A HOT DAY IN JULY (Part 2)

The temperature continued to rise. In the dark we lay under cool white sheets with the ceiling fan whipping above us.

Swish...swish...swish....

I stared at the blades, lit in moonlight, sweeping in rhythm like the hands of a sped-up clock. William slumbered away. Spencer, our cat, curled his body against mine and I rubbed his ears.

What's the what I want? In my head, my plans for marriage had transformed into a career, which of course it wasn't. I needed to step back and get some perspective. I could see how my galloping across Morocco and Poland and Italy was a creative act, but here, back home?

Tomorrow. Something. Maybe. What?

On that note I finally fell asleep.

Over breakfast the next morning, I suggested we eat dinner on our backyard deck that night.

Hey, it's hot now but should be nice and cool in the evening....I'll grill something.

William is many things. One thing he is not is a morning person.

Of course, I am completely a morning person. I wake up brimming with ideas and a need to voice them. And that's before coffee.

Once caffeinated, I'm on to dreams I had in the night, questions that kept me awake in the dark and, Wow, look at this story! I'll hold up the newspaper right in front of William's face. Meanwhile he's forcing down another spoon of cardboardy bran cereal while poring over the sports section, half asleep.

You know what we haven't done in a long time?

William shrugged.

Scrabble! When was the last time we played Scrabble over dinner?

William nodded.

Great! I'll get some fresh fish to grill and we'll play a game or two over dinner. Salad, strawberries....

By this point, he was in the shower. No matter, he didn't need to know the menu. It was going to be good. In a fresh burst of meal-planning creativity, I went to the grocery store and to the fish market to pick up a couple of tender salmon filets to go atop a Caesar salad.

Back home I washed and pared ripe strawberries, whipped up sweet cold cream, chilled white wine and marinated the fish. I set dishes on the deck table, making room for our giant deluxe rotating Scrabble board.

I lit candles and filled the CD player with music from Ella Fitzgerald, Monty Alexander and Miles Davis. At least on this day I had a purpose.