Your Voice Was The Soundtrack Of My Summer

Looking for my jeans in the corner, I knew I forgot something at her house. My favorite blue jeans with the fading at the knees and the bleached holes at the pocket and the tearing at the fringes. And that wasn't all that was missing. My iPod, my beloved treasure has seemed to have disappeared as well. Considering my lack of patience for shopping, I was out of luck in finding jeans that actually fit me. I decided against wearing just my boxers, in fear of her mother catching my eye and interrogating my lack of clothing. Figuring it was better than nothing I put on one of my best pair of trousers and a button up shirt, checking myself in the mirror, I almost laughed. I looked like a little kid about to go an Easter Mass.

I walked over to her house, slipping on some flip flops, wondering what I would answer to if her mother asked why I was exceedingly properly dressed, I decided against this prospect and maybe would make up an excuse to take out Indigo again. This time somewhere remotely formal.

“Paul, why you look, dressed up today,” Ms. Saunders said opon opening the door, her eyes were grating everything, from my clean shaven face and my attire.

“I wanted to take Indigo out tonight, if that's alright with you,” I said, putting on a smile for effect.

“Where to?” her mom inquired, I saw Indigo peering out from the door, taking in my attire, she quickly nodded her head and disappeared.

“The, uh, The Marina,” I stuttered, running a hand through my hair nervously.

“The Marina,” Ms. Saunders repeated dumbfounded.

“Yes, The Marina,” I said, hoping that she wouldn’t notice I was (a) bluffing (b) stalling and (c) twitching.

“Isn’t that a suit and tie eatery?” she eyed with a hint of a faint smile.

“No, no, it’s actually only for special dinners, this is a more teen night dinner,” I said, hoping that I didn’t sound too bogus.

“Teen night?” she inquired, her eyebrows slightly arching.

Oh, shit, oh shit. This is not going too good.

“Yes, it’s more a more casual attire as you can imagine,” I smiled at her, wondering if she was easily won over like her daughter.

Where was Indigo?

“Right, right I see, why don’t you come in? Actually I’ll be in the loo for a while, if you excuse me,” her mom winked at me.

“Have fun with her Paul, while you can,” she added.

“Right, I will Ms. Saunders,” I nodded in return.

“And, honey, you are a horrible liar,” she said as she turned her back on me.

“I-uh, yes, I-yeah, I am,” I sheepishly nodded while taking a seat on the unused leather sofa.

As I heard the door shut I saw Indigo rushing down the stairs, her hair in the process of being straightened, half dressed and one shoe on her right foot and the other in her hand.

“Come up quick! I have your jeans!” she lead me upstairs with this grin I’ll never forget.

Passing up the stairs, I saw her school pictures pyramiding the wall. Her first grade picture, grinning toothlessly in a navy blue uniform to her 7th grade picture wearing pigtails and an obnoxious pink shirt with colored braces. I smiled to myself. The most recent picture was her 10th grade photo. Her hair was still long, her face already matured, without a trace of acne on her face. Her blue eyes glowing with a subtle softness and her brown hair straightened and tamed with golden highlights she obviously now had removed.

I turned to face the real Indigo, her short hair struggling to be straightened to perfection and trying to strap on a dress and jewelry at the same time.

I opened the door to her room. A room I’ve visited so many times, I smiled, sitting on her bed where my jeans lay.

“My JEANS!” I faked enthused gathering it in my arms. I felt for the pocket, finding my silver iPod. I paused, when I didn’t feel anything at the pockets.

I pounded on her bathroom door, where Indigo was putting on her unneeded makeup.

“INDI! WHERE’D YOU PUT MY iPOD?!” I thundered, playfully.

“Chill Paul, I’ve got it,” Indigo emerged from the bathroom, looking gorgeous as ever, her timid smile erupting into a huge grin on her face. In her right hand she showed me my iPod. I reached out to grab it but she held it away and grinned maliciously at me sitting down on her bed and looking curiously at me.

“You made a playlist with my name,” she solemnly said, scrolling through my iPod and showing me the name Indigo Rae 71 songs.

I looked shyly at her. Crap, I forgot about that. I nodded ever so slowly and as she clicked pressed the small battered button on my scratched and overused iPod, the first song that appeared was I Wanna Hold Your Hand by the Beatles. Followed by Stairway to Heaven and I Miss You by Blink 182. She looked at me with immensity.

“Those are my in love with you songs, I had so many, so I just compiled it into a playlist,” I admitted as she scrolled through the songs.

Michael Jackson, more Beatles, Eagles, ABBA, Smiths and other artists she scrolled by. Then she stopped at Soundtrack Of Your Summer/Thunder/Indigo’s Song.

“My song?” she repeats.

“It’s yours,” I shrugged.

“You made a playlist of me Paul,” she put down the iPod and looked at me with those intense eyes.

“I did, yeah,” I nodded.

“God, Paul, why are you doing this to me?” she cracked a smile and got up, smoothing out her dress and continued straightening her 3/4ths straightened hair.

“Because I love you?” I asked.

She paused straightening, looking at me for the longest time before emitting a strange stoic smile and nodded as if taking in this information out of force.

“I love you too,” she finally said after what seemed the longest time.

“Come on, I’m taking you to The Marina,” I said, joining her in the bathroom and staring at our reflection in the mirror.

I saw the happiest couple in the mirror. A gorgeous face was peeking out beneath short layers of straight hair and a tall lanky boy, embracing her torso and kissing her cheek because he was happy that she loved him back.

-

“The Marina?” she laughed at my absurd lie.

“Oh, please, your mother could care less where we went, she knew I was lying anyways,” I said.

“Anyone can tell if you’re lying,” she smiled, playfully hitting me on my shoulder.

“I’m not really that horrible at lying, am I?” I looked at her with fake disbelief.

“Just a little bit,” she winked.

“Well, I may not keep my promise but I can probably surprise you,” I smiled ingeniously.

“What’s that, like making my dream come true?” she laughed.

“One of those dreams, yes,” I assured her, and I we turned right, to where the dormant lighthouse that hasn’t been lighted in years stood gallantly.

-

Remembering how she blindfolded me to get to the dance studio that one time, I decided to return the favor by blindfolding her with my hands as we were nearing the lighthouse. We were walking barefoot in the sand, which sort of gave most of it away, but I didn’t mind because I knew she was going to be surprised anyway.

“Paul? We’re on the beach, what are we doing here?” Indigo asked.

“You’ll see,” I assured her.

“If I’m going to fall off a cliff, you let me know anytime soon okay?” Indigo says, and I can only smile to this.

“In that case, I’ll be there to catch you,” I smirked knowingly at her.

We reached the lighthouse. The great magnificent beauty with spiral black stripes running up to the top was alone and hasn’t been visited in years. I decided it was time to let the baby shine once more for Indigo at least.

“I feel concrete now, it’s concrete. We’re not on the beach anymore. God, the suspense is killing me Paul!” Indigo exclaimed, and you can tell there was excitement and anxiousness in her voice. Yes that was a good sign.

I know it was greedy of me, but I couldn’t help but lightly steal a kiss from her lips that were smiling so beautifully.

“You’ll have to wait,” I told her, still covering her eyes with both my hands as I lead her up to the entrance of the lighthouse.

The yellow No Trespassers sign was graffiti-ed with unintelligible but very artistic words. I undid the chain blocking us from the stairs with my one hand, while the other still covered Indigo’s eyes.

“Okay, we’re going up, watch your step,” I said, but instantly I saw the irony of my words when I said them.

“Of course I’ll watch my step,” Indigo sarcastically whispered.

To be brutally honest, she wasn’t missing anything in terms of sight. The stairs were concrete and cold, weeds were growing in the crevices and the spiraling of the stairs made everything seem more dark and cold. There was no sunlight seeping in, no window to allow it through so it was moist and unbearably dark inside. The stairs were rough and it was hard enough to climb it with two fully functioning eyes. I looked down to watch Indigo’s petite feet scrambling and carefully trying to find the next step. I felt like she was going to fall every time.

The hand railings didn’t help much; it was grimy with mold growing all over it and I refused to touch it after I got green shit all over the palm of my right hand.

At long last I couldn’t take Indigo’s struggle finding the stairs. I took her up in my arms, while still managing to cover her eyes.

“PAUL! Warn me at least! God I thought I tripped and I was going to die, where are we anyways?” Indigo said after shrieking my name.

“I can’t tell you, it will ruin the surprise,” I persisted. I heard her groan from disappoint as I practically ran up the concrete gray cold hard spiraling stairs. The faint orange pink light at the top motivated me and told me we were near.

Finally we were at the balcony looking thing. I had no experience with lighthouses but I knew this was where you pulled the lever and this huge magnificent light would shine. I hoped it would still work.

There in the middle was the reflector and the huge bulb. I looked around for the lever in this dome circular room. I found the rusted salty smelling lever, but I also found a small window door looking thing amongst the circular glass that surrounded the inner part of the lighthouse.

I opened it, afraid that anytime the glass would shatter under the unexpected weight of my hand. It didn’t, although there were already tiny breaks in the glass as if someone were throwing seashells at the poor lighthouse.

When I opened it, the wind was blowing hard, but not ferociously. Her hair blew in the wind, her raven black hair. I still carefully held her while covering her eyes. I saw two stairs leading up to a spot that was perfect. You could just stand there and let your hands out and pretend to be flying or something, sort of like that scene in the Titanic.

I guess that would be the inspiration for what I did next. I carried her back inside, flipping the switch on. She asked me if we flew to the sun. I said yes, because the explosion of light was amazing as it turned around and around endlessly in circles. I carried her outside again in the wind. I set her down carefully on the top of the stairs. Using my left hand I raised her hands up in the air straight out.

“Paul? What am I doing?” Indigo still sounds skeptical, and I know this isn’t far away from falling off a cliff.

I whisper in her ear.

“Open your eyes,”

She does and I get behind her, holding my arms out like she was.

She gasps as if she can’t believe what she’s seeing and I don’t blame her at all, because the sight from the lighthouse was absolutely magnificent.

It was like you were flying, and that was the damn truth. You could see the ocean for miles, and the next island it hit, you could see the rock formations and the slight outline of sandy beaches. The sky was a palette of colors with hues of orange and purple skies and pink candy cotton clouds.

“I’m on top of the world Paul! We’re flying!” she was yelling in pure delight back at me. I only leaned my head in her hair, smelling her strawberry scented shampoo and kissing her black hair. I knew that moments like these weren’t going to last, but I had to at least make the most of everything, and this moment wasn’t going to last at all. Unless you count my mind.

“We’re flying away out of here,” I told her in her ear.

She turned to me and smiled that smile of hers.

Sometimes second chances were worth everything. They don’t last either.

The cotton candy clouds drifted away and the skies turned to a midnight black and blue. But Indigo and me were still flying high above the rainbow and the skies.