Waterfront

Waking up in the darkness afforded you the opportunity to see things differently than the rest of 
the world. It gave you a stillness that couldn’t be mimicked at any other point of the day.
 And yet somehow, the morning felt electrified, like you could tap into something that didn’t have 
a name or a face. It’s why people wrote, painted, ran, and meditated in the silence of the pre
dawn hours. I felt it this morning as I sat in my folding chair by the water’s edge at Lake 
Nochaway. A light breeze rustled the dying leaves on an oak tree to the right of the van, and a 
chill cut through the air, transported from cooler climes. The cat loved this time of day, mostly 
because, as an animal with no schedule to adhere to, he napped at all hours and thus possessed an 
inexhaustible supply of energy at times far less conducive to the feline/human friendship.
 He paced the waterline as tiny ripples washed up in front of him, causing him to jump back at 
each one. Either he was playing a game, or I needed to get him an IQ test, because he seemed 
genuinely surprised when each one arrived. My laptop sat… on my lap… and I hovered my 
fingers over the keys, waiting for something to come through.
 I waited, and waited.
 Nothing came.
 No signal.
 I shifted my butt in the chair, a red fold-out monstrosity that I had long ago given up attempting 
to put back in the comically small sleeve provided by the factory overseas. I bought it five years 
ago at a flea market in Chicago, and I hoped I would never need another. It was a sinker, the kind 
of chair that seemed to enjoy its station in life even with people’s asses sitting on it, constantly 
f
 idgeting to find the right spot. But this chair didn’t require the fidget for me. It was an 
instantaneous fit now.
 A fish broke the surface of the water, and I wondered whether he was coming home from a big 
night out or headed out early to the shore bank for work. Across the lake, just to the east of where 
I sat, I watched a light flicker on in someone’s camper, then another to the west. The sky above 
shifted ever so slightly from black to blackberry to blueberry.
 I realized I was hungry.
 This was living, and I was spoiled