The summer continued to move towards fall drawing the group closer to a new School year. They would stop by and talk with the man in the chair more often now. They would play kick ball with him arguing about whose team on which he would play. One day, they set up an obstacle course in his yard and rode their bikes around and around (the mans mother came out and scolded him and the kids)
It was during this first summer that he shared several simple thoughts with the kids; the sun is bright, Pepsi is good with nachos and the clouds scare away the butterflies.


That summer passed quickly as did the next. For the most part each summer was pretty much the same. The group of kids would meet at the park, plan out the afternoon while swinging on the swings. The only 2 girls would get picked on until they chased the boys down, the whole time threatening to beat them. And then they would all move down the gravel road towards the woods, sometimes stopping and talking with Brian. The only difference is that the trips to the woods were less and less. The group of 9 dwindled down as each summer concluded.

The girl noticed that the boys were becoming more interested in sports and girls outside of their little group. Many of them went from middle school to junior high school; they were all growing up.

She wished they could all be a group forever but by the time she turned 15 she realized that just wasn’t going to happen.

Many days of that summer of 15 were spent helping around the yard. She would spend hours raking leaves and pulling weeds - Her father seemed to love to give these chores to her and her younger sister. They always obliged for risk of a belt to the backside. Although, many yard working sessions would end in a fight between the 2 girls and, after all that work, they would still meet the other end of a belt.

It was during one of these days in the yard that the girl noticed through the bushes Brian sitting in his back yard. He was watching the flowers. It was hard to see the entire yard and she wanted to call out to him and ask what he was doing but she remained quiet and just watched.

He didn’t move for 10 minutes, she got bored and continued working.

One day while on her way to the creek to go fishing with one of the remaining boys from their group, the man in the chair approached them to come see something in the backyard. 

‘They fly around and are beautiful’