Mulberries

It was one of those typical hot and muggy summer days of peninsula living. The kind of day normal people remained 
inside with their air conditioner or cooled off outside in a pool, the river, or the gulf.

Nearly on the edge of boredom, Tommy and I decided
we didn't want to remain inside on a sunny day, hot or not. 
Since we went swimming the day before, Tommy got this harebrained idea for us to climb up the tallest mulberry tree in Bonita and try catching the wind blowing at the top of it. I was game for anything.

We didn’t have far to go. The mulberry tree was located on a vacant lot beside his house. As we made our way near to the top, it did feel cooler under the canopy of leaves, as the wind caressed our moist skin, than it did on the ground.

We also found ourselves in the middle of a mother lode of mulberries! When we weren't stuffing berries into our mouths, we were throwing them at each other, laughing and pointing at the variations of red, purple, blue, and black colors plastered on our once-white t-shirts.

Life was good being way up there chattering and laughing about any and everything while sitting on boughs higher up than Tommy’s home and shaded from the sun under the canopy of that huge mulberry tree.

We had escaped the scorching heat on the ground, sitting between the earth and sky. With our conversation running dry, bellies full of mulberries, and our shirts looking more like a bad case of tie-dye, we made our way back down the mulberry tree.

By the time we reach the ground, the air was still hot and humid. We were both ready for a shower and some A/C. Tommy and I knew we had some explaining to do to our moms as to why our white t-shirts were in such a mess. Neither one of us was scolded!

Some years later, I returned to the property where Tommy once lived. To my surprise, the lot beside his old home
was still vacant. The mulberry tree that we ascended as young boys was gone without a trace. It put me in a state of sadness. I suspected its messiness was its own demise, even though it was a grand old tree.

What if the owners, who felled that impressive tree, had taken the time to go between earth and sky and discovered as Tommy and I did long ago that way up near the top was a mulberry high...