Cicada Summer

Is it real love when you can’t eat, can’t sleep, can’t catch your breath while watching Will practice his high dive at the pool, and are suspicious of your own quirky grandmother’s advice?

The summer has been mystical. Will, one of the handsomest boys in town, has been dating Dani and she prays every night that he’ll ask her to go steady before he heads off to college. Her parents are skeptical because Will is older than Dani, but Grandma Livvy is full of advice.

“Boys like their kissing. If you want to hold him you got to give him plenty of....”

“Olivia!” Dad’s voice boomed through the night. “That’s enough!”

Grandma Livvy whispered, “You listen to me. I know how to handle men.”

But Grandma had gone through four men and was on the lookout for the fifth. Dani didn’t want to go through boy after boy. She just wanted Will. He said he loved her, but did he really?

By the time Will left for college, Grandma Livvy had solved her problem. Dani goes to bed at night listening to the cicadas sing,

remembering the happy summer and hoping Will’s love would stand the test of being apart. Surprisingly she solves her own dilemma in a way she’d never have thought possible.