Oxygen

Loud shoes hitting concrete from bustling people in every direction drowned out the slow clicking of a suitcase’s wheels as they traced the pavement, winding around people as they passed. Buildings towered overhead, stretching skyward as if grasping desperately at the clouds, their tall spires clawing at the heavens. Car engines sputtered as coffee-driven businessmen waited impatiently for lights to glow green. The constant murmur of passing conversations blurred together like a broken, out of tune chord, every individual conversation indiscernible from the next. Grey smog clouded the air, poured out from the surrounding factories sitting just outside of the city’s limits. The smell of fresh-cooked hotdogs wafted through the air as a young woman yelled advertisement for the cart she stood behind.

The soft rhythm of the suitcase dragged behind one of the many strangers was almost soothing in the clamorous cityscape: a constant beat in an ocean of disorder. A calloused palm rubbed against the hard plastic of the case’s worn handle and battered sneakers dragged sleepily over the pavement. For a moment the air was tainted with smoke as a cigarette parted from the stranger’s lips, burning ashes flicked to the ground. No one bats an eye at the stranger - everyone’s lives too busy and hurried to acknowledge a passerby. A shaky hand brings the cigarette to meet the cracked lips again, held in hopes of relief from the anxiety-inducing clamor of the surrounding landscape. A breath, a puff of smoke, and a flick of sparks extinguished by pavement.

The stranger was an odd fellow, dressed in a loose fluorescent tank top depicting a sunset, complete with palm trees and a beach. In stark contrast was the thin, black pants tucked into worn black and white high top sneakers that matched the case pulled behind them. An army green jacket revealed a tattoo barely visible beneath one of the rolled-up sleeves.

That stranger was unremarkable in almost every way but one: they were me.

The clicking came to a halt as I pulled into an alley just off of the main sidewalk, extinguishing the last of the cigarette on the side of a dumpster with a hiss. The cigarette was quickly replaced with a smartphone, glowing blue with a new notification.

Back so soon?