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Braving Big Bear Lake by Mary Langer Thompson
For Claudia 1982-2006
Like our domed white observatory that studies the sun, I watched you in the bow, pictured the two of you married. We waited for darkness.
Light music played on KBHR. We laughed as the boat tipped when my son moved close to you, my little family so seldom together. A kindness of ravens encircled us.
Maybe you will become his bride. Anchor him, I thought. God knows I was tired of this gaining and losing before fully gaining.
We turned on the lantern. You said you’d like to drive. “Mom, let her,” my son kidded. “She won’t hit anything.” Those ravens might have been a murder of crows.
Fireworks exploded into stars, hearts, teardrops. Motoring back, avoiding the unlit moored boats, we agreed: It was the best Fourth.
But today the observatory’s a white sepulcher. And we’re not waiting for dark enough. It’s enough dark.
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