At 6 p.m.

I was steeped in dark thoughts after the relentlessness of a grueling day at high school. When I caught sight of Vally gliding across the asphalt, an initial pang of jealousy washed over me at the sight of such freedom. Then, the warm radiance filtering through the trees swept away my shadows: her freedom was not a spectacle to envy, but an invitation to claim my own.