Saturday

2022.01.11

“What time is it now?” Alex said from the back seat.

“7:20.” I paused. “7:19.”

“We’ve got time. We should just stay in the car.”

The parking lot was entirely empty, from one end which sloped downward toward the southbound tracks, which did not slope, but rode evenly over a shell of concrete, cloaked with a scattering of ashen rocks so that the tracks seemed etched into the belly of the earth, to the other side yawning flat toward the north, hundreds of vacant spots for commuters anchored with street lamps that, useless in the daytime, seemed to float like buoys on a vast and oft ignored part of the ocean.