waiting for the right kind of pilot

I walk the streets again, in the early twilight of November.

A sprinkling of snow on the pavement, dangerous patches of ice. The barking of two dogs playing in the park, owners trying to untangle their leashes. Windows lit by ugly lamps or pretty Christmas decorations. The cold biting my cheeks.

Around the market square in the town center, neon lights are shining and people are milling about, finishing up their Saturday shopping or getting ready for a night out. Restaurants are opening their doors to early diners and there is a wonderful smell of hot food everywhere.

In the shopping centre, they're playing Savage Garden:

She can't remember a time when she felt needed
If love was red then she was colour blind
All her friends they've been tried for treason
And crimes that were never defined
She's saying, "Love is like a barren place,
And reaching out for human faith is
Is like a journey I just don't have a map for"
So baby's gonna take a dive and
Push the shift to overdrive
Send a signal that she's hanging
All her hopes on the stars
What a pleasant dream 

Walking past the little pizza place where I go for take-out sometimes, I see the Turkish proprietor sweeping the floor. I imagine him wondering about me sometimes - the lonely woman who always orders just one single pizza to take home to an empty apartment on a Sunday afternoon. The sight of him deftly cutting slices off the kebab meat and giving instructions to his only employee, another middle-aged Turkish man, is always a comfort. He has a fatherly air about him, quiet and confident but unassuming, just doing his job and offering a warm smile to go with the pizza.

She's taking her time making up the reasons
To justify all the hurt inside
Guess she knows from the smile and the look in their eyes
Everyone's got a theory about the bitter one 

I bypass the pizza this time and instead order spring rolls from a little Vietnamese lady. On my way home I walk extremely slowly, the way I do when I need the world to slow down and give me time to really see it.

And I see so many beautiful things. A dark high-rise building with light in a single window, one on the top floor. Coloured lights. Lovers holding hands over candle-lit dinner tables. So much hope, and a life worth living.