My Worst Nightmare

It’s dusk, that time when cries sound silently from all around; when bonfires start crackling in nearby yards; when lovers lay down to rest together in the quiet.

I sit in the leaves, shivering, the book on the ground beside me all muddy & dark.

Or perhaps I’m inside, at my computer, tapping away at a new story.

And maybe, I’m just lying in my bed, my head turned out towards the late-autumn trees, branches whispering lies in the wind.

But one thing is constant: there is silence. No chattering television; no voices harmonizing; no chit-chat of a friend keeping company.

I am completely alone.