The bird wheeled lazy circles in the sky above the brick building, making one last search for food before the night arrived. People here weren’t as careless with their crumbs as they were in other parts of the city, and the bird knew this, but he searched anyway. On the ground, shadows were emerging from the trees and the building, coating the ground in a false dark. The shadows robbed the ground of its features, smearing crevasses and covering the pockmarks created by the stress of every day living. But the sky was still an opalescent blue and there was enough light for the bird to see his way.
A man and a woman stepped out of the building and stood on the steps. He shifted a briefcase from one hand to the other and reached out to take her elbow. She smiled at him and let him guide her to the parking lot.
“Are you sure you can’t make it for dinner tonight?” he asked as he walked her to her car.
She eased her elbow out of his grip and fumbled through her purse for her keys. “Yes,” she said, peering into her bag. “I just want to go home and sleep.”
He pulled his own keys out of his pocket and pressed the remote’s unlock button. The taillights flashed once in the growing dark and disappeared. “You’ve been sleeping an awful lot recently?” His voice traveled up an incline, giving his words a questioning lilt instead of sounding like an observation.
“Didn’t we have this conversation just recently?” She brushed her bangs back from her eyes and looked up from her purse.
He lifted his hands and smiled a little. “Caught,” he said. “I worry about you.”
Her fingers caught on the ring of her key chain and she pulled it out with a flourish. “Found them.” She waved them, listening to the metal jingle in the quiet parking lot. “You don’t have to,” she said. “Worry about me, I mean.”
He shrugged and stared at the trees that ringed the building and said something that sounded like it might have been “fine.”
The bird spied a crumb by the woman’s car’s front tires and swooped down to pick it up before anyone could claim it. From the ground, the man and the woman seemed so much larger and he watched them for a minute to make sure it was safe. He glanced between them as the man turned away from the woman.
She caught his wrist, snagging it on her fingers as he moved past her. “I’m sorry.” The words sounded like they were being pulled from her stomach. “I’m in a foul mood.” She leaned against her car and settled her briefcase by her feet. Studying the pavement, she spotted the tiny bird and smiled at it as it hopped across the grounds.
The man shrugged again, but stopped walking.
She hitched a shoulder and said quietly, “I’d be lousy company tonight.”
“That’s what you said the last time.”
She paused and fiddled with her keys. “It’s still true.
He nodded and leaned next to her. His finger tapped her wrist and he said, “Maybe I’d just like company.”
Her eyes widened and she looked up at him. She smiled briefly, letting his words wrap around her and then settle on her shoulders and drift around her feet. She curled her toes in her shoe and stared across the parking lot. But he could see the way her muscles were softening, so he pressed, “Come over, I’ll cook.”
She ducked her head and shrugged a little, glancing away from him.
He hooked a finger under her chin and angled her face back towards his. “Mac,” he said softly, “it’s not good for you to spend so much time alone.”
She blinked, her eyelids drifting shut and opening slowly. Catching his hand in hers, she stepped back and said, “I’m really tired.” She whispered her words apologetically, “Maybe another night.”
“Mac.”
Shaking her head, she opened her car door and tossed her briefcase in. “It’s getting dark.” She walked around her car. “I should go.”
The car’s engine was already turning over and the noise swallowed the rest of her words as she waved good-bye, but he was sure he heard her say, “This is better for you.” Confused, he was left with no choice but to get into his car and drive home alone.
Startled
by the noise of the cars, the bird flew into the sky. Above the trees,
the sky was still a perfect, deep blue. The moon was a pale hook in
the corner of the sky. And the first stars were just beginning to appear.
They were small silver dots on the horizon, but there was enough light
for the bird to find his way home.