I CANNOT SLEEP

I CANNOT SLEEP

I cannot sleep. The time was 2 am and I am wide awake. Saito the cat is delighted — an extra, early breakfast and unexpected play time. “I might as well work,” I think and move to the kitchen to brew the coffee. While waiting, I step out the front door to breathe the morning air.

It is quiet with not even a sound from the distant railroad — not even a cricket. The street is dark and empty and nothing moves. No wait! Two figures, dressed in completely in black, with black hoods pulled over their heads, pass by on the opposite sidewalk. “Death and his intern on an errand?” I wondered. Perhaps not, but creatures of the night nonetheless. In front of me, a cricket makes his way across the sidewalk to a patch of green grass now gray in the early gloom. I smile. Another creature of the night but one I do not dread.

I return to the kitchen where a spider scurries about the counter, perhaps looking for crumbs from last night’s pizza. I decide to leave the kitchen to her for a while and come back for the coffee later. Musings of Lafcadio Hearn await on my computer.