Afraid of the dark?

Yes.

I could end there.

We are trying to get back to our regular early walks, but suddenly it is dark when we want to start. And it stays dark through the entire walk.

It was cool and Orion was high in the sky.

But, there were no birds starting to sing. There were no brilliant sunrises.

The stars were shining brightly. The sliver of a moon lit up the wispy clouds circling it.

But the darkness all around us seemed feral.

We had forgotten the noises and shadows of early morning walks.

We turned around at the entrance of the empty park. We listened to the crash and bang and clank of the garbage truck emptying dumpsters. We heard the roar and thunk, thunk, thunk of the early morning  train. We wondered at the dogs barking - how close were they? Were they loose?

And we jumped at our own shadows and tripped on uneven spots in the sidewalk.

We know we will adjust to our walks once again, but today...

We edged away from the last few openings of storm sewer in the last few blocks before home. Padimus hates these "mouths" of this secret system of tunnels, full of wild cats and bad smells and nightmares.

Was it our imagination? Did we feel the hot breath of earth as we passed?