Tonight was a night for sparklers. We didn’t have any
particular reason to burn them, since Independence Day is almost a week past
now—and my roommate is Australian, anyway—but we did. And it was good.
Today was without precipitation despite being in the midst
of Japan’s rainy season; a welcome reprieve! However, our rainless
day came courtesy of a blustery, intermittent wind, so perhaps tonight wasn't the greatest time for this activity. Didn't stop us.
Lighting the sparklers on our balcony became a sort of
comedic dance as we lit match after match, trying to get the flame to catch
before an unpredictable gust extinguished the small point of light. The wind
dictated our choreography. We began facing each other with match and sparkler
extended tip to tip, then stood shoulder to shoulder with hands stretched out to
shelter the air before us, then crouched low to the balcony’s concrete floor
like a pair of flame-wielding frogs. By the
end, our use of matches created a rather prodigious pile:
Eventually we managed to avoid the ever-changing air currents just long enough for our fireworks to catch. Avoiding the jumping sparks, we quickly pirouetted away from each
other and dangled our little fountains of fire over
the balcony ledge. We then followed the sparklers’ path with our eyes as we
waved them wildly back and forth in the dark—which is of course the proper way
to enjoy handheld fireworks, as any kid can tell you.
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