The Night

It was a train to Port Chester, the New Haven line, usually he took the southeast line to Wassaic out of Grand Central because his folks lived in north western Connecticut but he wasn’t going home, he was going to meet some friends at the Capital Theater in Port Chester and the station was about a block away from the venue.

His friends would meet up on their own and drive down and then they would drive back all together about an hour and fifteen minutes ride after the show to a cabin on a pond called nest, the pond that is, nest pond. It was an old summer campground for kids where the cabin was with three neighboring units all privately owned after the camp disbanded several decades ago, it was Ethan one of his friends driving down whose family had inherited it from a deceased grandfather he believed on the dad’s side.

It was his first time on that line, and he didn’t have a bearing on how many stops were left about 35 minutes into the trip and being anxious not miss his stop he got up with his bags and stood in the vestibule where the doors were. The people on the train gave him a snort and he felt their eyes obtrusively scanning him as he stood wishing the next stop would be his. But it would be at least four more stops and by the time he did arrive it seems the folks had had their excitement and he exited without looking back being maybe the only one off that car. It was a staircase down to the sidewalk next and then he would be back into the train-less world of infinite directions. First he made a call to see when his cohorts might be arriving and was informed that they would be at least another hour so he set off to find a place to stretch out pushing the promise of a meal out of his mind until at least when they would arrive. He walked by the venue to get up the street and it was a typical daytime crowd of workers and pedestrians almost no sign of the night to come.

He found a church up the street on a slight hill with ample benches and grass and felt sure it would be a fine place to lay out his belongings and bide his time. The people he passed on his way up the steps paid him no mind and it set his mind at ease as he stopped to have a smoke and dropped his bags on the grass.

It felt a bit wrong to smoke here, being a church, and he wondered if a priest might run out and scold him something like, “this is a house of worship, a family place we have kids meeting here!” but nothing of the sort happened and the group on the bench ahead of him never even looked back. It was about five O’clock and he was fairly settled into his spot on the hill when he got the ring that they were driving down the street from the highway so he picked up his bags and walked down to the road hoping to jump into their car as they passed in a swift enough manner not to upset the traffic. He took them almost by surprise as he waved from the curb and they snapped out of their highway trance to pull the car off to the side and he jumped in.

They, now all together set off to find parking and found a spot under a bridge near the station that seemed to be an overflow lot for commuters that required a permit. Frank, the driver, was apprehensive to settle his car there but he was assured that on a weekend no cop would ticket as back home many folks made habit of parking overnight at the station especially on weekends and they figured the same would be true enough here so it was decided. The sun was hanging strong over the tree tops yet and the three together gathered all they would need for the night left the car and set off about finding some food and a drink before the show.

With their bellies filled and a few beers drunk the bar began to fill with what was assumed to be other folks attending the show up the street. When the time came the bills were paid and tips laid down and up the hill they walked as the sun said its final goodbye. The crowd out front made the theater transformed, swarms of groups across the road even and as they walked near the entrance those folks too, crossed the street and the line swelled into the great hall filling it beyond return. Once inside the three found a place on the floor about middle left and closer to the back than the front. The band had their equipment set up on the vacant stage and people all around began nursing their cold drinks in anticipation of the music to begin. Before another round could be claimed the musicians walked into center and by three songs in the crowd had meshed like a fish to a net.

Hardly a moment to gather yourself as the night proceed, little glances here and there but for the most part it went quicker than it had come. By the end, dizzy from the intoxicating riff and no doubt the turnings of what had been consumed, the music was lost and we the crowd were sent back to our doings only whole for a brief breath.

The night was in full effect as the three left the hall and before making it back completely to the place where they had parked a queer air beheld them against common sense for a moment longer and they decided to rest and catch their breathe on a grassy hill under the bridge by where the highway ran. So they sat and the moon may have been full and a breeze dusted off the sides of buildings to swipe their brow for them and they just lay there and if even the cops had come at that very moment to take them away they would never allow the sanctity of that memory to be spoiled by anything that could come after it no matter how terrible or perfect.

It was up to Frank to make the treacherous drive back to the cabin and no better could have been chosen for the task. The wheel was held steady in his grip and the lines stayed true after an hour of highway miles the group was able to transfer to the hospitality of back roads and the car was moseyed up hills and around corners with a slashing decisiveness. The quiet country towns were set to rest many minutes ago and while their car slipped by the sleepy heads in their quaint little rooms they passed without the notice of a single cop to their resting place at the cabin. The ride was filled with reminiscing’s from the show and they all agreed it to be a night not soon forgotten spent with no better company.

At long last the car descended into the grassy drive of the old campgrounds and began its final task of the night making it safely to the cabin on the old farm path. Once parked and with no need to check for signage as to proper parking procedures the three gathered what they would need to bunk and set off on a brief walk from the car past two cabins to the third where Ethan’s family’s summer shack was set second to last. The water was illuminated from the golden moon and the clearing it created made visible a whole host of houses across the pond and the road that ran parallel. Nest Pond, so it was and the three thinking nothing of it settled into nightly routines of one last smoke and so forth until Frank went to knock off for he had an early morning unlike like the other two. The other two whose minds would not soon rest decided upon one more last smoke and walked around the grounds to where pines stood towering over them their fallen nettles crunching softly under each step. The two spoke softly and the night began to envelop them unlike before, a serenity not soon known in the city perhaps and at that time it began. Their ears perked and like sparks shooting up their spines a sudden intrusion just above their heads, “CUUUrrrrrrhooooo…..CUUURrrrrrrrrhooO” and again across the water as if an echo, “CAARrrrraHOooo CaARrrrrraHoooo”. No flash in the pan it was for for certain something across the way was responding and this dialogue went on that way for what seemed an hour and the two of them just standing still almost lifeless save for their beating hearts nearly jumping out of their chests. “Barn owls”, Ethan said, and so it was and as they stood their both it seemed entirely possible that no one had ever heard such an intimate conversation before nor was any one ever meant to. Like in the middle of a crossfire it was a life altering moment and as sudden as it came it stopped even sooner, or so it seems to him now in hindsight.