Look Up

“You need to get out of here.” I grabbed her hand and pulled her out of bed. She wrote my phone number on a scrap piece of paper, left it on the kitchen counter, and followed me into the night.

Two a.m., we left Crady Street. Guns n’ Roses played loudly and my car swept through the dark, silent neighborhood like a dart.

“Where do we go?
Where do we go now?
Where do we go?”

“What am I doing?” she screamed, excited and scared. She had never left home in the middle of the night before. She threw her hands around me and kissed my head.

I chose west, the Old Jackson School exit. The stars shone clearly in the sky --- like summer, but cold enough to make me shiver. Or maybe that wasn’t the only reason, but I couldn’t stop.

The lone tree in the old field stared at us as we drove by, staring right back…

We didn’t get back to her house until four a.m. The slightest shade of orange began to glow on the horizon, only urging me to hold on to the moment.

When I left her, I thought about the people finishing up their graveyard shifts, and wondered if they preferred being awake while everyone else sleeps. If they feel like they’re missing more or worrying less by sleeping when the sun is out.

Although I hadn’t felt tired for hours, I tread softly up the path to my house and collapsed into bed. I don’t think I missed out on anything that night. Instead I experienced a clear instance of exactly what was happening in our lives in that moment.

posted by Allison Francis @ 9:45 PM