I drove by her house the other day. They painted it yellow. Almost missed it. Shrubs were gone. Replaced with wooden buckets holding mums in all kinds of colors: rust, red, orange, white. And the TV antenna on top of the roof was gone too. Really something.

Strange thing, he continued. The swing on the front porch was gone. We used to sit there in autumn every night with cups of coffee and cigarettes while the kids jumped in the leaves. I used to rake them in piles. Kids jumping in dry leaves that come morning were wet with dew. Things change overnight.

Sometimes, late at night in October, I parked the car in front of the old house and just waited till almost every light had been turned off. I sat there with a cooler full of Old Style and just watched. Remembered how the lamp in the hallway didn’t get turned off till morning. Then I’d drive on. Park the car under a bridge and dream. Dream of how it used to be before demons took over. At one time, there was peace.