I went for a walk, turning left out of my aprtment building and heading up Glen Avenue towards the grocery store. I planned to cut through the parking lot, as I had done two nights before with Mom, and walk up the steep hill of Monte Vista Ave, down Kingston, and then up Rose Avenue to the crest of a hill where I could see the sunset.

When I reached the grocery store I walked past the parking lot and up to Piedmont Ave to catch a half block of the Friday evening hustle and bustle. I passed the tobacconist which smelled of cigar smoke and inside I saw a good-looking guy in a dark green suit jacket smoking the stubby remainder of a cigar. He held it a few inches from his mouth, and looked at me as I walked by.

Turning left on Piedmont, I passed a little boy with a light green balloon, and his adult companion who asked “are you a superhero?”, and then the comic book store with a poster of a lady superhero in red that I didn’t recognize, and I saw how large the store was and realized that I’d never looked inside. At the corner I turned left and headed slowly up Monte Vista.

I reached the other side of the grocery store parking lot and stopped to stare at a cloud formation covering the entire lower portion of the Eastern sky. I got out my phone and stood still taking pictures and staring at the sky.

I heard the conversation of people approaching me on the sidewalk, and when they passed behind me I heard them stop and one of them said “I see now what you’re focusing on there”, and added something about how beautiful the sunset was.

I replied without turning around, snapping one last picture and saying “Isn’t it? It’s such a massive swath of clouds”, gesturing with my hands to emphasize the width of the formation.

I could smell some body odor, and I wondered what these people look like, as all of us stared together now at the pink sky. One of them said “what a lovely pink color, too”.

I turned and saw two portly fellows about my age, both dressed in big tshirts of differing shades of blue and baggy gym shorts. The one on the left had a short, patchy blonde beard that caught the evening light as he cocked his head, extended his hand, and said “My name’s Matthew by the way”.

I shook his hand and said “Nice to meet you Matthew, my name’s Gabriel”.

“Gabriel?” he said, “It’s nice to meet you,” and I turned to the other fellow who was a little older and had hair almost to his shoulders, parted in the middle, and wore a pair of glasses.

I extended my hand and said ‘I’m Gabriel”, and he shook it without any hurry and said “Gabriel? I’m Ev.”

“It’s nice to meet you, Ev.”

Ev said, “I’m glad I stopped to see what you were taking a picture of or I never would have seen the sunset”.

I said something in agreement and smiled at them and then Matthew stuck out his hand again and cocked his head and said “It was nice meeting you, Gabriel.”

I shook his hand and said “It was nice meeting you guys, I hope you have a great weekend”.

And then they turned and walked on and I resumed walking up Monte Vista and I heard them say something to each other about how it was really quite a sunset, and as I walked past the parking lot, looking up at the pink clouds that filled so much of the sky, I had chills all over and a big smile on, and on my walk I went on to discover a creek with two small patches of nature beside it straddling the road, and I explored the tiny plot of land and sat beside the creek and listened to the water and marvelled at how after three months living here I’d only now discovered this place.

After a while I went on up Monte Vista, but from Kingston I went straight down Linda to my apartment, as the sky was already dark and I was ready to be home.