Summer in Farmington

A short story by Louisa Stancioff

Even before summer began, the teenagers of Farmington were already preparing for the festivities. Forgotten algebra quizzes and five paragraph essays were triumphantly burned into ash while docks were pushed out onto lakes and sailboats were painted shades of bright reds yellows and blues. Summer in Farmington brought the people together. The last of the high school seniors' few months were spent either down by the Sandy River, driving on muddy trails or falling asleep in grassy fields in Industry looking up at the masses of stars. Everyone would gather together. People who had never spoken became the best of friends and told each other they were sad they would have to say goodbye so soon. Of course, no one truly cared what would happen at the end of the summer, but they liked to think they did, and sometimes on drunken nights, they would hold hands and cry into each other's hair, laughing at their ignorance and crying at their loneliness. "I'll never forget you!" They would sob sincerely, and perhaps they wouldn't, but in the end they did. They always did.

Sarah couldn't help being insincere, and often caught herself smiling when she didn't need to or crying when she wasn't sad. She was just like everyone else, or liked to think she was, and she took advantage of the summer haze, finding herself in conversations that she wouldn't expect herself to have and in places she didn't know existed.

On one particular night, she found herself on top of the Gelato Cafe, the highest roof in Farmington. Jeffery led them all to it, showing them a different part of Farmington they had never known, and she looked out onto the miniature city, glowing orange light. They sat in a circle on the rocky surface giggling uncontrollably as cars went by in the early morning hours. Jeffery sat close to her and laughed the loudest, the most out of control. He didn't care who heard him.

She had always thought him to be in love with her secretly. She kept it to herself though, not wanting other people to know about her theory. She changed day to day in her own opinion of him, and kept her thoughts of him brief and indecisive. She would rather focus on the resigned behavior of the other students in her school - The insecure girls with their purses, and the boys with their jeeps and four-wheelers. She was shy and didn't understand Jeffery. She didn't want to understand Jeffery.

In brief drunken conversation he would confess awkward sentences, staring deeper into her eyes than she would normally let someone.

You will end up hating me, but I will be the most important person in your life.

She would laugh stupidly and ask him any question she wanted, wondering if he would remember any of it and hoping he wouldn't.

I know who I am going to marry.

Of course, she had other boys to think about, and didn't have the time to worry about someone so insignificant in her life. She would drive by his house every day on her way to school though, and wonder why they never rode together. His house was situated along the river in Farmington Falls, and she would often see him sitting on the lonely rocks as she drove over the narrow bridge on her way home. Sometimes she would stop and have momentary conversation with him about people they knew and school. Somehow they never had much to talk about when they were sober.

But as the summer was coming to a close, Jeffery stopped taking them onto roofs. He stopped being a part of their midnight Mcdonalds stops and their adventures down by the river. Word got around that he was in a new relationship with a younger girl. She was called Sam and she had long, straight blonde hair that curled at the ends. Sarah hated hated the curls at the end of her pretty hair and she hated that Jeffery could be with such a normal girl.

One evening, as night was approaching and the people were settling into the artificial light from the town, she climbed on top of Gelato by herself. She laid on the edge of the roof with just her chin sticking out over the ledge and watched the people down below. She stayed up there until everyone was gone, and some of the stars above her showed through the orange glow from the streets. Sarah closed her eyes and felt the rocky surface of the roof stabbing her chest and stomach and suddenly heard laughter down below. Her eyes opened and she could see Jeffery and Sam drunkenly stumbling along the sidewalk in the orange light toward the Gazebo. She was laughing and he was laughing. His clumsy fingers wrapped themselves around her delicate hand and held on tight as he kissed her cheek.

And lying on top of the tallest roof in Farmington, gazing down on the blurring miniature town with flashing red and orange street lights and dusty alleyways, a single chagrinned tear fell from Sarah's eye and rolled down her chin to the rocky surface, for something inside of her had always known she was the one who was in love.