A Summer Gone Wrong

At 6:30 a.m. on a Saturday, the sun's rays seeped through my curtains and rested on my face. I rose to nature's alarm clock and let out a sleepy yawn while stretching my limbs.

Propelling my feet to the floor, I slowly stood up and walked to the front door. Since it was so early, I didn't care who was up to see me in my PJ's as I got the mail. The sun was already producing a cheery warmth, working its way into my body. A smile bloomed across my face as I anticipated more mornings like these. Summer was finally here.

Once I reached the end of the driveway, I opened the mailbox. I then began flipping through the various letters and bills as I made my way back to the house. I looked at the envelope of one, and stopped dead in my monkey slipper tracks.

"IMPORTANT NOTICE: OPEN ME AT NOON ON THE FIRST DAY OF SUMMER" it said. And when I say "it said", I really mean "it said". What I mean is, it actually spoke those words to me. Not only on paper, but with a shrilly voice. After it repeated its message, I dropped my mail to the driveway. The letter which spoke to me landed in a puddle to my left. I watched in amazement as it bent in the middle, walked out of the puddle on its corners, and shook like a dog!

"What the-," I said to myself. I firmly closed my eyes, convinced I was still sleeping. I opened them to see the letter now climbing up my slipper. I proceeded to pinch myself as I saw people in the movies do, which only gave me a red mark on my skin. The letter was now at my knee as I started to shake my leg as if a dog was trying to hump it.

"Get off of me! What the hell is going on here?!" I ran into the house, leaving all my mail behind. I quickly closed the door, locked it, and leaned against it breathing rather heavily. Of course this was no match for a letter, since it merely slid under the doorway. I then took up the letter, shredded it, and hid in my room for a few hours.

Wouldn't you know that at 12PM sharp, the reassembled letter slid under my doorway and ordered me to open it? I finally gave in, ripped open the envelope, and the letter literally said, in an elderly man's voice:

Dearest Reader,

This letter was instructed to inform you that a duty of utmost importance has been bestowed upon you. For a year, you will be in control of summer. You see, the Misses, Mother Nature, has had a lot on her leaves lately, what with Global Warming opposing her and all, and needs all the help she can get. I don't know how much longer I can put up with her stress-induced nagging, and this is where you come in.

You are one of four special people appointed a season. Whatever emotions and trials you go through, the weather will match. I suggest that you be consistent each day and keep your emotions in check. We do not want the weather to get any more out of whack than it already is. Good luck, and best wishes this summer.

Sincerely,

Father Time

I blinked a couple of times before closing the letter.

I figured that this whole mess was due to a virus of some sort going around, and stayed in bed all day. When 5PM rolled around, I finally got out of bed, and cooked myself some supper. Of course I was wide awake the rest of the night since I had gotten so much sleep, so I was not able to drift back to slumberland until about 3AM.

The next morning I slept in. I figured that I deserved it after such a weird hallucination. I found it a little odd that the sun's rays did not tickle me awake as per usual, so when I opened my eyes, I reached for the curtains and peeked out of the window. The sun was out, bright as ever.

I looked at the clock and noticed that it was 11AM. I nearly forgot that I had a dentist appointment! I jumped out of bed and raced into the shower. I snatched up some clothes and got dressed as quickly as possible. As I tried running out of the door, it seemed as though someone was pushing it back. I finally managed to budge it open and slip out, and found to my amazement that it was VERY windy out. I didn't notice that forecast on the 11 O'clock news last night...

When I made it to the dentist office, everyone was all abuzz. Wondering what was going on, I asked the receptionist. She replied, "Something weird is going on with the weather today. First, the sun didn't rise until 11AM, and then soon after, the wind started blowing like crazy!" I thought to myself for a moment about that speaking letter, and then she remarked how I was 15 minutes late. Luckily, the rest of the day went smoothly.

However, the rest of the week shared the same ups and downs I did, leading me to believe that the letter was indeed real. Sunday I woke up cranky and it thunder stormed until my boyfriend gave me flowers. Monday I was in a wonderful mood because of that, and it was gorgeous out. Tuesday I woke up at 4:00AM because the dog had to go pee, and I was just a tad surprised to see the sun out already. Wednesday was a normal day for me, and so was the weather. When Thursday rolled around, I was exhausted from work, had a few cocktails, and it got really foggy at about 5PM. After a really tough workout on Friday after work, I was hot and sweaty, and only became MORE hot and sweaty when I went outside and experienced 110 degree weather at 7PM. I only really got worried when it was Saturday once again. It started out normal enough, until I got into a fight with my boyfriend around 3PM. At that point I avoided him the rest of the day, and it snowed!

The next morning the letter climbed its way out of my trash bin and yelled at me for being too emotional. I simply looked at it and replied, "I live in New England. This sort of weather is pretty normal here, now get over it!" I then rolled onto my other side and went back to sleep.