Standing atop a small ridge peering out over the broad expanse of the greater LA basin, Paul considered what a cliché this was. Though he wasn’t carrying a timepiece, he reckoned it was well past 2 am. The sky, having been filled with clouds through most of the previous day, was now a pitch black abyss overhead, only faint traces of wan moonlight breaking through every so often. The scene below was like every story Paul had ever been told as a youth, except that his young imagination hadn’t been able to do the glittering sea of lights justice. Having first laid eyes on an electric light only three days prior, the scene that was lying gently out before Paul was affirmation that everything he had endured these past two weeks had been but a small price to pay. Of course, it was very likely that what was to come next might be even worse.

Shaking his head lightly in a futile effort to banish the images swimming up into his vision, Paul fished around in his pants pocket and produced a small plastic bottle. It had taken him nearly 30 minutes to open it the first time, child safe indeed, but now he easily turned the cap and popped open the container before hastily shaking out six white, innocuous pills and unconsciously throwing them into the path of his grinding teeth. Very quickly the images started fading back into the periphery. They never completely vanished, but at least now Paul could ignore them enough to continue on.

Paul was sitting in the dirt, his knees nearly pulled up to his chin, a faded blue backpack lying dejectedly next to him. He had considered laying his thin, tattered coat down on the ground, since the cold really didn’t bother him, but had decided against it. After all, the coat was the first gift he had ever received and it didn’t seem right to lay it in the dirt. He reflected that, in fact, the pants he was wearing had also been a gift, given to him roughly 30 seconds after the jacket. But you had to wear clothes, or that’s what everyone kept insisting here, and so it followed that if you were to sit down, and you could only sit in the dirt, then the pants you were wearing would have to get dirty. He doubted that Penham, the man who had given him the clothes, would really mind since it appeared that Penham’s own clothes had never once been washed.

Paul silently got to his feet and as he was hoisting the backpack he heard a faint shuffling noise from behind him.

Instantly, Paul somersaulted forward while simultaneously contorting his body so that when he finished the somersault, he was crouching down and facing the direction the noise had come. His eyes, a blur of motion as he scanned the black night, briefly flared an iridescent gold as a scant spot of moonlight pierced through the clouds above.

Paul took one low, long sniff as his shoulders involuntarily unclenched and he rocked back on his heels. Just a few seconds later a small ragged fox plodded carefully into view, nose twitching at the unfamiliar smell. Paul and the fox stared at each other for several seconds before a faint smile appeared on Paul’s face. As if in response, the fox ducked its head before turning and prancing quickly away.

“Good luck little cousin,” said Paul softly before turning back to survey the expanse of lights once again. Well, he wasn’t getting anything done by sitting around and he did have someone to see. Standing up once again and throwing the backpack over his shoulder, Paul began descending the hill in an effortless, loping gait.

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