Shadow And The Light

My first night in suburbia. After spending all day cleaning, I finally get myself cleaned up and start to relax.

I'm standing outside, on the walkway between the front door and the driveway. Finally, after two months of discomfort, the promise of rest, quiet, and peacefulness. It's a warm and humid late summer night; I'm comfortable in just my nightie. The front door faces due South, and the moon is shining brightly overhead. Orion has just emerged from the East, standing in full glory, magnificent, and dominant on the horizon.

I light my last Nat Sherman, taking a shallow puff, then a long pull before exhaling into the sky. The sky looks different here. I want to say there are less stars than in Vegas, but it almost seems like there are just different stars here. In the desert, I could see the Milky Way, and if you know where to look, you can kind of make it out here. On the other hand, because there are less stars here, other galactic features are now more prominent. The Andromeda galaxy is straight above me, just barely visible as a brighter patch in the sky. I take another pull... so this is my life for the next few months, huh?

Just then, the neighbors start to come over. Well, the neighbors who are out at 2am anyway. A black cat approaches and says hello. Meow. I mimic her greeting and at this, she raises her tail high (akin to a dog wagging its tail) and comes closer. I notice she has a very bright white patch on her front chest; she almost appears white when she approaches head-on. Just then, in the shadows, I notice movement.

I look round and see a dark gray cat, sitting in the dark corner of the garage door opening, watching us both. Instantly, the names Shadow and Light run through my mind, and so I greet them both with their new monikers.

Shadow doesn't look very friendly as he approaches. He gets closer and I can tell that he's looking for a fight. As he starts to get aggressive with Light, I TSSsss at him and he bolts away into the darkness. Light, appropriately, stays in the moonlight by my feet. I think I just made a friend.

I study the living things surrounding the house. This place needs a landscaping company something fierce. Unfortunately, that's my job. The price of solitude is that I keep up the house. I push the thought to the back of my mind. There's so much work that needs done, I'll have to just take it one step at a time, and anyway, I'm not touching the lawn until the inside of the house is to my liking.

Looking up from the ground, I notice that everything looks alike here in the dark. All the homes with the porch lights on and the cars in the driveways... it's a constant repetitive pattern. New York had rows and rows of homes even closer together, yet somehow, there was a much greater diversity there than what is before me now.

Welcome to suburbia.