I was lying on a striped blanket on a grassy hill on the Fourth of July. There was still an hour or so until the fireworks started, but my parents had wanted to get a really good spot before they were all taken.

We left at 4:30. It was now 7:27
We had been sitting here for three hours, and the sky still had a ways to go before it was dark enough for the fireworks. I sighed miserably. We should have been on a beach in Florida right now, watching the fireworks. But the severe rain earlier today had canceled a dozen flights, ours included, and there were no other flights to Florida for the next three days. Too late for our sun-filled Florida Fourth of July weekend.
I sniffed and interlaced my fingers underneath my head. Although the worst of the storm had passed, it was still too cloudy and grey to get a sun tan, and not quite warm enough to run around in a bathing suit. No, it would appear I was doomed to an un-summer Fourth of July. Even the snow cone cart, the symbol of summer, was stored away, safe from the unwelcome weather. Man, what I would give for a cone covered in raspberry syrup right now.
I looked at my watch. Another half hour had passed. I groaned again and shifted onto my left side, facing downhill towards the sidewalk. Kids and adults ran up and down with sparklers in their hands, either doing the classic “circles in the air” maneuver or having a dramatic wizard battle. There were a few teen boys my age, but I was too glum to give chase. I glanced up at the sky. The sun was standing on tiptoe on the horizon line, setting the air near it aflame with reds and golds, while farther away the color faded to dark blues and purples behind the clouds.
But the clouds had changed.
They weren’t anywhere near the sun now, which left half the sky clear, and sizable gaps had opened up in the cloud cover. But that was not what caught my eye. The underside of the clouds had become wavy, and the sunset colors had dyed their bellies grey-blue with tips of gold. It was really quite lovely, but I couldn’t put my finger on why it struck a chord with me. It wasn’t just the color; the clouds reminded me of something. Curious, I shifted my head until it felt like I was looking down on the clouds from the face of the Earth.
Then I saw it.
The soft blue and grey, the gentle waves and fiery sky; it looked like the ocean. I let out a breath I couldn’t remember holding. I could almost see the rolling action of the crystal water play out in the cloud cover above my head. My mouth gaped open as an overwhelming feeling of lightness bloomed in my chest and spread to my head and toes. The tightness in my shoulders vanished as I beheld the sight I had been most disappointed about not seeing today. I could hear the thundering waves in my head and imagine the breeze skittering across my arms and swirling my hair was laced with the taste and smell of salt. It was as if I was in Florida, stretched out on a blanket on the beach.
As the sun sank the waves in the sky grew dark and faded to black against a twilight blue sky, and the first bursts of fireworks came to light. The night wore on and the light cast by the explosions in the sky were not enough to illuminate the waves I knew were there, but I could still hear the crashes of water upon the shore.
Inside my head, where Florida had come to me.