Summer blinked. Summer flinched first.

It’s still hot. It’s still hotter than it ever used to be. And it stays hotter later into the night. It never used to do that before in my own damn lifetime, not here.

But anyway, this Summer is still in charge, but there are more and more hints, glimmers, spoilers that Fall is imminent.

Most of this Summer has been blocks of days of high 90’s/low 100’s where it doesn’t get below 80 until 11 o’clock at night. Utterly draining. Every so often we’d have a “brief respite” into the high 80’s.

But a few weeks ago - a legitimate cool snap. Mid-70’s. Breezes. Clouds. Actual occasional rain. It was heaven. Then it was over. But it wasn’t totally gone. It was a… proof of concept. A lifeline.

We’re back to hitting high 90’s. But the sunsets are creeping earlier. There’s prickles of Fall coolness in the early morning breezes. The skin remembers. During the heat of the day, you get the occasional glimmer that the sun itself might be starting to tire of this full intensity blast. The twitch, the blink, the bead of sweat on the brow. You can’t keep this up for much longer can you? Well, neither can we, friend.

Sunsets drift lazily earlier. It still light out after dinner, but the quality of light - of dark - in the sky triggers long-forgotten warnings that that these days are numbered. Back when that warning meant, “enjoy these days while you can because school will be starting soon!” and not, “please hold on a little longer, the heat will break soon and then you can rest”.

This Summer bleached my bones on its rocks.

That sounds bad and it was a rather harsh experience. But my bones were dirty and needed the sanitization. And now I’m a skeleton and skeletons are cool. And the Fall, well that’s the time for skeletons, isn’t it?

The Summer may have conquered me. It may have liquefied my armor, singed my hair, and burned away muscle and sinew. But from that steaming heap, the bones of something eternal emerge.

Summer, you stripped me bare; you cleared my cache. It was time for a lot of that to go anyway. The armor was rusted and cracked. My skin held together all the bits of me, the ones I desperately need trapped in there with the parts that needed to go. Well, burn the whole thing down I guess? Luckily the beam and frame of bone remained.

I’m a collection of bones arranged roughly in the shape of man, pulling my disparate parts together so I can shamble forward and start hanging some meat and organs on this empty but unspoiled form.

Most folks die to dust when they are vaporized by the unfiltered light of the sun. I’ve had a lot zapped away, but am waking up to find that I’m still here. I’m lighter, maybe a bit brittle, but the old bones shamble on.

And like most skeleton warriors, there’s not much more than magic holding me together. But for now, that’s enough.