Burbs

Kimberton at dusk. A suburb near Phoenixville. Huge houses, all different, on large plots set a hundred feet from the road. Each driveway splits in three, serving one house per branch. They all fly Stars and Stripes. Ostentatiously.

The front lawns are massive, unfenced, uniform length, expanses of featureless grass. There's no sound except the occasional passing car and the incessant chirp of grasshoppers.

It's unseasonably hot and humid for October. A desultory breeze dribbles uselessly through my screened windows. I turn the ceiling fan on and lie in the darkness waiting for dawn.