Like Rocked We Took Flight

LIKE ROCKETS WE TOOK FLIGHT

I opened my eyes to white stucco. Leaping off the bed, I stretched from the floor to the ceiling. Books scattered the floor and a quiet light hummed from the stirring of the stars. I tip toed to the balcony window. The stars in the sky illuminated a bright blue on the runaway rooftops.

From the window I dropped to the streets. Tip toeing with my feet, I made my way to the nearest street lamp. Concealing myself in its shadow, I waited there til the low roar of an old Volvo shook the air. The engine grappled through its gears as it came near. As the old volvo eased to a stop. I saw my opportunity. I rolled under the car and clung to the bottom for a ride.

I made my way to the alleyway of 5th and Montear' where shadows lay like a thick comforter between the walls. She was already there. She had her big floppy black hat on. An absolute fox under a big fedora. Her green eyes peaking out from underneath the trim.

" There you are Finks!" She said. "Thought you weren't gonna make it" She winked. Then let a little laugh go.

" Finnik was up lat-" She cut me off with a grin and said " So.. Maxwells on 12th?"

"Let's do it" I smiled.

The glow from Maxwells flooded the canal as Sascha and I crept around the corner onto the street. Here was the beginning of most enormous nights. Matte black iron thin chairs waited outside the café. The frost on their iron arms reached towards the warm red brick wall of the cafe. Candles in the window painted dancing shadows onto the ceiling.

A blur of matte black flashed in front of my eyes.

There she went! Sascha leapt to the closest rack of goods landing on the toes of her feet. She looked back grinning at me before she took off to the back of the cafe. I gathered my wits and leapt to the rack nearest. There they lay... All the goods and treats a stomach could crave. Butter tarts, almond cakes, sugar cookies.

I reached out to grab a caramelized cinnamon bun, when out of the corner of my eye I saw the old clerk leaving the cashier's desk and start heading towards the back of the shop. Sascha! Surely she'd be seen. The lady was picking up speed, Any second now.

CRASHHHHH!!!

Buns and cakes flew across the floor and the glass shelf shattered into a thousand shards. I dashed back out the front door.

Peeking back inside from just outside the door, I witnessed a peculiar scene. There lay the shattered display shelf I had pushed over and a frightened old clerk with a look of panic across her face. She stood with one hand over her mouth. Her long shadow spread across the western wall. Though, there was something that didn't seem quite right. As if there was a tiny lag from the shadow.

I thought I saw the shadow wink at me. Was it Sascha? Then the old clerk bent down to pick up a flatten cake and that's when I knew it was her. She started dancing and made the moose hands against her ears.

It must have been 30 seconds before I saw a black blur leaping out the door of Maxwells. A fast escape in the nick of time. She walked up to me and I mimicked her grin.

"What was that all about?" She said.

"She would have seen you. She was coming your way. It was the only thing I could think of."

"Was she... Well, thanks Finks! Get any treats?"

"Nah, fell short on the goods this time."

Sascha smiled at me, "All good Finks." Bringing her hands from behind her back, she lifted two hot drinks and handed one to me.

I was surprised she still managed to get something. "Hot cocoa?"

"With 2 pumps of chocolate." She said straight faced, though I could swear she was grinning inside.

And like rockets we took flight. Dancing like shadows in the night.

We sped through the small alleyways, the lights made bodies blurry as we flew down the darkened alleys. The sound of our footsteps harmonized with the city's hum. Building up speed, we approached the alley on 8th. This was the best path to the rooftops, a rickety ladder of a fire escape. Sascha turned to me and said "Last one to Hotel Monaco is a loser!"

She beat me, It wasn't to unexpected. But she's good about it. It's fun. She's just faster. It never gets old, this. These rooftops.

She put her head on my chest and we sat and watched the world. We would make up stories about the night dwellers below. Their professions, dreams and families. All of them with their own tale and significance.

Like the high tide can wipe a castle, the sun had washed away the stars and it's constellations. Any minute now our humans would wake up and this would end.

And just like that, she was gone. The human Sascha must of woken up. That's how fast it can happen. A blink of an eye.

Waiting for finnik to wake, I walked along the roof tops in a deep happiness. These nights, they were enormous. They were grand memories that would forever be a welcoming home to revisit. A place you can always go to reach each other.

We're golden.