOOOM!”

“WOOOOSH!”

“CRUNCH CRUNCH!”

I sighed inwardly. I just wanted some piece and quiet. The music I could put up with because it was music that actually sounded good. The cars were extremely loud and I wished that I could just turn off all the sound including the cars, the occasional person yelling, and Harper. 

“Um, guys, that doesn’t look like the sunset,” Grace said, snapping me out of my fantasies of putting tape over Harper’s mouth. I turned around to be met with my sky being poisoned with dark puffs. At first, I was enraged that anything would cover up the piece of art, until I looked more closely at both the sky and clouds, and not just the clouds. I could see the delicate dance the clouds and sky were performing as if they were dancing just for me. It was beautiful.

“Darn it! That means we’re going to have to walk back to Brooklyn’s house before it starts raining,” Harper revealed, suddenly making me sad. I didn’t want to leave. I belong here. With the wind and trees as my only company, whispering in my ear. And we were going to have to go now, so there wasn’t any time to sit down and work out the ache from my legs enough to lug those blankets back ten blocks.

“Well, we may as well get going, there’s no point in just standing here,” I sighed, hoping the devastation didn’t show plainly on my face. I then turned around, pushed up my glasses that had  begun to dip low on my nose, took a deep breath of that rich summer air and began walking back to my house, the other two girls doing the same. 

The walk back was a blur. I stopped pouting and joined Harper and Grace in singing loudly with the music that wasn’t quite supposed to be yelled.

“Well, at least we don’t have to go inside. The clouds look like they’re staying towards the west so we can just sit out here and talk,” I rejoiced. So we laid out two blankets on the ground and the other two we put around our shoulders as we leaned against the sign in front of The Old Freighter’s Museum across the street from my house. We sat there for an hour, telling Harper about everything that happened in seventh grade, telling her what to watch out for and what to look forward to. I think we scared her more than we helped her.

“BOOM!” I jumped out of my skin. I wasn’t expecting that. I knew that people had recently been setting off small fireworks in the Old Hospital parking lot, but the kind that you did during the day, not at night. I looked in that general direction, and saw remnants of a large firework slowly floating toward the ground. Just as the last light of the firework went out, another one went up, though it was missing the boom that had accompanied the last one. It must be because of how far away we-

“BOOM!” I finally heard, after seconds of delay.

“What the heck? That’s so weird!” Harper exclaimed, making a bigger deal out of it then necessary.

“Well light travels faster then-“ I started to respond before she interrupted me,

“Well duh, I already knew that! I just wasn’t thinking!”

“Ok, I was just making sure.”

 Once this firework faded away, I saw the beginnings of the stars. I couldn’t see them fully because of the street light in front of the Old Hospital, but it was enough to take my breath away. Each star glowed as if they held a secret, and you would only know what made them shine if you became one of them, tipping your head back with a smile and learning their language, learning their subtle dance across the night sky throughout the year. I couldn’t take my eyes off of them. 

“Brooklyn? Are you guys out here or did you come inside? If you’re still out here you need to come back inside.” Sigh. My dad. 

“Yeah we’re out here. We’ll be in in a second!” I really didn’t want to go back inside, But I tore my eyes away from the sight above me, picked up all of the blankets, crossed the street without checking to see if any cars were coming, and trudged up to the house, taking one last look at the stars before the flickering porch light outshined the once bright lights in the sky, and begrudgingly walked inside.