The Empty Parking Lot

Another Year Ends

Issue #32

The Empty Parking Lot

The last bus pulled out at 3:47.

You know the exact time because you watched it go.

Stood at the window in your office and watched the brake lights disappear around the corner at the end of the access road.

Then you turned around.

The building was still yours. The list was still there. The summer calendar was already filling up.

But the kids were gone.

And for right now, that was the only thing that mattered.

The campus is silent now.

Not the silence of a Sunday morning or a holiday weekend. This is a different kind of silence. Earned. The kind that only settles in after ten months of noise.

You walk down the main hallway one more time. No particular reason. Just walking.

The trophy cases are still lit. Someone forgot to turn them off. You make a mental note, then let it go. It can wait until Monday. Everything can wait until Monday.

You push through the side door and step into the parking lot.

Your car is the only one left.

You don’t get in it yet.

Here is something n…