Their front door was open wide, staring out into the violet sky. Not at me or at anything in particular. Just looking out instead of in. Turning away from the day to anticipate the night. I drove past a bunch of kids playing beside a dumpster. Two black boys, one tall, one small boned and short. Obviously much younger. A preteen girl with rainbow beaded cornrows and another little one, a boy in a navy blue sweater at least two sizes too big for him with a sleek blonde bowl haircut that rippled like sandy water as he turned his head to shout back to the others. None of the children payed me any attention but the man and woman standing in front of the open door did. Both of them looked to be in their mid twenties, him dark against his crisp white wife beater, her blonde and petite. Bright faces like two iridescent smudges in the shadows. Alert yet friendly eyes. Were they parents to any of the children nearby? I don't know. I suppose. Or their casual vigilance could have just been a coincidence. But then I was well past them, coming up to the weird little pointless breezeway at the end of the duplex, near the rental office. Ahead of me, a black and white cat walked across the parking lot with a slight limp. It wasn't in any kind of hurry. I guess it felt safe. I cracked the car window and called to it.
"Here, kitty, kitty, kitty..."
It's ragged ears didn't so much as twitch. Feet padded one after the other and carried it away from me. Black. White. Black. White. I kept on driving, the Saturn bucking as it rolled over a speed bump and climbed the pavement towards the exit then shot out among Airport Boulevard's swerving heavenly bodies. The cars rocketed past dragging the Saturn away with their irresistible motion, west and back into the night.
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