The Accidental Voyeur

            Leash connecting you, your six feet pad along on the pitch dark pavement.  Street lights illuminate your puffs of hot breath as you pass under one after another.  There is nothing but silence, aside from the occasional skitter of a night creature returning to its den.  Porch lights are on and windows are dark.  Behind you approaches a hum….squeak….thump, hum…squeak….thump, as the bleary-eyed newspaper delivery guy tosses his rubber-banded packages onto each driveway on the block.

            An embarrassed neighbor, dressed in plaid flannel pajamas and yellow fuzzy slippers, scuttles quickly back inside her house clutching the morning news in hopes that you didn’t notice her bed-head.

Randomly a window lights up.  First a bathroom, then a kitchen.  You spy two tousled grey heads shuffling to the kitchen table to sip steaming coffee and read the newspaper in silence.  No need for words when you can read each other’s minds.

With a hint of light on the horizon, you come full circle to your doorstep.  Nose cherry-red from the cold, you owned the morning.  Who needs coffee?

* * *

And now your day is nearly done.  A short walk for the pooch with a belly full of warm dinner, the sky-light is fading and the moon rises.   Indoor lights are switched on to fight the growing darkness, but the twilight glows and it’s not yet dark enough to draw curtains.  You can’t help but see families sew up their day with bed-time rituals.  T.V.s glow in rec rooms while children’s heads bounce high in front of their bedroom window chanting, “Two little monkeys jumping on the bed!”

A head works at the kitchen sink, pots are scrubbed, then counters are wiped and kitchen lights go out.  Bathrooms are briefly alight with tooth brushing.  Finally, curtains are drawn for bedtime stories.  Goodnight Moon.