Safe

Tim Connor, All rights reserved

I remember a group of friends gathered in a room after midnight, everybody bundled up on chairs & couches, staring into a dying fire. The talk was slow, desultory. No one wanted to go to bed yet.

“Where --what place -- makes you feel the safest?” someone asked.


Tim Connor, All right reserved

The answers ranged from meticulously recalled childhood bedrooms in the suburbs to fantasy high-tech castles surrounded by moats teeming with piranhas. To my surprise, every speaker imagined him or herself inside…guarded by walls, people, animals & electronics.

“I would feel safest outside in darkness in a hidden place from which I could watch my surroundings,” I said. “No one would know I was there.”