Chapter Three

I turn the book face down on my bed and head downstairs to make some dinner. After turning on the electric burner, I start a pot of rice and heat up a can of coconut vegetable korma to go on top. I hear my landlady watching TV with her ex-husband Wally next door. For some reason, they still spend all their time together after 10 years of divorce.

With the rice done, I take my plate of hot dinner upstairs to eat. I think about reading more Dark Angel Neversleep, but my mind is too busy. I always get like this before I leave on a trip - full of energy and nervous about every detail.

I can fit everything in my daypack. Two clean shirts, a winter hat, a water bottle, my CD player, 3 cheese-rolls from work, a can of peanut butter, and two bananas (I bought these at the super-market during my lunch break).

Before taking a shower, I walk to the window and look down on the coludasac flooded in yellow lamp light. I hear a door shut carefully and Wally walks down the path below me. He opens and closes the gate then turns towards his apartment several blocks away. Wally is recovering from heart surgery and needs regular excercise in order to recover.

I look up and try to make out a few stars through the city lights. I think I can see Jupiter and close my eyes to pray. When I pray, I wait until I feel completely alone. I think about the ceiling and the entire world peeling back to leave me alone with the night sky. The feeling is cool and refreshing. I think about this cool sky watching me, and it's kind of like how Yoda and Obi Wan Kenobi watch Luke in Star Wars. Just watching, without saying a word.

I've got to get to bed early if I'm going to stay awake on the train tomorrow.