The Realm of the Night

Copyright © 2019

by Ralph F. Couey

There are two worlds that exist.  One is well-known.  Daylight.  Everyone's up and at work.  Traffic is flowing and the stores are crowded.  The parking lots are full and the sidewalks and malls are full of people going about the business of their lives.  In season, kids are in school and twice a day the yellow buses roll delivering them to school and taking them home.  In the summer, the kids are in the streets, parks, playgrounds, or in front of a TV and gaming console, engaged in play in all it's myriad forms.  

Towards evening, the sun descends toward the horizon.  For a few brief moments, the sky is brilliantly colored by the hues of sunset.  The light fades and night descends.  Dinners are being eaten, by families at home or in restaurants between people doing business.  The lights come on in homes across the landscape.  It's homework time for the kids and TV time for the parents.  Later on, eyelids will grow heavy, eyes begin to get that dry, sandy feel that tells us it's time to go to bed.  Outside, there's still life going on.  In clubs, bars, and taverns across the city, the sounds of people having their version of fun spills out through the often-opened doors.  It's late now, time when yesterday becomes tomorrow.  The streets are emptied out and the denizens of the night now move in to take over the city.  The homeless take possession of closed and locked doorways and bus stop benches.  Police patrols are vigilant.  This is, after all, the time of day when most violent crime occurs.  Sailors all know that on the streets nothing good ever happens after 2 a.m.  Everyone still on the streets gets a hard look.  Alleyways are dark and full of the frightful unknowns of night.  For those who are temporary visitors to this alien world, they walk swiftly, taking more than an occasional look around and behind them.  Sometimes in some places, the night is disturbed by the sound of gunfire.  Those awakened lie still in bed, waiting for the inevitable rising wail of a police siren.

The moon rises, bathing the landscape with it's silvery glow.  The streets are quiet now, except in areas where the drug trade is plied.  There, the corners are occupied.  Business is being done, people using what they think of as the cloak of darkness to obtain their chemicals.  Just as commerce ran the streets in daylight, fear runs those same streets at night.

Those for whom legitimate jobs require them to be up and awake, this is the long part of the shift.  There are fewer around those places of work, so things are quiet.  Even though they feel acclimated to this schedule, it is unnatural.  Human instinct, honed by thousands of generations, still prefers daylight, in compliance with circadian rhythms hardwired into our DNA.  Hence, at times during the long night, that constant fight against the natural is marked by yawns and periods when heads bob and eyes close.  Gallons of caffeinated beverages are consumed to keep the snare of sleep at bay. 

Driving around, one can see darkened homes and residential high-rises with only a few windows lit.  For some, sleep is elusive.  For reasons unknown, they stare at ceilings and grow frustrated, knowing that this loss of sleep will strike back with a vengeance the next afternoon.  In other places, two people talk deep into the night, having those frank discussions so necessary to the care and nurture of any relationship.  Some will succeed. In other cases, a door slams and the silent mist of frustration and failure fills the home.  

This is also the time of day when a parent is awakened by a sick child.  Sometimes a spoonful of cherry-flavored medicine does the trick.  In other cases, a drive to a hospital emergency room is taken by a parent with fear clawing at their vitals.  

Slowly, ever so slowly, clocks tick onward.  Then across the city, alarm clocks begin to sound.  windows become illuminated by people forcing themselves from their slumbers and begin that daily routine of preparing for work and school.  Traffic begins to increase as people with early starts or long commutes begin their trek.  

Almost imperceptibly, the eastern horizon begins to lighten  The sky, a featureless black for so long, begins to give way to a softer blue and grey.  The light continues to increase and eventually the sun rises and splashes it's bright and garish light across the world.  The denizens of the night slink away, the night shifters head home, against the heavy traffic.  Life has returned to the world, and the familiar trappings of work and school surround the people of the daylight world.

These two worlds exist separately, never to mix or even coexist.  The people who inhabit those worlds also live separately, except for brief business-related conversations as one arrives and another leaves.  

What is normal for some is abnormal for others.  But for those who exist in the realm of night, it is a different and alien place.