A Toast

A gentle breeze was just enough to sweep away the remaining heat. The night was named early fall, when the world remained summer, but a neat jacket helped. There was a line of us, lying on the warm bed of sand, arms behind heads, legs spread out, belly sides up so that the air passed through our cheeks first. Under the blinking sky it was, and hadn’t been in quite a while, this pleasant. Peacefully, we had glasses of beer in hands, chuckling. 

            Behind were the woods, what separated the calm from the rowdiness of the cosmopolitan city. Across them was the so-called life, and our side was the imagined. Everyone knew what autumn meant: kids would go to school, new graduates would join the work force, and a new chapter would unfold. But every time you read a book, you would think to stop after reading this chapter. You don’t turn to the next page until you fully taste this one. So there we laid, enjoying the final bits of it.

            The crescent was hanging on the west already. We talked about friends, about each other’s companies, families, which some don’t have yet, work, how we all hated the exploitation. I stood up. The twinkling water was waiting, and I plunged into it. Getting soaked, drinking a salty gulp of seawater, I heard a wave of laughter on my back. That surely made me a clown, but I enjoyed it. I wouldn’t do this again for a long time. It was well past midnight. Chattering, I held up the remaining half a bottle of beer.

            “Thanks for taking care of me in the past three years.”

            A toast, and off we go.

——————————

Upon the hill I sat. Leaves were falling in a curly pattern, covering up the earth with reds and golds. Saw a kid going high and low on a swing, his mother pushing him  on the back, smiling at each other. The dad was standing at the front taking pictures, and for him, every day was special. Another kid was cycling on a little path across the creek, or at least he was learning how to ride. His dad was walking alongside of him, holding his arms sideways to prevent his child from falling, or to catch him, if he did fall.

           I saw my younger self. I pointed at them and thought that I used to be one of them. Worriless, free, spreading wings, and being naïve and curious about everything. I used to make marks on the tree with my dad to record how tall I was every year, but the tree grew much faster than I did. I hadn’t come to the park in a long time. “I was busy,” was my response every time there had been an invitation.

            I turned to my dad who was sitting next to me. His hands tried to hold me in his arms, but they were uncertain, as I was already a grown-up. I saw them hesitate. His eyes were red. I tried to smile, but emotions kept pulling my grin down. I wanted to act like a man with his capability, but I couldn’t. I embraced him tightly. I knew I wouldn’t be able to do this for long.

           “Don’t miss me too much.”

            A toast, and off we go.

——————————

    “Where would you be going?”

            “Los Angeles, I guess. You?”

            “Maybe New York.”

            “Chicago for me.”

            “North Carolina.”

            “So, I guess this would be it then?”

            “Yeah, I guess.”

            We took another picture. Each one of us was in a fancy dress or suit. It was meant to be. The city was quieting down, so we should get settled as well.

            We held our glasses for the last time together.

            A toast, and off we go.