Night Lights

There's a small orange dot on the ceiling in the blackness where I know the fire detector is. I lie in bed staring at it, the caffeine of last night's tea wreaking vengeance on me at 2:00 in the morning. I toss and turn, but my eyes do not close.

There's a white glow throbbing in the living room where a sleeping MacBook lies. It's shocking how that tiny thing fires up so brightly at night. It's keeping Trudy awake now that I've woken her. On my way to the study, she asks me to cover it up.

The skylight in the entryway is glowing too, an eerie white cylinder beaming down from the ceiling from the light of a full moon at its zenith which is also slanting thru the window in the bathroom. I peer outside and feel the cool air and see the round face hanging in a cloudless sky in a haze of smoke come up from the burning fields in Mexico.

I walk into the study where two blue lights shine in the otherwise black room, showing where the sleeping hard disks are perched on top of the computer beside the desk. They are beacons that lead me to my seat.

Finally in front of the keyboard, I wiggle the mouse. The monitor comes alive, and the white light of it blinds me. I flinch at the momentarily unbearable brightness but wait, for I know my eyes will adjust in moments, and I'll be able stare at the screen and type at the keyboard and put these thoughts into words.

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