Sing along to a single knock on my door, I finally made it to this quick and necessary getaway I have been longing for months. A generous friend of mine let me count myself in on his trip to one of his favorite spot on the neighborhood – which starts by us diving through this woods across the lake – the one I stare once every so often.
The road leads us to this enormous abandoned water tower by the far end of the neighborhood. Hiding behind the biggest and oldest group of trees around, his curiosity must have led him to be one of the luckiest person who got to enjoy this mesmerizing part of the neighborhood that no one got to see.
Struck by how beautiful and deserted this place is, he offers me a hand as we start climbing up the ladder in front of us. Standing higher than everything that has been built around this neighborhood, I can feel that the chaotic and noisy part of the world had suddenly turned to silence once I reached the highest part of the tower.
“Have you ever been there before?”, he asked. “Let’s go there!”, he continues as he starts pointing his finger to countless things he loved about this neighborhood and one that lies beyond: these lively houses 100 feet under us, that hill up on the far west, those skyscrapers that stand long enough to start messing up the beautiful horizon around us, a tiny shade of the shy and gorgeous evening sky that hasn’t come up yet, the dark and soothing part of the sea, and even the unconscious wonderful crowds he once encountered.
As beautiful as it all sounds, my imagination could only travel as far as this neighborhood had been laid out. All of the most beautiful sights in it have been nothing but places I desperately wished to have coexisted with and shown to others. The wonderful people I met have been nothing but a figment of my imagination. Thus, all I can say for now is that I was incredibly thankful to spent this afternoon with someone, and for the invitation, I would love to go to several other places someday.
I might have been hypnotized all along, but I am assured that the extreme feeling of joy is the only thing I could have felt this entire afternoon.
The Loudest Backyard 