The Meteor Shower
Somehow God carved out this beautiful night, framed in wooded edges and warm Earth and a night sky as dark as dreams with stars stretched out, burning above us light years away, falling and streaking around us. Somehow I found myself out in the country stripping my clothes off and diving into a pond of warm water, steam rising above my head and disappearing into the night with laughter and familiar voices floating behind it.
This is the kind of night that you remember when you look back on your life, stretching and nudging your memory for the best it ever held. You remember it, and the faces and noises and feelings and the sights your eyes, bright and youthful, perceived so innocently and unknowingly. You remember yourself and the people around you and what life taught you in that very moment, and you half-longingly fade into that memory if you let your eyes gently close.....
I was two months away from my twenty-first birthday, living at home in Washington, Illinois and spending every night of my summer at the coffeeshop on the square. The Johnson family from Kansas had moved to Washington and started the business, bringing together a jumbled mixture of kids from the surrounding towns, who came to know each other as regulars.
Late one evening, after endless hours of listening to music and dancing, smoking cigarettes and drinking coffee and talking, we loaded up into our cars and headed out of town into the country where Kate had a man-made pond in the field behind her house. Hattie and I arrived last, parking behind Jason's mini-van on the winding, rocky drive up to the house. We sat for a while in the car with our windows down and talked, sipping beers and joking, until eventually we walked up the drive to join the others.
As we reached the back yard, we could see several heads bobbing and shouting from the pond, which was large and dark with a little wooden dock sticking out over the front edge. Everyone was splashing and swimming under soft moonlight, and the dock was lit from dim yellow lights by the house. We neared the edge by the dock and as I saw everyone floating around with a haze of steam above the water, I knew I had to join them. I pulled off my shirt and jeans and ran down to the dock in my bra and underwear, settling at the very edge next to Mandy, and dipped my feet in. The water was warm and relaxing, so I sat and watched everyone playing for a while and talked to Mandy before finally diving in. I swam around and peered at the faces in the dark, letting soft light spread across their cheeks and foreheads, revealing familiar shapes and smiles. I found Jaci, Aly, Kate, Jess, Jeremy, Hattie, and later, Jason, after he cannon-balled off the dock.
After a while, I took a break and pushed my way through the water back to the dock. Tate leaned down and held out his cigarette, burning bright orange in the dark, and I stuck my toes in the mud under my feet and reached up, finding the tip with my lips and breathing in. I thanked him and turned around, pushing my arms out and tilting my head back as I floated away, exhaling and watching it stream out above me and then get swallowed by whisps of steam. We swam around for a while longer, sharing floating noodles and taking turns swimming out to the back edge to relieve ourselves.
Eventually, one by one we started climbing out and trading in our wet clothes for dry towels and t-shirts. I ended up walking across the gravel and grass to the side of the house, where I could change behind some bushes. As I took off my drenched bra and underwear and dried off with someone's towel, I could hear everyone's voices muffled behind the house and the sound of crickets chirping quietly by the trees. To my right was a large, open cornfield, stretching out until it touched the tip of the black sky, where a few stars dangled faintly. I felt an overwhelming sense of beauty pass over me, and I felt a part of it. I thought about how natural and healing it felt to stand in the grass naked, as if I was just another animal going about my part in the whole scheme of things. It made me feel so humble and at the same time, so vital, so important, and so incredibly thankful.
After a few minutes, my sentimental moment passed, and I threw on my clothes and walked back to the dock. Having found my purse, I lit up a cigarette and hung my wet towel over a post by the dock. Everyone had disappeared, but I could hear Hattie saying my name from the behind the bushes where I changed. I talked to her while she changed and then we walked back around the side of the house to find everyone sprawled out, watching for shooting stars. Our cars were lined up along the drive, and everyone had found a seat on someone's trunk or hood, and I pulled my car up in front of them to follow suite.
The metal felt warm under my back, but the cool night air bit at my arms and stomach, so I enlisted people to cuddle with to keep me warm. Tate and Kate snuggled up on either side of me and Aly laid across the front edge next to Kate, and together everyone watched for evidence of the predicted meteor shower. One by one, we spotted the lonely, distant stars, dropping into our atmosphere quietly. They appeared suddenly and showed off for us, streaking across the sky while we instinctively shouted and pointed our fingers or yelled. Then they faded out as fast as they came. I lay on my back and smoked while we all talked, occasionally sang, and laughed endlessly as we watched more and more stars burst and fall.
Eventually we were getting hungry and we decided to head down to East Peoria and get some food at Steak 'n Shake. As we gave out directions and counted our money, we realized our evening had come to an end, because Kate had to leave to go back to school in New York in a few hours. We all climbed off the cars and took turns hugging her and saying our good-byes. After my hug, I slipped away and got into my car, watching everyone in front of me through the windshield. I wanted to take a moment to remember it if I could. I watched the sillouhettes of their bodies clump together for a group hug and heard their voices and laughter, and tried to memorize it for eternity. I sat thinking, transfixed and somewhat somber, until Hattie got in and we all started slowly backing out of the drive.
There are people who go through their entire lives never really connecting and sharing with other human beings, and I have been blessed with the opportunity countless times. And now, this summer, I have been blessed once again to learn, grow, and be shaped and loved by these people who fell into my life at this particular point in time. And eventually, down the road, we will all part again, fading into other places and paths. But I had to realize, we will be leaving one another, but carrying with us what was shining in one another---as bright and beautiful and quick as the stars we watched tonight.
