I think back to the day when my family was reunited for one last time. My brothers came down from the Blue Ridge Mountains of West Virginia, my sisters and mother drove down from the smoky air of Birmingham, near Montgomery, and we had all met up at the beach for a day of enjoyment. I never seen my dad look so happy when he had seen my mom and all his kids running around. This would be the last summer we would be together for a long time. My siblings would be all grown up starting their own families and going to college soon. Charity, my oldest sister, was going to have her first baby in due time. Mom had painted a giant golden sun with a smiling face on her belly, she was radiant as the stars that day, listening to a tune no one could hear.
That day, my other sister confided in me that if she really reached she could recall about three memories from those early years with mom and dad when they were together. She didn’t name them for me, but I worked to fill in the gaps. I reminded her of our mom drawing elaborate pictures for us to color and taking us to Chinatown for a day out, of her walking us on warm afternoons to a park down the block, teaching us how to eat honeysuckle, and the pointed way she’d laugh after delivering a comment that was particularly clever. I walked with my parents down the glowing beach while watching the sailboats grow big-bellied with the ambitious winds upon the blue ocean; I felt complete. When the day was over we had all sat together on the soft sand and looked towards the horizon. My family surrounded me and gave me the most beautiful hug of my life, it was like a gasoline rainbow. No organ is big enough to hold my love for them. It overflows my heart, and runs over into the sky, falling upon everything that I love. The sun was low, nestled amongst the wind tossed clouds that obscured a gold horizon. Golden drops of heaven dripping upon our faces, haphazard shards of intense pink, orange, and red pierced the sky; swirling, in a multitude of color. Sprinkled over the deep-blue blanket, crisp-white triangles floated serenely. The sun rose lower, cascading light onto the gems caught in the sand. We watched as the sea spread thick over the bones of the earth and rolled under a floating pelican. It bobbed in contentment and peered back at us with its beady black eyes; ever so watchful. My worries drained into the cool sand, ebbing away with the ocean. My breath, following the serene waves that caressed the shore. My mind drifted away, and I felt a tide of relaxation overcome me.
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