The world at night is made of dark corners.
It’s even more noticeable—more striking, more true—on the road at night, when your headlights carve a tunnel through the darkness and there’s no real way of knowing what’s waiting on the other side of it.
I guess that’s why a vehicle at night is my favorite place in the world to be. Not the driver’s seat—being that aware of the destination takes some of the mystery out of the whole thing—but the window seat. Any window seat. Any vehicle. Any place. A family road trip to visit my grandpa in Houston, a late train from Wales to England, just a quick dash from my house to the convenience store and back again—it doesn’t much matter where points A and B are when the distance between them feels like magic.
In the end, I think that’s why I like these nocturnal trips so much. It’s best out in the middle of nowhere, where there aren’t many streetlights and the darkness around you looks like it could belong to anywhere in this world and nowhere in this world all at once. Riding around, gazing out my window, it’s like the night is made of potential: a new, mysterious place where anything could happen. Even every song on the radio feels new, each one a slightly changed, slightly charged version of the same tune I’ve known for years. Riding around, gazing out my window, it’s like my imagination is the one choosing where I’ll end up, and I’m just along for the ride.
It’s the one time in life I don’t worry about where I’m going.
I can pull my knees up into the seat, watch the headlights make shy guesses about the world around me, and wait to find out.
Image Credit: "Night Driving" by Joe Goldberg. Source: Flickr.
What a great place to conjure up in words and an image, Jenna: wonderful! I love trains at night; cars not so much... mostly because we live in a rural area with deer in the woods, so we always have to be on the lookout at night in case a deer ... or a herd of deer ... rush out in front of our car. On a train, though, yes, absolutely: I feel exactly that magic your describe so perfectly here. Wonderful!
ReplyDeleteAnd of course Wales caught my eye... there are a couple of Welsh units coming up in class later, and it is one of the most astounding storytelling traditions of the world, tiny though Wales might be. Perhaps that will be a story tradition you want to explore this semester... Tales... from Wales — enjoy! :-)
Now that you mention it, I can definitely see how deer would ruin the fun. I'll be sure to keep an eye out for the Welsh units. Thank you!
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