Silence of the sky

From atop the cliffs, the tumult of sea at night seemed remote, too far away to ever hurt anyone. On the horizon, a string of lights revealed freighters waiting their turn to enter port, some twenty kilometers to the north, like they had for thousands of years. Brilliant lights shone all along the curving shore in that direction, only fading as they came closer, through one sedated coastal town after another. The breeze brought a chill, and the smell of salt, while up the promenade traveled mixed music from merry-go-rounds and beer gardens. It was peaceful at this end. The few floating lamps kept trying to cluster where people did, to the chagrin of those seeking the dark on purpose.

The bazaar was closing down as I wandered past. Less than one hour to midnight. I rubbed the smoke of barbecues out of my eyes and watched the crowd. A neko family, with two kids chasing each other's tails around the padded feet of their parents. Locals, by their clothes; tourists tended to be more extravagant, like the half-mechanical fairy with huge vivid eyes in a face like a porcelain doll, and delicate wings nearly brushing the ground.

I belonged to both worlds and neither. No-one would notice if I got lost wandering down a side street, never to resurface again. But there was no getting lost on the town's simple grid, squeezed as it was between the sea and nearby lake that mirrored it in the small. I knew exactly which turn would take me to the park at the center of it, with its dozen benches clustered around the founder's statue.

Two or three other people wandered the alleys, ghostly in the patches of light filtered through the crowns of old trees. They all ignored me as I picked a place to sit down. All but one.

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