Her house was at the meeting of Eleventh and Avenue A, and she lived in the shadows of remarkable silence. Walls painted grey and clocks ticking thunderously, every cushion in place and candle lit, she stood at the window with arms crossed and watched the fog swirl across the street in the falling night. Meant for more, she waited with bated breath for something she could not identify. She waited until she gave up hope, just as the clock struck the hour.

59 minutes ’til midnight, and a wild wind came blowing down the corner of her street, but she couldn’t hear the sound. It whisked away the fog and cleared the air while she lay down to sleep. While she lay dreaming, as she had not done often for years, the wind crept in through the cracked window to interrupt her slumber. Ten minutes ’til midnight, she was wakened by the draft and stood to shut it. At the window she paused and opened the curtains to let the light in from the streetlight on the corner. Fog whirled around it like a hurricane, but still it shone brightly with warm light that illuminated a clear tunnel to the stars hiding behind the clouds. She fled the window and wrapped herself in a long black coat and ran to stand by the light and look at the stars.

Five minutes ’til midnight, and she stood in awestruck wonder at the heavens as her forgotten dreams came back on the wind. She heard the sound, heard the roar, as ferocious life flew at her at a hundred miles an hour. She heard the sound of the wind in her house, blowing through and rearranging. She saw dawn’s light paint her grey walls with color and fill the emptiness with warmth and she remembered that she could not stay.

At dawn’s breaking light after all night with the wind and the stars under the streetlamp she had never seen before, she put on her rainbow-colored poka-dotted rainboots and walked out of her house under a bright yellow umbrella. The sun shone clear despite the dark clouds and reflected off the puddles and wet pavement as she turned on Eleventh and followed the sound that had roared through her night and wakened her slumber to breath life to the dreams she had forgotten how to dream.