Summer Games by ML Scully stood just inside the screened porch, watching the two on the lawn by the lake. She heard William's childish shrieks of glee, his favorite blanky tied around his shoulders like a superhero. He knelt on the old gurney, his hands gripping the straps tightly as his dad pushed it across the grass. Popcorn the dog ran circles around them, his ears flying with the wind of his passage and his tongue almost as long as his ears. She smiled and paused a moment longer in the doorway, her hand stroking the cool glass beads on the edges of the curtain. As she watched, Mulder lifted their son in his arms and spun him around. The gurney, unattended, rolled across the grass and teetered at the edge of the dock before tipping over and into the water. More laughter from the boys of summer on the lawn, and a volley of excited barks from Popcorn. Losing the gurney was part of the game. After they'd flopped on the grass for a while, breathless and dizzy, Mulder would get the grapple and pull it back out again and stick it in the barn next to the rusting old ambulance they'd found there when they moved in. She'd have the lemonade waiting for them on the porch when they were done, and a bowl of ice cubes for Popcorn to gnaw on. End. Okay, so not so brief. And a little weird (don't try that at home!) And no sex! Sorry, sallie! The elements: someone's favorite blanky a lake house a beaded curtain a runaway gurney a flop-eared dog