Midnight light

Shivering I wake up. Reaching out trying to find the covers of my bed to keep me warm I grab a fist full of weeds. Thinking that I am in one of those dreams where you think you are waking up only to find yourself in another dream I close my eyes and blink hard. This trick always works to snap me awake. As the chill of the night sinks deeper into my bones I realize I am not dreaming. The sleepiness of my slumber is wearing away from me and I recognise my surroundings. I am laying in the weeds in a elongated fetal position with the rusted shell of my truck behind me. I open my eyes fully and they seem sore and crusty. I chuckle to my self knowing why my eyes feel this way, I cried myself to sleep. A pang of sadness hits me thinking about why I was crying. I roll over and see a faint red glow coming from the directions of the tracks. A glimmer of hope crosses my mind. Rising up to my knees I look harder at the light. Taking in a quick glance of my surroundings I only make out the darkness of night and the darker outline of the Cotton Square mall. The ruined crossing guard posts stand out as a black steel web work reaching into the midnight sky. I really don't have any clue what time it might be. I never learned how to tell time by the movements of the stars. It is only by some weird internal clock that I guess it is some time past midnight. At the base of the black steel web work is the source of the glow

I am once again offered a chance of hope. On my feet now approaching the tracks I want to find my way out of here. The glow is familiar. It is the dull glow of the gas station awning that I left behind. Part of that awning is framed against the night sky on the other side of the tracks and part of it is shinning red. Ignoring the rest of my surroundings I walk up to the post. I look into the light. It is early morning at the gas station, the gas station on the other side.