Florida

I remember being in the forest...

I recall riding my bike recklessly through the woods and balancing on a thick cement pipe that stood about 20 feet above a rocky bottom with a steady stream moving westward.

Children were disappearing and hands shook as they locked every door and every window. Everybody kept very busy as they do today—eating and working and reading and walking at a quickened pace. And they always smiled.

Husbands smiled at their wives wives smiled at their husbands children smiled at their parents neighbors smiled and waved at their neighbors. Everyone smiled at everyone else, so they could hide the terror that was housed in their chests and guts.

All the people were busy throwing parties and laughing and drinking and watching tv and sleeping; and when they weren't sleeping, they were sleeping.

Everyone was pretending so they didn't have to admit that they saw everything.

It was warm.
It was springtime.
It was 1978 - in Pensacola.