Close your eyes and wait for summer

Actually, I don’t like spring in the North very much. Even though the old saying goes “Spring rain is more precious than gold”, spring is the season when hundreds of flowers bloom, thousands of trees change their leaves. But the spring weather makes people in the North “half-crying, half-laughing”. Just think about the past March, sometimes Miss Ban sews clothes, sometimes she runs home in the hot sun, and there’s also the “hot” guy in the damp weather. Who in the North isn’t afraid of the scene of a house “leaking” water, if you’re not careful you’ll fall down, no joke. Plus, the clothes stink of dampness that hasn’t dried for a long time. The scariest thing is when you come home at night, you’re hot under the blanket, and cold when you kick the blanket. Turning on the night light is glaring, and turning off the night light you can hear a swarm of mosquitoes buzzing around everywhere.

So, whenever the sky lets go into April, I wait for summer to come. I don't know why, but I like the sweltering heat of summer, which makes people sweat. And I also don't know why, but I like the beauty of the long days and short nights of summer. Because I'm afraid of the night, afraid of the endless, silent, deserted nights, without a breath. But summer is different, summer is not silent, in the city there are cicadas chirping, in the countryside there are worms and crickets chirping. Before I can sleep, the heat rushes in, the sound of birds hopping and chirping wakes me up. And the sunlight too, the splendid and brilliant beauty that people describe in paradise, must be similar to summer in the North, everywhere is golden like diamonds sprinkled on the ground.

***

A friend of mine absolutely hates summer. He is very lazy and only likes winter, when he can curl up in a thick cotton blanket and stay up all night reading stacks of literary books. He once asked me: “Autumn is beautiful, winter is dry, spring is splendid, why do you like summer when it makes you feel hot all over?”

I think liking a season is like a feeling that is attached to memories and to a person’s personality. Like when I think about spring, I only think about the long nights staying up until one or two in the morning watching movies waiting for Tet to pass, going to school early to chat with friends. Or when winter comes, my mind appears about endless tests and final exams that never end and a cold that makes my whole body stagnate.

So I always feel that summer suits me. Summer is me, hot-tempered, hasty, passionate, crazy. I like to exercise, to give my all on the running track in the park in the early morning, to sweat out salty drops. I also like to let myself fall from the cliff, fall into the cool sea water, dive into the deep ocean, watch a few small fish frolicking, squishing the slimy seaweed drifting slowly.

Summer is also associated with beautiful memories from my childhood. Those were the times when school no longer tied me down. I was able to run outside with my friends in cool shorts. We ate ice cream, teased the neighbors’ dogs and cats, and were sent by our parents to interesting extracurricular activities.

I still remember, there were summers, in the morning I went to swimming class to meet friends of the same age. At noon, I hid from my grandmother to climb trees to steal fish eggs and suck them. In the evening, I went to a story writing class for children, watching Barbie cartoons and writing stories from heaven and earth, listening together, laughing together and writing about a future in some fairyland.

Perhaps, that is why, to me, summer is always beautiful, endless and the time to start new passions and ideas. Growing up, it was still the same, when the cicadas started to chirp, my whole body was almost filled with a source of energy full of vitality. Unconsciously, I would start to learn something new, go to a new land.

***

When I was 20, I used to think that maybe in six or seven years, when I left school and entered the job market, I would be calmer, maybe I wouldn't like summer anymore. At that time, I was very sad and thought to myself: "That would be so sad, where did my sunshine go?"...

How fortunate that even today, when the desk calendar turns to April, my fingers still tremble, burning with the fire of the hot season. My ears eagerly await the sound of cicadas calling for summer to pierce through the cold monsoon wind, bringing the hot breath of summer to me.

For some reason, the image of the beach, the bobbing boat, the cheerful laughter appeared before my eyes. At that moment, another excited and enthusiastic person was whispering to me: “This summer, shall we conquer something new?”.

Anh Nhi

Source: https://baophapluat.vn/nham-mat-cho-mua-he-post545843.html