Apologies in advance, what follows isn't a short story but a series of observations...
A man follows a woman up the middle of a road several feet behind. They're walking in silence, she's clutching a loaf of bread in her right hand. Have they had an argument, is she getting ready to swing it at him? Maybe she's just got a hankering for a sandwich or for toast and is desperate to get home and eat? It's a quarter past nine and there's still a shade or two of daylight left in the sky before the dark of night descends. High to the west, Venus shines in solitude. The stars are winning in their giant game of hide and seek.
The muffled sound of music can be heard. I can't tell if it's from a long distance away or from a short one somewhere in someone's home. A bird in a tree tweets in joyous song clearly not yet ready for sleep. Maybe they're celebrating a new arrival in the family given its spring. A youth cycles down a path with no lights on his bike presumably thinking it's safer than being on the road whilst pedestrians on the path such as my good self are thinking it would be safer if he got off and walked and tomorrow purchases some lights or just cycle home earlier.
A blonde in her mid twenties wearing a blue and white horizontal striped sailors shirt walks past with her phone held high in hand illuminating her face and hair. A woman on the other end is giggling about something.
Behind net curtains of a hotel room an old couple sit on chairs on opposing sides of the bed. She's doing a crossword, his head is down, maybe doing the same or reading a book. The only strenuous activity that room will see tonight is thinking. Close to 10pm now and a family walks through the cemetery. A father carries his daughter in his arms. She looks like she's wearing a party dress under her coat. Perhaps she's literally danced the night away from wherever they've been to earlier this evening. Another family walk down the road with two small children. There's going to be a lot of tired little campers in the morning. An old couple slowly shuffle down the road coming up to a junction. They've no chance of getting out of the way if a car were to suddenly swing in.
At one end of a road I can hear the bells for ten o'clock but only count five. At the other end the sound of Groove Armada fills the night air. I see you baby, shaking that ass, shaking that ass. The kids still up might learn some new words tonight if they carry on up this route.
Two men walk down the middle of a road discussing a work meeting. The subtext is that wherever they work is shit and nothing ever changes. It's a conversation I've heard 100s of times.
A woman in her 30s clearly worse for wear bangs on a window and shouts John stop fucking pretending you're not in there I know you're hiding.
A woman in her 20s is clearly into retro fashion. Her trousers are red tartan a la Bay City Rollers in the 1970s. Her black and white jacket was last fashionable when spotted by Eddie Murphy in the Beverly Hills Cop films in the 1980s.
Turning west for home its Venus' turn for her to hide having found the stars that were hiding an hour and a half before.
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