Tonight

I walked home tonight in a fine drizzle. The ground was freckled with water that glittered under the orange glow of street lights. I felt like I could walk around all night. I wanted to get my camera, take photographs of places in the city I never go after dark.

I stood on the corner, waiting for traffic to pass and the lights to change. And I thought about turning left, and crossing the road the other way, and walking out of the city, under the old bridge and the tall trees, past the big houses and across the pavements with their tunnels underneath.

I thought about being invisible. And how safe I would feel walking anywhere, at any time, and the freedom that would come with that. And then the lights turned red, and the traffic stopped, and I carried on walking home.