I worked late today. The fair and industrious Trudy had taken Miss Izzy to the university, where she (Miss Izzy) has a speaking role in a musical version of Legally Blonde. It’s been a lot of work training Miss Izzy and carting her off to campus to hang out with her theater friends, and I have helped not a bit I confess, today being no exception. Instead, I worked late knowing that I wouldn’t be missed at home.
It was absolutely quiet when I finished. The office lights clicked on as I made my way to the outside door. A vacuum cleaner blocked the hallway where it had been positioned by the cleaning staff who were working diligently in some other area of the building. All the desks were empty.
Outside, it was that time of day when the sun has set but it hasn’t begun to get dark. The sky was broken clouds with pastel blue showing thru, the rain having gone. The air was glowing, something about the color of the green in the trees. And there was a clean freshness about, maybe because of the rain that had fallen. Some birds were singing in the trees: a Titmouse nearby and a Mourning Dove somewhere far away.
As I walked across the parking lot, these sensations all hit me at the same time. The glow in the sky. The warmth of the air. The dampness from the rain. The birdsong.
And for a brief moment I was taken back to Michigan. It was a summer day. I was young. Wait! Where in Michigan? Where was it? Where was I? What was that feeling, again? How old was I? Dang, I lost it. Maybe if I close my eyes and breathe in the sweet air again. Nope. As quickly as I was transported there, I was back again in a parking lot in Central Texas.