nostalgic about fall

the coziest season

The air was crisp and cool, but the bugs lingered, leaving behind a final trace of the hot, humid summer months. Even today it felt like August had left scraped nail marks on the Earth when noon had heated her cheeks and left sweat trickling down the back of her neck. Crickets and cicadas performed a symphony that swirled through the now chilly apple scented breeze.

She pulled her pilled, river blue flannel in closer as she began to toss pine wood chunks into the fire pit. Flecks of bone white dust sprang up as the wood landed roughly into the pit. In an hour or so, her friends would arrive. They would gather around the pit and merrily tell summer stories, talk of future fall adventures, and pine over the endless Halloween costumes they could choose. As if it were a dance, they would step back and forward, unable to choose the sweltering heat of the flames on their faces or the lonely cold just a mere 3 feet back. Sticky sweet s'mores would appear, and there would be playful arguments about how burnt a marshmallow should truly be. The flames would perform their usual charade, flickering and cracking & moving in a way that only fire itself has mastered.

Late into the night, when the fire starts to unwind and the bugs perform their coda, they will begin to tell their most bone chilling tales. The temperature will feel as if it dropped 10 degrees and everything will still, including the thick smoky air. Old itchy blankets will feel more cozy as white knuckles pull them against their faces. But even the scariest story couldn't ruin this moment for her. Friendship and fall and everything that lay in front of her held too much promise to be jilted by a good storyteller. So after everyone said their see-you-tomorrows, she snubbed out the fire and crawled into bed. She slept more soundly than she had in months; even with the window cracked, inviting whatever ghouls and ghosts they had conjured that evening. Nothing could beat sleeping in a 60 degree room filled with cozy blankets & twinkling lights.