Summer is wily in its ways, and though the next day dawned in overcast fashion, the sky was light, with no rain forecast until later that afternoon. Acting strangely against knowing better, we headed out into the day without umbrellas, making vague promises and plans to be back for our afternoon siesta well before the rain returned. Famous last words…
The goal of our excursion was to find a ‘festive’ outfit for an upcoming graduation brunch for Suzie’s daughter Oona – when pressed for a more specific dress code, Suzie enlisted the help of her son Milo, who described it as “festive business casual summer night dress code”. In other words, I will wear whatever the fuck I want and everyone is going to like it. Still, it’s nice to have a little goal, especially in the summer, and it gave us purpose as we traipsed through our usual Downtown Crossing clothing haunts.
In truth, any loosely-assembled reason would have worked – the real goal has never been an outfit or an accessory, only a desire to spend time with a friend. We moved through Faneuil Hall then crossed into the North End for an Italian lunch as the clouds rolled in. Many a fun meal has been had in the North End, and I remembered dinners with Mom, Chris, Suzie, Kira, and the twins. Summer leans into nostalgia, even if it’s not my usual province.
We finished lunch and managed to make it all the way back to Arlington, where we pushed our luck and browsed along Newbury Street as the clouds darkened. As we reached Mass Ave to turn around, the rain had arrived. We went store by store, starting with Muji, pausing at Uniqlo, and taking our make-do siesta at the Mandarin Oriental lobby. We wound our way through the Prudential Center and took one final break at a coffeehouse near the condo, before making a run for dryness and warmth.
Kira promptly took a nap when we got back, and I did my daily meditation. Soon it was time for a later dinner, and we headed out into a calmer night. A lighter dinner of small plates from SRV right round the corner proved the perfect culinary ending to our weekend. On our way home, this rabbit posed for a picture.
It had been a largely rainy weekend, and there was something healing in that. Without a bombastic and sunny reason to be out on an endless city stroll, we leaned into stillness and silence. It was enough just to be beside a friend who has also experienced loss, to sit together and breathe together and simply be together.
There is beauty in the rain that only summer can elicit, and if this is how summer begins in Boston, it’s going to be all right.
