5:17 am

 

I am recording, sound (or no sound, properly) only, inches away from, and facing, my sliding glass doors onto the Outside Place. There is not a sound. Not from Nature nor Man (nor Beast: Eleven is right beside me.). And there are a lot of Men, both the XY and XX varieties, all around me, above me, beneath me, on this side and that, in the Great Beyond of the Outside Place, thousands of Men, and their machines, crawling, flying, spewing, noisy machines. But not now. In an hour, probably a half hour now, all of those will begin to make noise. But not now.