Thank you, Harris Burdick

A Strange Day In July

            Julie smiled as she felt the warmth from the sunlight against her fare skin. For the past week, anytime she would go outside she would only be greeted with the gloominess of the grey rain clouds above. She missed playing outside, she missed the smell of fresh air, and most importantly she missed her best friend. As soon as she got the okay from her mother, the six year old darted two doors down as fast as her little legs in her pretty pink dress could take her, to her best friend Josh’s house. Josh was just as eager to go back outside since he had been trapped for way too long inside his boring house. The two six year olds joined hands and made their way to their favorite place to play. The small creek that just took about five minutes to walk to, and held so many of their precious memories of growing up together. When they approached the creek, Julie grew tense and held tightly to Josh’s arm for protection. The once tiny creek that was peaceful and still, was now a running river from all the rain that had been fed into it the past week. Josh was too excited to be back to stop for anything, so he just dragged his smaller, slightly scared friend along with him. Since he knew that she was nervous to be around that high of water, he decided to teach her a game his father had once taught him. Together, the friends collected flat stones with a smooth surface. Josh taught Julie how to skip the rocks across the water. It took Julie a few tries, but she very quickly caught on. She let out a few chuckles whenever she noticed that Josh’s stones started coming back, causing hers to go farther than his. Josh soon grew frustrated, and his competitive nature kicked in. Julie suggested that they try and see whose can go the farthest since she realized that she was starting to have a slight advantage.  Josh quickly became determined to beat his friend he had just been trying to cheer up minutes ago. Julie went first, a tossed the stone across the water as they both watched in awe at how well the little six year old could through the rock. Her best friend went next. He threw with all his might, but the third stone came skipping back.