nightfall

by nick nelson

night was falling, and jerry went for a walk. he passed a young man wearing a blue backpack and sipping a mcdonalds strawberry smoothie through a straw, then, on the next street, he saw a man with old fashioned horn rimmed glasses walking a little dog. the dog was covered with thick hair and jerry could not see its eyes. on the next street, jerry entered a convenience store and purchased a newspaper. the paper did not contain any news that jerry could not obtain on his computer or phone, but it did have some daily puzzles that he enjoyed doing. walking down the street from the convenience store, jerry saw a young woman on the other side of the street. she was wearing dark glasses even though darkness had now completely fallen, the young woman with the dark glasses was the last person jerry would see on his walk for over an hour, before he turned around and began retracing his steps back to his apartment building. he saw one more person on the street before he arrived home. this was the most singular person jerry would see. it was a heavyset woman off indeterminate age, who was walking a medium sized dog, which seemed to be straining somewhat on its leash. the woman had a small lamp attached to her forehead, and as she walked the dog she was reading a james patterson novel by its light! jerry arrived at his building and took the elevator four stories to his apartment and let himself in. another night, and no one had stopped him on the street and tried to engage him in conversation, or asked him his opinions, which he would have been happy to share, on climate change, slave reparations, the future of the united nations, or transgenderism. not that he would not have been happy to discuss other issues as well. maybe tomorrow night, he thought.