Midnight

It is almost midnight on Saturday and the streets are full of noise
and swagger. I pick my way home through litter and the occasional body.
At the top of my road there is a police cordon, a cluster of flashing
lights showing alarm. No one seems to know why.

Hurrying off the main road into the eerily quiet side street my
footsteps are the only sound, any rustle or clink a possible
threat.

Standing on the doorstep I curse the time it takes me to unlock the
twice locked door and de code the alarm.

Sliding into the house I shut the door quickly making sure to let no
one in.

Lying here now in my bed, freshly changed sheets crinkling with every
breath, someone is playing the piano.

It is midnight on Saturday and I lie here listening to someone nearby
producing a gently shaky melody. The tune takes off and a voice joins
it, another voice joins the first and each strengthened by the other
they grow louder, swelling with the music and soaring full-throated
into the n