A Brand New Day (fiction)


          I don’t think I was supposed to see him.   He stood there in the early morning gray haze of dawn.  I woke early and made myself a cup of coffee.  Leaning against my 4th floor kitchen balcony I looked out as cars whizzed past below me and gazed at a man dressed all in black.  His slender build silhouetted against dirty grey brick of a boundary wall.  The corner he was standing on was missing half of the grey tiles revealing the dirt below.  He just stood there for several moments seemingly motionless.  As I wondered who or what he was waiting for I looked around and saw no one else.  Not in the darkened balconies in the complex behind him or on the streets his corner entertained.  I leaned on the balcony rail with my fore arms as I slowly inhaled the heady scent of my sweet milky brew of java.  His clothes hugged his body like a second skin.  Lithe is the word that came to mind as I watched him not move, slender with a hint of corded strength.  What made me think of that word or why I believed he had strength, he was too far for me to see any detail.  Even his hair was dark.  He was just a black silhouette standing still on a dusty dirty corner.  His face, I have no idea what his face looked like, just bronze skin surrounded in black.   
          From the corner of my eye I saw movement.  A man was walking towards my dark statue’s corner.  This man was as full of motion as the other was lacking.  This man’s hair was styled, his clothes blue shirt and dark pants covered with an open tan jacket.  I watched as the new man finished a conversation and placed his phone in his jacket pocket.  There was a flash of white, white teeth in such a broad smile.  Joy exuded from him through that smile and the jauntiness of his walk. 
          The revving of an engine broke over the scene.  The joyful man turned his head to see what sports car was coming down the road making so much noise and disturbing morning calm.  Yet his feet continued walking in the same direction.  He hadn’t noticed the dark silhouette.  As the noisy car raced by joy bumped into darkness. For the first time I saw the silhouette move.  I’m not sure what happened, but as they separated I saw the new man stumble back holding his side with both hands.  The grey brick wall was the only thing holding him up as his head swiveled looking down at his hands and then around. 
          Silhouette's hands moved it looked like he was folding something, but it was so far away I couldn’t see what.  Then he turned and began walking down the street.  His walk was lively yet unrushed, he stretched his arms, up and out,  and threw back his head as if welcoming a brand new joyous day.

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