The many shades of darkness through the eyes of a city

One very hot and humid city night, the streets are overflowing with children bicycling, screaming with glee and the teens with obscenity.

The adults with no air conditioning nor fans are out. Sitting on homemade "patios" in chairs that have seen better nights.

Sipping a cold brew or a rum mix or two.

Two streets down, the action is heard, through blaring sirens and people running scared. Cops chasing, young men running, as if for their life. I would guess it's to avoid the capture and doing life itself.

I'm sitting at my daughters kitchen table watching with interest at all that I can see and hear, as if watching it on t.v.

Babysitting my three grand children, trying to play Madlibs while also teaching them what adjective means.

Madlibs is fun, we laugh so hard at the youngest ones' answers, which almost always have words like, "fart" or " nose-picker."

I forgive him since he is only nine. Go figure he wouldn't pick words that would make sense, haha.

Then I start playing around on my phone & come upon my music list, which eerily has the opening music to the movie ( the 1st one,) Halloween. I don't remember adding that. Hmm..anyway I decide to play it on the bluetooth speaker.

Now mind you, the nine year old has never heard this music nor saw the movie. Yet as it starts, he screams bloody murder!

Both his sisters 11 and 14, respectfully, tell him to stop. But by now he is shaking & saying it scares him...when......BOOM,

all lights go out in the neighborhood.

Even I all of a sudden am getting goosebumps from the "coincidence." And the sisters are hugging each other, saying, " grandma, can we go downstairs to your house?"

As if going downstairs we'll avoid any nastiness like ogres jumping out at us!!

But we each take a small flashlight and holding each others hands, we walk downstairs, single file since the stairs down to my apartment are winding and narrow. Of course making our way is just as scary, what with all the shadows whispering fear in each ear.

We get down safely, I open the door to..what else? More darkness, lol. They thought maybe my place would be full of light!

So as I light the many candles I've always had at the ready, the children are huddling near the back door. Astounded by the sudden quiet, like the calm before a storm.

We decide to go out into the back yard where at last we hear quite a lot of people, thousands it seems. We make our way down the driveway and notice suddenly how the whole city seems to be wrapped in a large black blanket with nary a star to gaze upon.

We notice neighbors walking up and down the streets. Some with flashlights or lights from their cell phones. The street at 1 end of ours, where the adults still imbibe, yet now with wonder at what has caused the light to the city to shut down.

The children now cycle on their bikes a little closer, whispering how all the demons are the shadows chasing them.

The teens of course are cursing yet laughing with bravado about " scaredy cats" and stupid people afraid of the dark. And then...BOOM...a manhole cover within feet of the teens and imbibing adults blows sky high and a aura of steam, ( or is it spirits rising from the depths of city hell?) rises higher & higher into the dark.

We walk, holding hands still, lest we lose one of us to the night, down to the other end of the street where some of the older people live in beautiful houses that now just look like hulking, lurking yet beautifully smelling haunted entities.

From here we can see much of the city, ( it being on a hill, overlooking the whole darkness,) & notice shadows running, leaping, screeching, laughing. We hear sirens and see globes of flashing blue lights. We see the large elderly apartment complex where even they cannot see a sparkle or ray of lightness. Their generator must have blown just like the manhole cover.

We 4 stand there in utter awe of a whole city that seems to have purposefully thrown so many shades of darkness into corners where there was once at least a little light. Everything is still, no wind, no breeze no air to breathe.

We walk back in total silence to huddle on the back steps of the porch to await with hope, that the city will once again show us its' light.

We wait and wait yet no light shows. I tell the children to come inside so we can check on the candles. Maybe make something to eat. Finally I make sandwiches and grab chips and dip, some flavored waters and a big blanket.

They follow me outside where I lay the blanket & all food down on the back lawn. I grabbed the biggest flashlight I had before leaving the house & now set it in the middle of the blanket so that it shines into the nights darkest dark. After we eat a little & hydrate ourselves, I tell them, " let's all lie on our backs to gaze at the sky."

We do, but see no stars, just inky black. And then....BOOM...we hear a rustling.... loudly, from many trees...it's birds, whom for the longest time tonight have kept their own counsel but are now chirping, singing? Or maybe just sending out their own dark signals of " where are you? Who is here? Who has left?"

A woodpecker going wildly at his tree, as if mad at the night. As if the night had no reason to throw it's cloak around us, for some a heavy 1, for some a soft caress.

We stayed that way for hours, ( or so it seemed,) until mom and dad came home and ran to us with stories of driving in bleakness, in blackness so encompassing, they didn't even know if they were heading toward us or away.

Until finally they saw the imbibing adults, actually dancing crazily in the street, while the children on bikes sat around them wondering what the darkness had brought. And knew then we were close by, no matter that the night tried to keep them away, they found us in a halo of flashlight.

We all agreed to read upstairs, by candle light, the book "Goodnight moon." For there was not one that dark city night.