Running through

As I got out of my car yesterday afternoon, the little neighbor boy came up the driveway on his bike. "We had orange soda," he announced. "I'm sticky."

His hands, arms, and face were covered with soda, and he smelled sweet when I hugged him.

We've had such cool rainy weather that it hasn't felt much like summer, but yesterday the sun was shining. A few bees were buzzing around the clover in the lawn, and the road smelled like warm tar. Ponytail came trailing into the yard after her brother, "I'm hot. I wanna go swimming."

The nearest place to swim is several miles away, but I pulled the garden hose out and hung it in a tree so that the kids could go running through the mist. After a few minutes of watching how much fun they were having, I took off my sneakers and joined them.