In which the moon taps on our window.

Didja, didja, didja see the MOON last night???

I got so excited when I went outside and saw it darkening red, I ran next door to the neighbors (I'm still housesitting my sister's), saying, "Come outside you guys! It's like we're on a spaceship---you can tell we're here because we're throwing a shadow."

They came and stood on their stoop for a while before Bob patted me kindly on the shoulder and said it was too cold.
(He was right. I watched the rest from inside too.)

Seeing our planet's shadow across the moon was one of those things that rap on the glass walls of my consciousness with their fingers;
those things that let me know everything on the other side is outer space and I exist as a discrete biological entity interpreting time and space through limited means;
those alien things like snowfalls, lilac blooms, death sometimes, and cats.