- Midnight
12AM was a revolving door. An enter and an exit. Always in motion. You were either inside or out, and midnight was the checkpoint. But every day felt the same. She sat on her bed. As the little hand slid to the vertical of the clock, she heard the footsteps in the hall, a car hovering in the street. Her brother was going out. Where are you going? Out. It was silent after that. Her mom was two rooms away, already in bed, maybe asleep, staying in. Another car now, this time tires scraping the driveway. Then the smell of cigarettes, then the coughing. Her dad was home from work. It was midnight. She left her lights on for too long. Go to bed. So she lied down, only to think about what it was like to be out. And this happened every day, she grew tired but never slept.
- …
She was always busy. If not doing work then always worrying about it. You knew that but never the business. She always had something to say, but it was always the same talk about stress. It was like she wasn’t comfortable in the quiet. Once in a full, abnormally large blue moon though, that’s when it’d be different. That was when you had the chance to talk to her about her interests or her day. But it was never like you could relate to it. So when the whole of the moon did expand, and when it would fade into a cool tone like that of the ocean it pulls, you let her be. Maybe the stress was contagious? It was definitely exhausting. Only now though, it is quiet.
- Morning
There were two siblings next door separated by four years. They were young but could do things. Like leave the house and drive. Which they always did together, usually at night, never in the morning. It was in the morning when their house was always loud, a lot of voices, words that were never coherent but always sharp. In the morning they don’t move, they don’t talk. Are they hungry? In the morning they see each other angry, they see each other sad, they never see each other. It isn’t until the skies are darker than navy that together they leave their house behind. That’s when they’ve digested all their problems from The Morning. They go out to eat.
02:34 