T H E T U S C A R O R A R E V I E W 2 0 2 2 1 5 Night Ride F I O N A M C K E E I ride alone in the murky light of late evening, gliding along behind the pool of illumination my industrial-strength headlight casts. The sun has long since set, leaving little but a blood red glow half hidden by tree silhouettes at the edge of the horizon. Everything around me is enveloped in milky garnet darkness. There are no sounds except the harsh rush of wind past my face. There is no last shushing of crickets, no final zub-zub of cicadas. They’ve been gone for weeks now. It’s the time of year when it’s just too chilly for insects to stay out, when birds are on the brink of migration. It’s too late for most people to be out, too late for cars. Days are for knitted sweaters and cozy old sweatpants. Today is odd, though. One of those days where it’s just a little too warm and hazy for late October, where you can race the wind on your bike with only a light jacket. I ride lanes I’ve walked countless times over the years, going uphill and turning left at the stop sign, cutting through the night as I spin onto Redden Lane. I turn my head to the side, so the wind stops singing in my ears for a minute, and listen instead to my bike rolling smoothly across the macadam. The sound is familiar, a comforting whir of rubber against pavement. The bright circle of my headlight dances along next to me, across driveways and perfect green lawns and manicured gardens with neat rows of bushy plants. Those plants bloom in the summer. Only leaves remain now. My headlight usually splices through the darkness like a knife, but tonight it seems muted. I study the light as I ride, watching it rush through the air before it hits the road and grass and trees. The circular pool of light is rough around the edges, blurring where it should be sharp. Maybe it’s foggy, though it wasn’t just a few minutes earlier. There’s an odd quality to those things at the edges of my vision, everything a tone softer, like looking through an uneven pane of glass. When I turn, my headlight ruins the effect and everything turns harshly bright.
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