Even though I’m a kid and even though it’s summer time, I am riding my bike to school. My errand today is to pick up my high school report card, and it turns out to be a lovely day for a bike ride.

The country highway is straight and cuts through the flat landscape. Some of the ditches along the road are soft with fresh cut grass, some are full of weeds, and some are spongey and hidden by tall, elegant reeds. Bushy trees line fields, and as I get closer to my school, the corn crops dwindle and make way for the tobacco crops.

I arrive at my destination. As I turn into the school parking lot, my dog, Creedence, emerges from the shadows like a Viking invader. She is panting happily, and very proud of how silently she ran through the ditches and behind the trees as she followed me to school.