Before I could glare out the windows across the street and ask if this was really the best this place could do, the music filled me up and made me big and it hurt, and I told Tammy how much I loved it here, and gave her a big tip. She told me she was very happy to have seen me. I thought about you, and the song got to its familiar crescendo toward the end, and even though it was familiar it felt new and promising all over again. The city knows how to get me, I know, and when I walked out the lights looked warm and smug and people’s chests were lit up with their souls and I thought about being held, and all the important things I needed to do tomorrow that might lead somewhere bigger later on. I went to the transit station to catch the bus home and watch the streetlights swish around the aisles. The city got off my back for the night.
45
