****

  Wednesday was jam-packed. I had Calculus in the morning, Early European History right after, broke for lunch and then it was an afternoon of French. By the time I finished dinner- a bowl of cereal in my room- I had to sit down and begin outlining some ideas for a huge project my Biology professor had assigned. We would need to memorize the classification systems for over 100 animals from North America for our final test at the end of the semester. My time spent hiking and observing our birds at the feeder in the backyard didn’t seem like it was going to be enough preparation so I figured this was going to be a rather time consuming prospect which would take all of my fortitude and then some.

  It was ten o’ clock before I finally slogged my exhausted self to the shower. It was the best part of my day feeling the hot water run over the top of my head and steam clouding my vision beyond the length of my arm. I couldn’t help the wistful memory that came with the steam of when I was a little girl and I used to pretend that I lived on a cloud I created during my long baths and that nothing could reach my cloud if I didn’t want it to. I pretended that I would float on my cloud all over the world seeing all of the amazing places Dad used to talk about going before coming back stateside. The water had long since turned my body from summer tan to pink and on to red before I finally shut it off and headed back to my room.