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The secret lies in summer nights

By BRADY DENNIS
Published June 18, 2005

[Times photo: Chris Zuppa]

Shkurta Xhokli, 12, right, and her friend Sara Redlick, 11, settle in for a movie at the Fun-Lan Drive-In Theatre in Tampa.

She can't know the secret just yet. Not at this age. Not now.

So don't tell her. Don't ruin it.

Just let her lie atop the car and wear her 3-D glasses and drink in the movie.

The young couples curled together under open hatchbacks and the old lovers who still come to this place five decades after their first visit - they know the secret.

The mothers and fathers perched in the back of pickup trucks, watching over their children spread out on blankets around them - they know, too.

There are hints of it in the quiet hum of the projector, the neon glow of the snack bar and the candy-sweet smell of pizza and popcorn and fried chicken that mingle in the air.

If she listened closely enough, the warm evening breeze might whisper it to her. If she looked closely enough, the silver moon and wide open sky unfolding above might tip her off.

But it's better if she doesn't know.

Better just to let her lie there, her hair blowing in the breeze.

After all, she's only 12.

And while summer in Florida brings with it heat and humidity, hurricanes and mosquitoes and soaring electric bills, only the adults of the world must worry about such things.

None of that matters to her. She knows, as all children know, that this season means staying up late and frittering away the days with friends. It means no school and the sun on your face and nowhere to go and nothing important to do. It means freedom, pure freedom.

Some day, years from now, she will realize what the secret was all along:

That summer is a gift to the young - a sweet, delicious, too-short treasure.

Editor's note: 300 Words provides glimpses of everyday life that often go unnoticed.

[Last modified June 18, 2005, 00:44:03]