Night People

Coming home late last night, I saw two bicycles and a television sitting out on the street, just waiting. I cursed myself for forgetting trash day. Now I'd have to lug two big Rubbermaids down the driveway at God-knows-what-time in the morning, cause I sure as hell wasn't going to be up before the trash men came. Then I noticed the lack of garbage cans up and down the sidewalk.

It isn't trash day.

I had one of those "Oh...Right" moments and realized my neighbors had set their used items out by the street for those less fortunate to come and take. I thought I should probably put my nephew's old stroller out too; which reminded me of a few conversations I've had with friends and neighbors they'd leave their unwanteds at the curb with signs to the effect of "Free- Please Take", and their belongings would sit for days. Then, when they'd given up hope of adoption and removed the sign, the orphaned toy/electronic/furniture would be gone by morning.

Who takes these things? What is their motivation? I want to know.

I imagine a race of night people, prowling residential areas after everyone, even Freelance Writers, are tucked away in their beds. They're looking for our discarded scraps, but these Night Men are not urchins or beggars. They're resourceful and proud. They look on our charitable hands with disdain.

And what do they do with our forgotten relics? Sell them? Repair them? Use them to fashion grander things than us Day Walkers can't even wrap our minds around?

Probably, but I don't know.

One thing is certain, only in Las Vegas, this little Jewel of the Desert, can a whole other culture spring up, literally in the dead of night, and thrive on the trimmed off fat of society.

Interesting.