It was far past midnight when I finally made it to the street in front of my house, and I had no illusions that the lights in my home or any place else in town would have been on. Since then, the clouds had obscured the sun entirely, but for short intervals when they drifted away like dust particles and then settled again over everything like a heavy gray weight. Even if the sun were shining, there would have been no way to see anything since we lost electricity early this week. It means the three-story building across the street was in the dark. The windows were dark since there were no lights on inside. Now that I could see well at midnight, I had a significant edge since I could see almost every aspect. I pulled up to the curb in front of my usual parking spot and got out without locking the doors. As I crossed the street, I didn't even bother to put on shoes. In a single motion, I had moved from standing close to the side of the house to turning left, circling back to the back door, and finally ascending the stairs onto the porch. No lights could be seen coming from within the home.
