Xylophone

It was a perfect night, perfect because the lake's surface was more smooth than I've seen it in months, glassy and clear, moving only because of the fat fish breaching its surface in search of flying, buzzing dinner; moving because of the squadrons of mallards which glided down from the pink sky and slid into it effortlessly, their voices a greater cacophony than their delicate touchdowns; moving only as the light moved in the west, the day's final blush rising and falling across it like the color on the cheeks of a little girl in love. Duncan marched at my side, head high, his eyes bright with sundown, his tongue pink and languid at its corner. The darting bugs, fighting, it seemed, not to alight on our bodies, but in our eyes and the corners of our mouths, did not even trouble us. The air was clean and clear, the day and night only just beginning to trade places, their meeting and parting embrace colored in cinnamon.

A perfect night in every way until we reached the hill at the edge of high school practice fields, where the silence and stillness were broken by

Please remember the first of the presidential debates is on Friday night. If you won't be home to watch, make sure you tape it. It's too important to miss! If you can, host a debate party and watch it with your friends, family and neighbors. Order a few pizzas, drink beer and wine and discuss what you can do as a community to help win this election!