The Most Exciting 4tha July Ever

Last Writers’ meeting our writing exercise was, “Describe your most exciting 4tha July ever. We’ll take about ten minutes.” So I wrote the following story. Gotta be honest: I did a little editing since then. But enjoy.

There were 30 of us that evening, kids included. The BBQ pit never quit, cold drinks lay waiting in a kiddie pool full of icy water, the makeshift volleyball court was busy and so was the swimming pool that hot, humid night.

Darkness crept up on us and the kids started asking, “When are we gonna have fireworks?”

“Pretty soon,” we told them. "Won’t be long. It needs to get a little darker.”

The kids could see fireworks in the distance. “Hey, look!”

“Now?” they pleaded. “Pleeze.”

“Just a few more minutes.”

Ten o’clock and complete darkness came. It came quickly, like a blanket falling out of blackness. And suddenly it was unusually cool—chilly, in fact.

“Ka-rack!” A bolt of lightning riveted itself to the neighbor’s fence. The unseen clouds unloaded a downpour while that fence lit up the neighborhood.

After the fire engine left at 11:30, we popped off a few little firecrackers and woke up the kids.

I snatched that example photo from Google. Daylight; and those tree look like north Florida.