Saturday evening

It rained hard today, lifting the humidity and raising people's spirits.

Outside my open window I hear preteen boys playing soccer, cheering, laughing, calling for the ball. They're speaking Spanish, but it's familiar to me.

It reminds me of the hide-and-seek we played in my growing-up neighborhood...dozens of us kids dashing outside after dinner, wooden storm doors slamming behind us. We'd run the whole neighborhood, not so much hiding as circling around through people's backyards and sneaking back to "goal" when the seeker wasn't looking.

Our nightly soundtrack was the Babe Ruth baseball game across the street...bats cracking, parents yelling, umpires barking, balls clapping into mitts and thumping off the catcher's padded vest.

When we tired of hide and seek we'd run to the concession stand, where we bought bubble gum, Slo-Pokes, and on a good night, a frozen Milky Way on a stick. We could stay out till the curfew siren sounded at 9:00, when we'd run home in the fading daylight to our parents and their friends smoking and talking on the front steps.

Kids' voices outside at dusk sound like freedom to me, and when they quiet down, it sounds like the safety of home.