Full Body Inflation

The air was still and hot in Itaza village, among the handful of trees where the mountain ended and the desert began. The solstice was more than a month away, but for Itaza, summer was making an early start, the same as every year. The few, brief early spring showers were over, and the last of the snowmelt had already trickled through. 

The sun was high. It was time for everyone to rest somewhere out of the sun until the worst of the heat passed, but no one was resting today. The first rain delivery of the season was due any time, and the village wasn't prepared.

As we grow older, there are certain things that will always trigger a momentary flash of remembrance, bypassing the thinking mind and directly stimulating that happy place in your mind with the feelings you felt when you first experienced them. The way light falls on a certain patch of carpet on a winter's morning, the smell of something you used to enjoy in your youth... the sound you heard when your deepest, most hidden fantasies came to life.