Pool Party

You could hear it before you even got to the backyard: laughter, a name you had not heard in years, cousins running through the sprinkler in their clothes because nobody wanted to wait. Somebody's mom cut the watermelon. The cake melted a little and nobody cared. Sugar-frosted red berries and mango open giddy and bright, then sweet vanilla, lily of the valley, and tropical coconut fill the house before musk, tonka bean, and sandalwood linger. Some summers leave a mark. This is what that smells like.