1.
A purple hoodie. He was wearing a purple hoodie and running along the sidewalk. Two of his friends were nearby, one ahead of him looking back, the other running alongside. It was a sunny day at the end of the year. The holidays were just around the corner. And it was the beginning of the weekend.
And he was running down the sidewalk in a purple hoodie.
2.
Out by the curb late at night. Orion is overhead. It’s the holidays. No cars are on the road. Down the street five or six houses, there is a riot of kids out in the front yard. They’re laughing and playing basketball. There’s no school tomorrow, because … it’s the holidays.
And they are running around in the dark of night playing basketball.
3.
The holidays end tonite. Tomorrow it starts up again. And a decidedly lower-case new year.
I don’t know what to think or write or say when I sit here, these days. These nights. I’m stunned beyond my usual cynical self.
So I will sit in the sun on the weekends if it’s warm. And maybe even when it’s not. Looking down the street for the boy in the hoodie. Or listening for the racket of kids playing basketball.
Because their frames of mind are a better place to be.