Thursday, 1 April 2010

The End of The Day in April




I'm on my own. The emptiness is all around, breathing in the shadows, I can feel it. Watching. (Waiting?) What am I going to do with my night? My life? What about my life? It is still, quiet. I could do anything.

I look around and wonder what to do?

The garden is green, outside, through the windows, beyond the walls, as the last of the day light fades. Nothing moves, still, silent. Leaves caught in suspended animation. A moment. The room is frozen, my skin shivers. I feel the walls at my sides, tapping at me, closing in, but they feel like friend not foe. I feel protected. Safe, I feel safe.

No plans. No friends calling. I've been out to lunch, now nothing. Silence... into the night. My skin tingles, a shiver runs through my bones.

Silence. Blink, blink.


I stand and stare. What to do? I don’t know how long I stood there.

I felt a tap on my leg. I looked down. My dog was sitting looking up at me.

“What?” I say.

He runs off. He returns with his lead in his mouth.

I laugh. “Yeah, sure, why not,” I say.

I click his lead onto his collar. He stands up wagging his tail. We head to the door.

The light was lovely outside, the dusk was gorgeous. We stepped out the gate onto the footpath. Rudi bounced with excitement. We head up the street, Rudi padding along next to me. He looks up at me with his big brown eyes.


The light is diming. I feel safe. We set our own pace. Rudi sniffs everything, of course. That’s what he does. I let him, it’s his time, and mine. The footpath stretches out in front. We walk, the two of us, the night starts to fall all about us. Me and him. We walk it out. Rudi leads the way sometimes, sometimes I tug at his lead when he gets too in his own head. The padding of both our feet. Street. Street. Street. We do the block, we always do the block. It’s a big block. I admit, I like routine. Me and him. We walk for an hour, it gets it out of our skin. Then we head home.


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