The Lightning Summer

Elena stood at the edge of the padel court, her father's old fedora hat pulled low against the afternoon glare. Three months since the funeral, and still she expected him to walk through the gate, racquet in hand, complaining about his back.

"You're going to hit the ball into the parking lot," Marcus called from the opposite side of the net. He'd been her father's friend for thirty years, a constant presence now occupying the space where loss lived.

"It's called strategy," she shot back, though they both knew she hadn't played seriously since college. The ball bounced awkwardly off her racquet frame, indeed sailing toward the parked cars.

Her father's golden retriever, Buster, now hers by default, lumbered from the sidelines to retrieve it. The dog's graying muzzle matched the sky as storm clouds gathered. Summer in the valley always brought lightning, spectacular shows that illuminated the entire mountain range.

"He never stopped talking about you," Marcus said suddenly, leaning against his racquet. "After your mother left, when you moved west. Every Sunday lunch, 'Elena would hate this weather' or 'Elena would love what they're doing with the downtown redevelopment.'"

The confession hung between them, heavier than the approaching storm. Elena had been so focused on her career, her carefully curated life in Seattle, that she'd forgotten what it meant to be someone's daughter.

"I should have visited more."

"He should have asked." Marcus shrugged. "We're all just people doing our best with the hands we're dealt."

Lightning cracked across the sky, a brilliant fork that seemed to split the horizon. Buster dropped the ball at her feet, his tail creating a dusty arc against the court surface. In that flash of illumination, Elena saw her life's inventory: the promotion she'd chased, the apartment she'd overstyled, the conversations she'd avoided.

"Play?" she asked Marcus as thunder rumbled in the distance.

"Until the rain drives us off."

They played until the first drops fell, until they were both laughing and breathless, until the friend who knew all her father's secrets became something like family.