A quiet, placid late spring night

Last night, I stepped onto the back patio to have a cigarette. It was as deep into the dead of night as it's possible to be. The time of night when the only thing stirring are the rapists, robbers, and various flying insects, who skulk about looking for the opportunity to molest an innocent lady standing on her back patio, alone and vulnerable.

I could feel my pupils stretching wide open in their desperation to suck in as much light as they could possibly squeeze out of the blackness that surrounded me. And I was grateful that they recognized the gravity of the situation we were all in.