Friday, July 31, 2009

SOMETHING IN THE AIR

It was air too good to waste. So I helped myself.

I washed away makeup, removed contact lenses, slid on specs, scrubbed at my teeth, and donned sleepwear. And then, prepped for bed yet not ready for sleep, I crept up the stairs, through the mudroom, and into the backyard. Where, at midnight, I tiptoed across the lawn to boost onto the trampoline and jump.

Perhaps wherever my parents dwell I feel more childlike, for it’s there that my dad creates the most generous ice cream cones. It’s there that I know I won’t be rousting for work the next morning. There that shelves boast picture books. That my mom wears an apron to bake brownies and extra chippy cookies. And it’s there that rests the world’s bounciest trampoline.

Ma n’ Pa are settled on a mountainside where the air swirling about them bears a scent a bit sweeter than the wind ‘round my home. So after all but I had tucked in for the night, I snatched up the young within me and snuck out to bounce into the unsullied sky, accompanied by cricket chirps and the slow creak of old springs.

The creak of old springs. After a few moments of up and down I stilled my motion to glance to the nearest neighbors’ spot where I spied lights off and windows open. Surely they slumbered, enjoying those same crickets and that persuasive air. And my addition of the old springs’ song could wake them.

Thus I hopped from the tramp, landing on loamy earth, and scampered back inside, forbidding my inner kid from disturbing the nearby sleeping. For when it’s black and jumping beckons, I may yield to pangs of younger youth, but all decorum doesn’t leave me.

7 comments:

lindsey v said...

Oh how I wish I had a trampoline! Our neighbors have offered to let us use their tramp any time but I'm assuming they meant my kids and not me. So I don't know if I could ever allow myself to let loose on their tramp. Hmm. Maybe when they're out of town.

tom lindsey said...

Bounce on T - I - Double Guh - Er.

TTFN

Jessica said...

i'm jealous.

~AliSa~ said...

Love your haircut!

Katharina said...

The only thing better than a stolen nighttime trampoline session:
a sans-jammies nighttime trampolining session.

"Exhilarating" barely begins to cover it.
{Insert wicked grin.}

cat+tadd=sam said...

I almost felt like I was there with you since I have done the midnight jump many a time.

Remember when I used to spy on you and your friends when you made out with boys on the trampoline? That was fun too.

jenica said...

i think this may be the most beautiful thing you've ever written.