Board Dreams

SoCal, so cool.  White linen houses line the sidewalks.  The grass is a mostly shade of green, except for the dry patches.  Little cacti grow in their tiled succulent boxes.  Palm trees are the local celebrities, because L.A. has so many international celebs.  California sky, balmy weather, breezy and sunny but not cloudless.  Everyone eats avocado toast and organic tomatoes with local yogurt and honey from the farmer’s market.  Everyone boards, surfboards, skateboards, longboards.  You would love to live here.  The ocean hides behind the one-story houses that somehow avoided becoming cardboard cutout copies of each other.  The air is a salty fresh marine biome.  Lizards skitter over the cracks in the pavement that warms up each day and cools down every night.  You don’t need mosquito netting ever but citronella candles that come with the thick braided wicks are good for the environment (right?) and good for your backyard, lazy chill atmosphere.  The houses have double doors but you’re not pretentious; when everyone enters your house, you’re the epitome of relaxed.  There are throw blankets for evening.  A small fan whirs for white noise.  The ocean is visible from the screened in porch where you light your candles and spend your evenings. 

Your neighbor boards down the sidewalk; the “click-click-click” of the wheels is barely audible as the board bounces over the cracks in the pavement.  He comes and goes in his brand-name sneakers, morning and evening, middle of the night.  In and out, always moving.