Shadow Dancer.

 
 Another restless night.  Once again I'm unfortunately free from the burden of sleep. Free to see the world in the silence another night. Often when I know I will not sleep, rather than lying in bed finding patterns and faces in the popcorn ceiling, I pick up my coat and walk about, as I did this night. I ventured out into the crisp fall night, taking in the calm and still atmosphere in carried. Despite the lack of proper rest and frustration of waiting for the world to wake up, I'd come to find so much peace in the lonely night. Joined only by the stars and elusive nocturnals, occasionally spying another night owl but very rarely. I especially found solace in the more suburban neighborhood. The people here live by schedules with no time to spend meandering in the dark for fear they'll be to tired in the morning. That must be nice. There were never vehicles either allowing me to stroll down the road in equal enjoyment of the whole streets in place of the left or right sidewalks.  It was down in one of the suburbs I had yet undiscovered that I took my walking to on this particular evening. Turning down the little road on to the unknown street, quick movement caught my attention. A silhouette moved fast across the adjacent street in the corner of my eye. Looking to see the empty street I shrugged it away. A crow or bat, I thought but couldn't help scratching the idea I saw a slender leg and arm disappear as I turned. Just a tired mind.

    This new untraveled street was like all the rest. Tranquil homes lined up in rows, the life in them idle till the sun rises. What did interest me was its lack of street lamps, with only a singular sentry watching over the street like a lonesome watchdog and casting little light onto the street. The darkness ruled here. It had its run of the place, taunting the light, moving free in the moons glow. The shadows seemed to spill across the street like water, threading about with tendrils made of the shadows cast of the grand old trees barren branches. Swaying in the high breeze made the shades twist and flow, grabbing at the few places of light touched by the street lamp. And then I felt it. A deliberate burst of air. Not the wind. More something moving fast and silent just in front of me. Something avoiding the light. I looked though the darkness surrounding and at the quite houses and their well kept front yards, scattered with autumn leaves. There was no one. Not a sound but the gentle wind across the valley. The people still slept soundly unaware that I let alone anyone would be awake or about at this hour. It was then I noticed I had pick up a follower. Peering from a line of bushes lie a squat black and white cat. The white of its fur spilled like a graying black or rather that the creature had rolled in flour and enjoyed the mess as cats do. It watched with its sharp yellow eyes highlighted by the dim glow of the lonesome street lamp. It had been following me from yard to yard but I couldn't say for how long. It sat, content to watch me fumble my way around in the open obscurity. I smiled as we stared eye to eye, sharing a moment that only exists in twilight nights like this, knowing that one another is a more nocturnal thing. It's luminous eyes gave me a comfort in the dark and took away the frustration of my insomnia. With eerie indifference, the cats eyes listlessly fell from me to beyond me. Past me.

   My hair fanned as it moved past me again. Behind me. Though uncertain, I turned with no great anxiety. Momentarily a silhouette drifted in the dark in front of me and soon vanished. A humming grow from the now stalwart lamp, seeming brighter, the dim light becoming shafts breaking here and there in the shadows but somehow not lighting the whole street. I stood watching this strange contest of light and shadow as the silhouette moved past me again. I saw it now, saw it move. I saw it dancing. It moved as if underwater. A slow graceful ballet in shadows. It spun and shifted with a beautiful velocity, slow but drifting in and out of view, in and out of the darkness. It glided toward the shafts of light, the lamp humming louder. The display was something impossible. It danced in between the pockets of shadow between the stems of light. The lamp droned higher now, spreading brighter. As it did the dancer dispersed back to the surrounding darkness. I tried to follow with my eyes but the lamp became to bright and cast a glare in my view. I covered my eyes just as the lamp burst with a white flare. The darkness flooded in, engulfing the street. It was there. The silhouette stood beneath the now shattered lamp. Looking at me with fluid, shrouded round gray eyes. It was so still yet I struggled to truly be able to focus it. The sound of the wind above blew through again. It simply stared at me. There was a great peace in the moment, it was not afraid nor was I. No, I was restful. It felt as though a long time past before, as if never seeing me at all, it began its dance again. In elegant defiance of the now defeated keeper. The great orange glow of the morning sun swept over the hills, I turned as the light climbed the street. Following it to see the dancer following the shadows until both were now gone. I stood in the street and looked to the sky. The moon still hiding above in a far corner of the brilliant blue, waiting for the next night. I stuffed my hands in my coat pockets and made my home.