The Parking Lot of Life

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She sank to the ground, folding her legs under her and sitting 'Indian' style against the burnt out light post in the middle of the cracked, chipped and empty parking lot. She stared up at the faint stars in the sky, almost completely choked out by the never fading glow of the city as the tears rolled down her face, silently, never a sound.

There was never any sound from her. She took whatever came to her with a serene silence, never complaining, never making excuses, and now she took this, without a sound. The ultimate betrayal.

The stars seemed brighter beside the faint outline of the crescent moon, and she took the time out of her pain to notice the perfection of the night. The sky looked like a picture out of a storybook, one that wasn't hers. The moon and the glow of the city reflected off the dampness of her cheeks as she squeezed her hands tightly on her knees, keeping silent in her pain, her fingernails biting into her bare skin.

Her toes began to lose feeling as the pre-fall wind began to blow, the night was chilly and there she was, without warmth, all alone in her parking lot. The story of her life, alone in her parking lot, swallowing her pain with more courage than any who saw her might assume she had. She breathed deeply the spicy smell of fallen leaves and the smell of old heated concrete cooling in the night air.

A cat screeched from one of the yards close at hand of the apartment buildings that shadowed the lot, another reminder that even so close to hundreds of people she was still terribly alone. She could feel the pins and needles starting in her legs but refused to rearrange herself. The tears had stopped but the tightness in her chest was still there.

A faint light gleamed in a window of one of the apartments and a head blocked most of it from escaping, eyes looking into the night, spotting the un-spottable stone girl on her own. And then it was gone, plunged back into darkness, dismissing her as nothing, as another shadow came around the corner of the hedge of trees.

Standing, staring at her in the midst of all her pain, he wept. For all that he had seen, all that he saw now and all that he would see, but yet he wept silently, not disturbing the peace of the pain. The screaming peace of the patient pain.

He flowed to her side and dropped to a comforting protecting pose and as she stared up at the sky, oblivious to his presence, wondering what it would be like to fly and tears beginning to pour again, he leant to her ear and whispered...

...Scream...

Her voice echoed into darkness, mercifully covering, protecting, cleansing darkness. Bouncing off the clouds and coming back to haunt the dreams of the happily sleeping, pause the prowling of the cats, awaken the sleeper who had dismissed it as nothing. The pain in the voice woke the birds, made the dogs howl with empathy and the animals screech.

Those sleeping felt the ache in their chests, those awake had tears spring to their eyes, those in a state of semi-conscious drug induced bliss felt it tearing into them, ruining their high.

Those crying alone, silently, stopped, wiped their tears and looked at the sky, feeling their sorrows fade, to wait for another day, and they mourned in happiness for the one who had found her way. Her way to the complete comfort of the darkness that is light with the perfect moon shining like a beacon in the dead night.

In the parking lot, the chipped, cracked, silent parking lot of her life, she stopped, he stood. She took one more glance at the sky, and breathed in the smell of the night... her night. She unfolded herself, looking for a moment at the crescents on her knees and followed him into the night, fading into shadow...finally learning how to let go and how it felt to fly.