• As I Walk in the Night

    As I walk in the night, straight along the silent road, the emptiness is crushing on my frame.
    My companion, although canine in body and soul, seem to be wary minded.
    Glances behind us leave us looking vulnerable to invisible onlookers.

    The damp freshly cut grass-which sticks annoyingly to my shoes- or the uneven cracked road- which causes me to weave in and out of the potholes.
    Panicked breaths, raised hackles,
    But it’s just a black bag scraping wildly along the tar.

    My shadow, now duplicated since the lamppost ahead insists to beam upon us, makes my outstretched ‘lead hand’ look as if it is holding my hand on the other shadow’s black horizontal body.
    A moment of comfort.

    We continue walking past a house now, the drainpipe slowly oozing a shadowy black trickle, down on the flowerbed below.
    A flash at the window, and there’s a head watching us.
    Stuttered breath. A gasp and a falter in my step.
    Only to double-take and see that the light was from a television dully lighting a living room, and the head to be a trophy of some sort. Well done.
    I lead, then, to head home, but an inquisitive pup drags us to an unfamiliar lane adjacent to the road home.

    The stairs are steep and I am yanked by the lead also. All the while, scanning to the left, the right, and behind. Always behind. The same direction pup’s ears are pointing, toward our exposed backs.
    On the passing of another house, an unfriendly woman closing her curtains eyes pup with contemptible spike from her eyes. I refuse to wave.
    A couple more forced steps, and a man can be seen standing on his top step - way up - smoking a cigar.
    With smoke billowing up from his pointed mouth, he exhales in a loud ‘sheeeee’.
    I timidly squeak a hello, in which he replies ‘hey.’-in a rusty, low tone.

    My footsteps cautiously quicken, until I am round the corner and out of sight.
    I can see home. Never has it looked so white and grand in all my life. The bathroom light, our beacon home to the warm carpeted place of love, and hot coco.
    I didn’t care if it burned my throat tonight, or made my tongue tasteless for the next few hours. I wanted to sit with my mother and for her to tell me things while the pup lay content and illuminated by beside the roaring open fire.

    Just the gate now. I should remind mum to oil the hinges, make it easier to scrape the lock open and drag the gate from our way, in order to enter the boundary of the garden. I hastily hauled at the gate to return it back to securing the garden, but a sudden shriek from two houses away- sparked my adrenal glands and sent my brain into panic mode.
    I’ve never to this day ran up the path so fast, four steps! Pup even struggled, with his grand legs.

    The door handle resistant now, due to my brain being sparking and screaming internally. I swung the door open, locked it and caught a few steady breaths. Before I then removed pups restrictive collar, and sauntered in to find mother with the kettle on.

    The loud noise of the water boiling, and my mother washing dishes with her familiar apron on, calmed my nerves due to the familiarity of it.
    The hug I received was sweet and bracing, like my fears were squeezed out of me at that moment. Replaced by excitement at what tomorrow will bring, and the sunshine once again returning.

    Goodnight I thought.