Girls of Summer

    We lived on the banks of the Tennessee River， and we owned the summers when we were girls. We ran wild through humid summer days that never ended but only melted one into the other. We floated down rivers of weekdays with no school， no rules ， no parents， and no constructs other than our fantasies. We were good girls， my sister and I. We had nothing to rebel against. This was just life as we knew it， and we knew the summers to be long and to be ours.

    The road that ran past our house was a one-lane rural route. Every morning， after our parents had gone to work， I' d wait for the mail lady to pull up to our box. Some days I would put enough change for a few stamps into a mason jar lid and l eave it in the mailbox. I hated bothering mail lady with this transaction， which made her job take longer. But I liked that she knew that someone in our house sent letters into the outside world.

    I liked walking to the mailbox in my bare feet and leaving footprints on the dewy grass. I imagined that feeling the wetness on the bottom of my feet made me a poet. I had never read poetry， outside of some Emily Dickinson. But I imagined th at people who knew of such things would walk to their mailboxes through the morning dew in their bare feet.

    We planned our weddings with the help of Barbie dolls and the tiny purple wildfl owers growing in our side yard. We became scientists and tested concoctions of milk， orange juice， and mouthwash. We ate handfuls of bittersweet chocolate chips and licked peanut butter off spoons. When we ran out of sweets to eat， we snitched sugary Flintstones vitamins out of the medicine cabinet. We became masters of the Kraft macaroni and cheese lunch， and we dutifully called our mother at work three times a day to give her updates on our adventures. But don't call too often or speak too loudly or whine too much， we told ourselves， or else they'll get an noyed and she'll get fired and the summers will end.

    We shaped our days the way we chose， far from the prying eyes of adults. We found our dad's Playboys and charged the neighborhood boys money to look at them. We made crank calls around the county， telling people they had won a new car. "What kind？" they' d ask. "Red，" we' d always say. We put on our mom's old prom dresses， complete with gloves and hats， and sang backup to the C.W. McCall song 褻onvoy， " which we' d found on our dad's turntable.

    We went on hikes into the woods behind our house， crawling under barbed wire fences and through tangled undergrowth. Heat and humidity found their way throught he leaves to our flushed faces. We waded in streams that we were always surprised to come across. We walked past cars and auto parts that had been abandoned in the woods， far from any road. We' d reach the tree line and come out unexpectedly into a cow pasture. We' d perch on the gate or stretch out on the large flat limes tone outcrop that marked the end of the Woods Behind Our House.

    One day a thunderstorm blew up along the Tennessee River. It was one of those storms that make the day go dark and the humidity disappear. First it was still and quiet. There was electricity in the air and then the sharp crispness of a summer day being blown wide open as the winds rushed in. We threw open11 all the doors and windows. We found the classical radio station from two towns away and turned up the bass and cranked up the speakers. We let the wind blow in and churn our summer day around. We let the music we were only vaguely familiar with roar throu gh the house. And we twirled. We twirled in the living room in the wind and in the music. We twirled and we im agined that we were poets and dancers and scientists and spring brides.

    We twirled and imagined that if we could let everything —— the thunder， the storm， the wind ， the world —— into that house in the banks of the Tennessee River， we could live in our summer dreams forever. When we were girls.

    在還是小女孩的時候，夏天是我們的，那時，我家住在田納西河畔。在那些永無盡頭、一天天彼此交融的濕潤夏日里，我們撒了野地跑著。我們在長長的周日中放任著自己，沒有學校的管束，沒有規則的羈絆，沒有父母的訓誡，沒有既定的觀念，只有屬于我們自己的夢幻。我和姐姐，我們都是好女孩，沒有什么需要我們去對抗和反叛的。這就是我們所知的生活，我們知 道夏日正長，而且是屬于我們的。

    我家門前的那條路是一條單車道的鄉間小路。每天早上，每天早上，父母上班以后，我會等著女郵差把車停在我們的信箱跟前。有時候，我會在大口玻璃瓶的瓶蓋里放上夠買幾張郵票的零錢，再把它放在信箱里面。我討厭為這樣的交易去麻煩女郵差，這會延長她的工作時間。但我喜歡讓她知道我們家里也有人寄信到外面的世界。

    我喜歡赤足走向我家的信箱，在沾著露水的草地上留下腳印。我想像著，足底濕漉漉的感覺使我成了一個詩人。除了艾米莉。狄金森的一些作品外，我其實從不讀詩。但是我想，懂得這類東西的人一定會赤足踏著晨露走向他們的信箱。

    我們用芭比娃娃和旁邊小花園里紫色的小野花來籌辦我們的婚禮游戲。我們是科學家，嘗試牛奶、橙汁和漱口水的混合物。我們吃光一把又一把甜中帶苦的巧克力片，把勺子上的花生醬舔得干干凈凈。糖果吃完了，我們就從藥箱里偷拿有甜味的弗林斯通復合維生素。我們成了用卡夫通心面和干酪烹制午餐的專家，并盡職盡責地每天給正在上班的媽媽打3個電話匯報我們的最新情況。但是，我們告誡自己：不要打太多電話，不要說得太大聲，也不要在電話里過多地訴苦，要不然他們就會生氣，媽媽就會被解雇，美好的夏日也就完結了。

    遠離大人們窺視的目光，我們按自己選擇的方式安排著生活。我們找出了爸爸的《花花公子 》雜志，讓鄰家的男孩們付費觀看。我們給全縣各地的人打神秘電話，對他們說他們贏得了一輛新車。“什么樣的？”他們會問。而我們總是回答：“紅的。”我們穿上媽媽班級舞會時穿的舊禮服，配上手套和帽子，伴著在爸爸的唱機上找到的麥考爾的《護衛隊》歌唱。

    我們到屋后的樹林里遠足，從帶刺的鐵絲籬墻下爬過，穿過纏繞糾結的灌木叢。熱氣和濕氣透過樹葉的罅隙撲上我們緋紅的臉頰。每次我們總是會意外地遇到溪流，于是我們就在其中涉水而行。我們走過被丟棄在遠離大路的林中的轎車和汽車部件。我們會一直走到樹林邊上，結果意外走進一個奶牛場。我們會倚坐在門上休息，或者攤開四肢躺在露出地面的又大又平的石灰巖上。這些巖石標志著“屋后樹林”的盡頭。 有一天，田納西河沿岸出現了暴風雨。這樣的暴風雨讓天變得陰沉，也驅走了濕氣。剛開始，一切寧靜又安詳。空氣中孕含著電流，乍起的風把夏日的清爽吹得豁然大開。我們敞開所有的門窗，把收音機調到兩個鎮子之外的古典音樂臺，加重低音并把音量開得大大的。我們讓風吹進來，讓它肆意攪動著我們的夏日。我們讓似曾相熟的音樂在屋子里轟鳴，我們則在一邊隨 著音樂飛快地旋轉。

    在風中、在音樂里、在客廳里，我們飛旋。飛旋著，想像自己是詩人、是舞者、是科學家、是春天里的新娘。我們飛旋著，想像要是能讓一切——雷聲、暴風雨、狂風以至整個世界——旋入田納西河畔的那座房子，我們就能永遠活在我們的夏日之夢里。那時，我們還是小女孩。