Late Night

The key was somewhere. It wasn’t in his pocket, though. Last he could recall it had been in his pocket. But was it the left or the right pocket? He couldn’t rightly recall. Maybe it was his coat pocket. Except his coat didn’t seem to be present. Where had that gotten left? On a bar stool, maybe. Had that been where his key was? No, surely not. The key always ended up in his right pocket. Either that pocket, or his left one. If not the left one, then it was in the coat pocket, which was uncheckable due to the coat’s lack of a presence.

            He sat himself down on the porch, backing against the door as best he could, as to let the slight overhang of the roof shield him from the rain. Of course it had to be raining. If it wasn’t raining the moon would have been out, and he would have been able to see. Somewhat, at least. As best as one could see under the light of the moon.

 

            There was a rock somewhere. A rock that had a key left under it for the few times that someone neglected to have their own. Of course it was hidden among a number of other rocks that looked extremely similar. Those rocks happened to be rather hard to see, due in no small part to the lack of a visible moon.

 

            “Alright pal,” he muttered to himself. “We can do this. We can find it.”

 

            Leaning forward, he squinted, peering off to his left. That was the side of the porch with the rocks. Unless they had all managed to move, that was the side of the porch that had all the little rocks. One of those rocks had the key under it. He turned, sloppily flopping onto his knees, hands slowly feeling about for each and every rock. Each stone was carefully turned, or at least they were as carefully turned as he could manage, and the ground under it patted until he was certain that the item he sought wasn’t located under it.

 

            There. His hand rubbed against cold metal along with a large chunk of dirt. Grabbing the key, he pushed himself to his feet, stumbling forward against the wall with a slight ‘thud’ as he did so. Slowly guiding himself over to the door, he aligned the key with the lock. All he had to do was just push his hand a bit forward, and the key would be in the lock. Such was easier thought than done. It took multiple tries before he managed to hit his mark, key finally turning in the lock. He tossed it back among the rocks he had found it in, turning the knob and entering.

 

            He squinted in the darkness, slowly lumbering in the general direction of the stairs, having to go off of memory, what with the entire house being dark. Behind him came a small scratching sound, followed by a light. Someone had lit a match. But the light was brighter than just a match, so someone must have used the match to light a candle.

 

            He turned to find her, settled down at the dinner table, arms resting against the table, chin resting against her joined hands. The candle was set just a bit to her left, flickering and casting its red glow about the room, but especially on her face, leaving her with the appearance of some demonic apparition.

 

            She sat up slightly, hands departing each other’s company, one of them motioning to the chair on the other side of the table. Her face was stone as she spoke, her voice reminding him of some commanding officer he had had at some point. Calm, yet firm.

 

            “Take a seat, Nathan.”