Summer Storm on East 38th Street
By Joan Hagy
July 15, 2023
July 15, 2023
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Screen doors slam and mothers call their children home
as clouds form an afternoon thunderstorm. See over there, around that corner, they will come running, sneakers slapping the summer sidewalk - rain droplets polka dot the gray cement. The dampening air enhances the sickly sweet perfume of honeysuckle, lilac, and newly bloomed roses. Lightning crackles over head and Kristabel, the obese dachshund that lives next to my childhood home, unleashes her fury on the children causing them to accelerate and veer out of the way of her vicious snarls. They jump hedges. They avoid the house where the ivy grows thick over windows like Rapunzel’s hair in reverse. They skirt the Gingerbread house where the neighbor and her dog were killed by an intruder. We were all caged animals that summer. Some are carrying bags from Dairy Queen, some have tomatoes in their hands pilfered from neighbors’ backyard gardens. Some are slowly hurrying, not wanting to leave the alleys, the vacant lots, or the mini-mart where summer plays out when it isn’t raining. |