I am sitting on my wooden fire-escape deck in 2017 looking East
watching the sunset shine againt some distant clouds. I am on the
third floor of an aging walk up in a neighborhood full of two-flats
and single family homes. It is summertime. I feel a warm breeze across
my body. I watch the neighbor's maple tree while it sways with the
same wind I am feeling. I hear the sound the tree makes as the wind
ripples through it. It sounds like a wave breaking against a
beach. The neighborhood birds are singing their last songs before the
dim of night quiets them. I can hear the distant hum of the nearby
expressway behind the noise of rippling leaves and branches. An
icecube in my drink cracks.
I look to my right - South now - across the roof of my neighbor's
house to watch the other neighborhood trees. There is something on
their roof. I can see its silhouette against the swaying trees further
down the block. There is a cat on the roof. I recognize the cat. It is
my downstairs neighbor's cat Luna. How did she get over there? She
must have jumped from the second floor of the deck across the gangway
and onto the rooftop.
My downstairs neighbor's screen door opens. I see light through the
deck boards beneath me. A woman speaks Spanish. I hear the cat's name
being called. I watch the cat stand up and casually walk down the
sloping roof to the eave and make a leap towards home.