Night

It's been a little while, but I finally sat down and wrote a new piece.


As the wind blows through my coat and I pull it closer to my body, I wonder why I took a job that left me walking alone in the dark late at night. Far away are the sounds of  a sporting event I cannot really bring myself to care about, but apparently it's going well - I've distanced myself considerably and I can still hear the cheers. I start walking a little faster, both to try to warm up and to get further away. It's really dark now, and I stick as close to the lamp posts as I can for fear of whatever unknown things might be in the shadows.

As I continue my solitary journey, passing between old and familiar buildings, I start seeing flashes of lightning all around. They're pretty far off at the moment, but they remind me of the predicted storms I heard about earlier and didn't pay much attention to. I wrap my coat closer to me again, although I am less cold than before, and keep walking.

I've made it pretty far now, and I realize I can't hear the cheering crowds anymore. Now it's nearly silent. It's late in the season, so there aren't many bugs out to create their evening music and there's still no one near me to disrupt the night air. A bit of thunder comes behind the most recent flash of lightning and I start to calculate whether or not I'll make it home before the storm hits.

The silence is deeper when it is punctuated by thunder, it's like the night is sighing between each burst of noise. Then, for just a second, lightning flashes right above me and lights everything up like daylight. The sensation is gone almost as soon as it has appeared, but it left it's mark anyway. I pay even less attention to my surroundings as I remember it and try to hold onto that memory and feeling so I can bring them back later.

I stop and look around me and realize I'm a lot closer to home than I had thought. Good, I think, I'll make it home before I get soaked. Then as I turn the corner to walk the last block home, the rain starts. I laugh out loud, thinking of the strangeness and simplicity of this evening walk, and then I break into a run to get to my door before I get completely soaked.


-Kat