Good Books & Bourbon on Black and Blue Nights

When a new moon shines her face high in the sunshines sky, it doesn't make the day any brighter, but more interesting. And you know it means that come nightfall, she's gonna leave you be. Left long enough without her, your eyes will adjust... catching shades of black and blue in everything.
Emergency candles. About four and half inches tall. Ten at a time, they come in a plain open-face box. An everyday saucer turns into a candle holder when you flic the bic and melt the bottom of these ten cent lights & quickly smoosh their base to the saucer.
Living without power every night is a late night filled with cooking out & candle light, but the new moon nights seem to be the latest of late nights. It's dark...really dark. People go to bed early ... all but the night owls.
Some of the night owls are older & wander out to roam the streets, smoking cigarettes on the corner and talking about 'One day...' Some, like me, are younger and have to stay in.
Some folks that aren't normally night owls become night owls under the influence of a lack of moonshine & the presence of cheap bourbon. That would be my dad.
I, like him, have fallen pray to never 'going to bed' but instead simply 'falling asleep.' We read, watch, talk until K-Plop! we're out.
For him it always seems like he falls asleep hours and hours before me.
But take away the moon and it's shine and leave it's place a ten cent candle and a cheap bottle of bourbon & he'll be up all night.
It was 1974 or maybe it was 1976. I can't remember.
The house was dark and quiet. Very quiet. No hum of the fridge. No clicking of the water pump. No birds outside whistling. No snoring.
Everyone was asleep or out and about. Except for me. And him. And he had already been in sqwaukin at me ...'go to sleep child!'
I could hear him fidgeting, munting, grunting, shifting, twisting, grumbling & occassionally I could hear the clink of the bottle returning to the counter top. I laid still...staring out the window, willing my eyes to be able to see better than shades of blue and black in this dark, moonless night.
I heard a door open, then close. More grumbling. Then a rummaging sound. Another clink and the door opened again, followed by the sound of something outside. I didn't budge.
It went quiet again. Totally quiet. I started to get up to investigate, but froze in fear as I heard the door again. This time it simply closed with a slam.
Somewhere, someone stirred then, again, total silence. I laid there for eternity, playing possum...waiting for the grumble, for the clink. It never came.
So, I pitter-pattered quietly to the front of the house. I could see no-one, even with the light from the street shining in. I went to the door and looked out the window.
There, under the street light and down by the road, lay one twin sized mattress. Upon it a man, my father, in baby blue boxers on his back with one leg bent & the other crossed over it. His head was cocked to the side, like I had seen it a thousand times before, intently focused on the hard-back book clutched in his left hand.
Twas the night of new moons and, finally, to all a good night.



Images compliments of my little world, the world wide web & the dumb asses at smart cars inc;)