I Remember...
2003-08-27 @ 11:21 p.m.


I remember a day last summer when I sat by the glow of the fluorescent light, and it shone blue on me, and I stared up at the stars, at the night sky, and wondered of aimless thoughts in my head. The crickets chirped along to the buzz of the blue light, like the buzz of the bees from earlier that day, but I paid it no mind, I paid it no mind.

I remember the people that were with me that day, surrounding a cheap, plastic, white, patio table, each sitting comfortably on equally cheap, plastic, white, patio chairs. We were stars under the stars. The overgrown grass scratched at my bare ankles, we were all bare foot, but I paid it no mind, I paid it no mind.

I remember how we spoke of nonsense, and laughed at the dumbest of jokes, but most of all, I remember a taste. I remember a meal.

We thought nothing of our health that day, as we raided our kitchens for junk, that is to say, junk food.

Large, colorful bags of potato chips, cookies, sugary cereals, popcorn, hard candies, and chocolates became a rainbow, of sorts, adorning our barren, white table. They sat atop a checkerboard tablecloth of red and white, a typical picnic in a not-so typical way. A rainbow of sweets in a red and white checkerboard sky, and we were the stars that night.

Yet, this wasn't all. We weren't done gathering for our sky-feast. Raiding our kitchens again, and again, and again, each one of us brought a multitude of sweets to our meal, to our feast. Ice cream came in containers the size of barrels, in all the different varieties you could ever think of, from chocolate to orange sherbert, and everything in between. We brought large, fluffy bags of marshmallows, pillow-like and soft, and an assortment of different cakes and treats that ranged from the mundane to the exotic. We were a group of army ants, marching back and forth, gathering for their queen.

Once our table was set, our checkerboard sky, and the table was a mass of color, our rainbow, and the four infamous friends sat, in anticipation, mouths salivating, the stars, there was only one thing left to say: "Let the feast begin!"

Beneath the dark, night sky, the stars overhead, and the blue glow of the fluorescent light, four pairs of eyes flooded with light. Hands grasped, grabbed, gripped, clutched, and clawed onto and into anything and everything they could find. Tearing open packages, breaking past the protective seals, using their teeth to get things open when their fingernails and fingers wouldn't do. These hands grabbed onto spoons and dug at the ice cream, we fought with this rainbow, fought to get the color inside, and still, in all our frenzy, not a single bite was yet to be taken, until...

I tightly held onto one of the big, silver spoons set on the table, and looked at it, inquisitively. I knew what to do with it, so I led myself, my arm, my hand, and my spoon over to the ice cream barrels. I hovered over each flavor a bit, until I knew which I would surely want to try first; Rocky Road. I shoved the spoon into the half-melted, chocolate delight, and smiled at the fact that the spoon glided quickly, smoothly, and I brought it back up, right in front of my face, and stared. Silver, the spoon, with a rich, chocolate brown smeared atop it, along with swirls of white marshmallow, and almond rocks on this rocky road, and I smiled, again.

I felt as if I were back to the time when I was five years old, and I knew this was what I expected the game "Candy Land" to be like, only to be later disappointed. Putting the spoon in my mouth, everyone around me stopped, and stared, mouths agape.

The chocolate danced on my tongue, in and out of the crevices of my teeth, chilling my gums, sending shivers up and down my spine, brain freeze madness overcame me, and I was lost in a world of sugar. I laughed in my excitement. Everyone stared, and quickly dug into the other contents of the table. Cereals tasting of different fruits, whipped creams, cheese snacks, chips (both of the chocolate and potato varieties), cakes, and cookies poured into our mouths, sending waves of pleasure to our taste buds.

Our minds wandered on these thoughts of sugar, of vanilla cookies drenched in chocolate sauces, of potato chips crunching beneath the fall of our teeth, of candy cane streets in our checkerboard sky. We thought of the cotton candy, pink and blue, sitting atop a mountain of mints, and we made M&M snowmen, but we picked out all the green ones, we only like to eat those. I say I can taste a difference between the different colors of M&M's, but that's just me.

My mind lingered on my first bite, magical in it's sugar intensity. I can still taste it, though I can hardly taste anything anymore, for the sugar of previous bite masks that of the next. I can remember the chocolate, and the marshmallow swirls, the little white swirls, and the almonds crunching in contrast to the smooth consistency of the ice cream. I can remember the smile that crept across my lips, the smile that crept across me with that simple pleasure.

I drank a cup of water, to rid myself of the sugar of the previous bite, and went on, back to the sky-feast.

Hours later, rainbow depleted, checkerboard sky lying, crumpled, on the ground, and the stars too sick to move an inch, the sky-feast was over and done with. What was left of the food went to the happy ants that now raided the cheap, plastic, white, patio table. They raided the table like we raided our kitchen. Maybe they wanted a sky-feast of their own. I hope they don't get as sick as we did.

I remember that night, that carefree night in mid-July that kept me in stitches for days. I couldn't stop laughing, I couldn't stop smiling, and I think back, and I can still remember that first bite. I can still remember the taste of the chocolate, I can still remember the taste.

As I sit here, months later, beneath the very same sky, beneath the blue glow of the fluorescent light, listening to it buzz, buzz like the bees, I can still remember... a taste.

The overgrown grass scratched at my bare ankles, but I paid it no mind. I paid it no mind.

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

This was something that I had to write for English. We were given the topic of writing about "a meal we had over the summer", so I made up a meal I would have liked to have over the summer. I love how it turned out. That'll make that show-off bitch who wrote her's in five minutes shut up. I hate that show-off bitch, she's very "show-offy".

I saw Mars in the sky tonight. It was the "red" (more like yellow) dot in the sky, just southeast of my house. I took a picture of it, just so I can say I've seen Mars.

____________

Listening to: My ENTIRE Playlist, which, by the way, currently consists of sixty-eight songs. At each song lasting about five minutes, you can surely see I've been on my computer for a long time. It's not my fault, I had to perfect my "food" story.



<<before - after>>

The Weather Underground - 2008-11-12
- - 2008-05-06
She knows I can read. - 2008-05-06
William Jacobson - 2008-05-02
Lost Boys - 2008-04-30



everything Claudia (2003-2008)