Krch krch krch. The dry grass folded under my feet as I walked along the mountain bike trail. It wound its way lazily up the hill, around the few trees that dotted the landscape, and finally ended where a railroad tie lay embedded in the hilltop. There were shorter paths up the hill, but I was fine with a longer walk if it meant less steep of an incline. It was a nice night anyhow, cool enough for pants and a sweatshirt after the sun had gone down.

I reached the top of the hill where the wooden railroad tie sat overlooking the city. I took a seat, pulling my headphones off, pausing Coldplay’s “Sparks” to listen to the night sounds. Too late in the season for crickets, most of the noise came from cars driving down the highways, making their way to home, to the store, to a destination. It made the world feel lived in, feel inhabited, let me know that even if I was the only one up on this hill, there was still a whole city awake at my feet.

There was a soft, metallic crunch from below, and I watched some college students hop out of a truck that had just backed into a parking spot. I could hear their laughter echoing and it was not hard to imagine that the driver had just backed into the brick wall. It made me smile, witnessing an event that would live in their minds for days, something that would be brought up and made joyful fun of for a good long while until something more eventful happened.

The moon had rose into an orange globe, the craters visible from my hilltop perch. It was round and full, last night having just been the full moon and it not having waned enough to be visible. Stars speckled the sky around it, not near as many as I may have wished for but a welcome sight nonetheless.

I disconnected my headphones from my phone and let the beginning of the Once soundtrack play into the open air. The soft guitar chords recalled nostalgic memories of driving back home in the dark, everyone tuckered out and quiet. It was not my turn to be quiet, however. I sang along, as loud as I pleased, for who could hear me from the top of a hill where the entire city was spread at my feet?