Warm Summer Nights

• Jo Fetner, Grade 10
• Short Story
• 2021

Faint light poked through the cracks that adorned the cool grey walls as the man traipsed through the destruction of the night before. Dust still speckled the air, mixing with the salty tears that were now drying on the apples of his cheeks. He made an abrupt halt as soon as he saw the particular bodies that were strewn in front of him, they were so beyond life, with hazy eyes and paling skin, that he almost didn’t recognise them as his friends. Time seemed to slow as his eyes began to glaze over and a harsh ring began to vibrate back and forth through his ears...

Now out in front him was a vast, glistening lake. Bounds of conversation swept in and out of his ears, the words moving too fast for his brain to properly make sense of them. What he could hear clearly however, was the deep sound of a ringing bell which echoed across the water and reverberated around his head. Tearing his eyes away from the tranquility of the lake, he faced the two boys beside him only to notice they were already staring directly at him- at this, they all erupted into copious laughter, drowning out the obnoxious noise that had previously threatened to rupture his ears. The boy closest to the lake, of whom sported a brown cashmere sweater, beckoned for each of them to follow him up the grassy hill behind where they sat. The three boys scrambled up the hill and ran into the forest that lined the crest of the hillside, the heat from the sun above soaking into their skin. They carelessly sprinted through the dense greenery towering above them until they reached their spot, a patch of forest in which no trees remained. It was here, in the deepest and most secluded part of the forest that each of the boys could find solace in, enclosed in a space that was theirs and for them only. They became so engrossed in their conversations that they almost missed the sky as it was painted in deep oranges, reds and then a final and abrupt blue. As stars began to appear above their heads, they laid down on the forest floor, brown leaves crunching under the weight of their bodies as they nestled into each other. It was during these dark, warm summer nights that the boys were able to put their antics on hold and just lay in comfortable silence.

The man wanted to sob as his eyes traced the outlines of the fallen figures, tears threatening to spill over his waterline. But they never fell, his eyes had been emptied of all its tears. A softer ringing still remained, as if it were attempting to curdle the little remnants of his mind he had left. Curling up into a ball and shutting his eyes he began to slow his breaths. And with nothing else to do, the man went quiet.