File: Rain-Softened Night on th(...).png (3.13 MB, 1586x992)

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I was coming down off uppers and had to go for a walk to slow my mind, so I stepped out onto the avenue past midnight with my hands deep in the coat I got from a thrift shop. Everyone still out here moved with a reason and a sense of belonging, a delivery bag on a bike or a cab door swinging open, and I drifted between them flat and quiet, probably looking a little odd strolling at this hour. Holiday lights blinked along the fire escapes and the moon hung over a dumpster smoldering behind a diner. Somehow I felt more awake with every block, warm and easy against the cold. A squirrel scrambled up the brick while two cats watched it from a stoop, and I laughed out loud at the two of them. Steam rolled up from a grate and the breeze carried it across the crosswalk where a group of friends in scarves sang their way home, breath clouding under the heavy streetlight, their voices bright against the night. The city glowed in every lit window and every passing headlight, and I walked on slow with my chest open to the cold, wide awake and grateful to be out here breathing it in and feeling nice.