The three of us moved slowly though the field, our feet feeling for purchase in the dewy grass and soft mud. It was very dark; the summer moon had not yet risen above the horizon. I was between the two boys. My sandals lit up if I tread on them hard enough, an other-worldly series of green flashes that glowed through the nearby grass enough to plan another step. The air was cool and the darkness stretched around us as we moved into it, passing us ever closer to the sound of running water.

We reached the bridge, this bridge that the boys had made with their own hands; it was solid and sturdy and the extra traction coupled with excitement quickened the one pace it required to cross it. There was a small hill of thick, black mud. They took off their rubber boots and I slipped off my sandals, and the cool mud squished between our toes as we scrambled up the hill to the sauna. This exercise set us to laughing; the sound was hemmed in by the dark night and the shady trees that just now began to appear in my adjusted vision.

We entered the sauna and perched ourselves on its shelves like merchandise in a store. There was a light inside and it leaked into the darkness, providing less of a shine than a flickering glow. The older boy went to work pouring water onto the coals in the corner of the sauna, filling the already sweltering room with hot steam. It was filling up the sauna, this sauna, that the boys had built with their own hands.

Hardly any time had passed before the heat became unbearable. Surely that had to be steam condensing on my skin: it was impossible to sweat that much. The younger boy was looking at his watch. He kept shaking his head. It was not time yet. Wait a little longer. With a mischevious smirk he took the water cup and emptied it over the coals. Steam filled the sauna so fully we could hardly see one another. The air was heavy and scorching in my lungs.

It was time! We went to the door and spilled out onto the slippery hill. Sweet cool air on my skin! What bliss! But that was not enough. Come, they said. We slid down the mud to the edge of the brook. Here, they said, take a hold of the side of the bridge and go into the water. It was cold, my toes reported... oooh it was so cold. The water was higher than either of them had ever seen it- there was no space under the bridge, it was like a roughened pathway through the river itself. I dropped into the water. My nerves went haywire. In a loose crouch it came up to my neck. My breath, just a moment ago languid with humidity, became sharp, shallow, and quick. Following instructions, I ducked my head swiftly under the water. Electricity!

I leapt from the rippling darkness and onto the slope. There was another instruction. Look up! I threw my head back to the sky, the sky of midnight black, peppered with a million stars like an inverse of cinnamon on toast. The Milky Way used to be there, and the summer constellations. Now they were completely unintelligible for their bobbing and weaving and pulsing with my madly beating heart.

We city kids have drugs for this kind of stuff, I joked.

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