We lived on the banks of the Tennessee River, and we owned the summers when we were girls. We ran wild through humid（潮湿的，湿润的） summer days that never ended but only melted one into the other. We floated down rivers of weekdays with no school, no rules , no parents, and no constructs（构图，建筑物） other than our fantasies. We were good girls, my sister and I. We had nothing to rebel against. This was just life as we knew it, and we knew the summers to be long and to be ours.
The road that ran past our house was a one-lane rural route. Every morning, after our parents had gone to work, I'd wait for the mail lady to pull up to（追上） our box. Some days I would put enough change for a few stamps into a mason jar（玻璃瓶） lid and leave it in the mailbox. I hated bothering mail lady with this transaction（交易，办理） , which made her job take longer. But I liked that she knew that someone in our house sent letters into the outside world.
I liked walking to the mailbox in my bare feet and leaving footprints on the dewy（带露水的） grass. I imagined that feeling the wetness on the bottom of my feet made me a poet. I had never read poetry, outside of some Emily Dickinson. But I imagined that people who knew of such things would walk to their mailboxes through the morning dew（晨露） in their bare feet.
We planned our weddings with the help of Barbie dolls and the tiny purple wild flowers growing in our side yard. We became scientists and tested concoctions（调和，混合） of milk, orange juice, and mouthwash（漱口水） . We ate handfuls of bittersweet（苦乐参半的） chocolate chips and licked peanut butter（花生酱） off spoons. When we ran out of sweets to eat, we snitched sugary Flintstones vitamins out of the medicine cabinet. We became masters of the Kraft macaroni（通心面条） and cheese lunch, and we dutifully called our mother at work three times a day to give her updates on our adventures. But don't call too often or speak too loudly or whine too much, we told ourselves, or else they'll get annoyed and she'll get fired and the summers will end.
We shaped our days the way we chose, far from the prying（爱打听的，窥探的） eyes of adults. We found our dad's Playboys and charged the neighborhood boys money to look at them. We made crank（易怒的） calls around the county, telling people they had won a new car. "What kind?" they'd ask. "Red," we'd always say. We put on our mom's old prom（舞会） dresses, complete with gloves and hats, and sang backup to the C.W. McCall song convoy, " which we'd found on our dad's turntable.
We went on hikes into the woods behind our house, crawling under barbed wire fences and through tangled undergrowth. Heat and humidity（湿度，湿气） found their way throught he leaves to our flushed faces. We waded in streams that we were always surprised to come across. We walked past cars and auto parts that had been abandoned（抛弃） in the woods, far from any road. We'd reach the tree line and come out unexpectedly into a cow pasture（牧场，牧草） . We'd perch on the gate or stretch out on the large flat limes（边界，界限） tone outcrop that marked the end of the Woods Behind Our House.
One day a thunderstorm blew up along the Tennessee River. It was one of those storms that make the day go dark and the humidity disappear. First it was still and quiet. There was electricity in the air and then the sharp crispness（易碎，酥脆） of a summer day being blown wide open as the winds rushed in. We threw open all the doors and windows. We found the classical radio station from two towns away and turned up the bass and cranked up（把声音调大，启动） the speakers. We let the wind blow in and churn（搅动，搅拌） our summer day around. We let the music we were only vaguely（暧昧地，含糊地） familiar with roar（吼叫，咆哮） through the house. And we twirled（转动，旋转） . We twirled in the living room in the wind and in the music. We twirled and we imagined that we were poets and dancers and scientists and spring brides.
We twirled and imagined that if we could let everything --- the thunder, the storm, the wind , the world --- into that house in the banks of the Tennessee River, we could live in our summer dreams forever. When we were girls.
相关单词：concoctions
concoctions解释：n.编造，捏造，混合物( concoction的名词复数 )
concoctions例句：
We bearrived scientists and tested concoctions of milk, orange juice, and mouthwash. 咱们是科技家，尝试牛奶、橙汁和漱口水的混合物。 来自互联网
We became scientists and tested concoctions of milk, orange juice, and mouthwash. 我们是科学家，尝试牛奶、橙汁和漱口水的混合物。 来自互联网
相关单词：whine
whine解释：v.哀号，号哭；n.哀鸣
whine例句：
You are getting paid to think,not to whine.支付给你工资是让你思考而不是哀怨的。
The bullet hit a rock and rocketed with a sharp whine.子弹打在一块岩石上，一声尖厉的呼啸，跳飞开去。
相关单词：prying
prying解释：adj.爱打听的v.打听，刺探（他人的私事）( pry的现在分词 )；撬开
prying例句：
I'm sick of you prying into my personal life! 我讨厌你刺探我的私生活！
She is always prying into other people's affairs. 她总是打听别人的私事。 来自《简明英汉词典》
相关单词：convoy
convoy解释：vt.护送，护卫，护航；n.护送；护送队
convoy例句：
The convoy was snowed up on the main road.护送队被大雪困在干路上了。
Warships will accompany the convoy across the Atlantic.战舰将护送该船队过大西洋。
相关单词：tangled
tangled解释：adj. 纠缠的，紊乱的 动词tangle的过去式和过去分词
tangled例句：
Your hair's so tangled that I can't comb it. 你的头发太乱了，我梳不动。
A movement caught his eye in the tangled undergrowth. 乱灌木丛里的晃动引起了他的注意。
相关单词：waded
waded解释：（从水、泥等）蹚，走过，跋( wade的过去式和过去分词 )
waded例句：
She tucked up her skirt and waded into the river. 她撩起裙子蹚水走进河里。
He waded into the water to push the boat out. 他蹚进水里把船推出来。
相关单词：auto
auto解释：n.(=automobile)(口语)汽车
auto例句：
Don't park your auto here.别把你的汽车停在这儿。
The auto industry has brought many people to Detroit.汽车工业把许多人吸引到了底特律。
相关单词：perch
perch解释：n.栖木，高位，杆；v.栖息，就位，位于
perch例句：
The bird took its perch.鸟停歇在栖木上。
Little birds perch themselves on the branches.小鸟儿栖歇在树枝上。
相关单词：bass
bass解释：n.男低音(歌手)；低音乐器；低音大提琴
bass例句：
He answered my question in a surprisingly deep bass.他用一种低得出奇的声音回答我的问题。
The bass was to give a concert in the park.那位男低音歌唱家将在公园中举行音乐会。
相关单词：vaguely
vaguely解释：adv.含糊地，暖昧地
vaguely例句：
He had talked vaguely of going to work abroad.他含糊其词地说了到国外工作的事。
He looked vaguely before him with unseeing eyes.他迷迷糊糊的望着前面，对一切都视而不见。
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