lights

Lights glimmered as they approached from the distance. Night had fallen. The stars were shy, pollution had blockaded their light from reaching the land. The smell of pine and fur had not yet been diluted. There was shrubbery everywhere. On both sides of the highway and its subsidiary routes. He was still sleepy. He put his head on the seat in front of him, and his hair felt the toughness of the plush seat. What if he got dandruff from that. He raised his head hurriedly. He pulled apart the curtains on the windows to look outside. His hand grabbed the steel rest, it felt cool and coarse. The lights of the city twinkled. There weren’t as many as where he was from. This city had a curfew. So did his, he supposed. But there was no implementation there. This was the capital, and they cared. So they followed the rules and they - a different set of they - enforced the rules. The lights were bright, dots of life and joy. The bus shuddered as it crossed a bump without slowing down. He winced. His console was dead, and he was glad for that because if it hadn’t been, he couldn’t have taken in this sight. He wouldn’t have taken in this sight if his eyes were focused squarely on the game. Speaking of the game, no forget that. Focus on this. It was beautiful. His heart did a little flutter. He wanted to take her here. She’d probably been. So had he. But when you go somewhere alone, it really changes the feeling. When you go somewhere when you are responsible for yourself, everything seems to change. And this was that.

He understood what his cousin had said about loving the city. They had entered it now. Roads were peaceful, not jam packed with thousands of pounds of steel beasts. Peaceful, quiet. People seemed to follow the rules of basic traffic decency here. He hadn’t heard a single- he pricked his ears, listening intently - no, he couldn’t hear a single horn as far as his earshot went. Not one. A little shudder of awe went through him. He looked around at the other passengers. The one to his right was looking at his phone, the one after him had his head on the rest in front of him, the third was moving to the sounds of music in his earphones. The girl in front of him was snoring ever so slightly, the others seemed to be just as uninterested. Why. Why did they not see what he saw? Did they just not see what he saw? Well, anyways.

The bus groaned as it turned, and shuddered as it came to a halt. They were at the bus stop. He packed his belongings, checked and double checked that nothing was left on the seat and waited for people to leave in front of him, waited for the line to start moving. When he was halfway through the bus, he had been sitting at the end, he walked back to check again. Nothing. And then looked for the stub in his wallet that corresponded with the one on his suitcase outside. He walked out the bus and into the beautiful, quiet city.