Rooftop at Sunset
As the sunset tilted beyond the roofs, I sat on the rooftop railing and looked down. The evening air was still warm, and my sweat-damp elbows felt cool where the wind touched them. The one sitting beside me was looking at the same sky. That one's hand rested on my back, and a long shadow stretched out between the two of us. Each time the hand gently stroked down my fur, the windows of the neighborhood we were looking down on together lit up one by one. Without even knowing each other's names, we watched only the place where today's sun had set.
In the alley down below, someone was feeding the cats. The sound of a white plastic bag being opened carried all the way up to the rooftop. Even after the sun had fully set, that spot must have stayed warm a long while.
Looking down into the alley, a white plastic bag was fluttering in the wind. As the evening wound down that sound reached us on the rooftop too, and that person tilted their head as they listened to it.
A window that had lit up for a moment went dark again, and a draft off the roof brushed the back of my paw. In between, I sat at the end of the railing with my legs dangling.
I was looking at the window that had gone dark when I heard someone come out with a dog in the alley below. As that shadow passed between the legs of the bridge, I too came down from the railing and sat on the ground.
Just before the elevator closed, our two shadows overlapped against the wall. The streetlight caught in those overlapping shadows was trembling. Until the doors shut completely, that light kept slipping through between my fingers.
Even after the elevator doors closed, that light must have stayed on your fingertips. A little warmer than the neighborhood windows we looked down on.