City Life

Lights out. Time for bed. It is different tonight. The thoughts of making sure the house is properly secured and alarm set are back. Sitting out on the back patio was cut short. Something was moving along the bank, too heavy to be a squirrel or raccoon. Perhaps it was someone looking behind the townhouses again, obscure from view, looking for opportunity behind a shield of darkness. One never knows. It has happened before in our neighborhood.

Five nights passed without a thought of these things. Five nights of peaceful rest and lack of worry over safety; my sentinel sleeping beside me, my watch duty called off. Now it is up to me again to make sure, to keep watch, to be safe. This is the city and for now, this is my life.

Welcome home.