Fall rolls in as the city slumbers

Sometime during the night, while the city slept, a chilly wind poured down from the north and swept through the limbs of the big oak trees at the edge of the park, shaking the branches and making the leaves quiver and quake.

Acorns rained down onto the ground, dropping onto sidewalks buckled over the years by the gnarled roots of the massive trees, and tumbled down onto the narrow street.

When the sun came up, pale and watery in the cloudy sky, the fallen fruit was scattered across the pavement like confetti and candy left after a parade.

The people in the houses that lined the street got out of their warm beds and into cold cars, and drove down the street on their way to work and school; to the gym for a quick run on the treadmill or down to the bakery for a cup of coffee. The wheels of the heavy cars rolled over the acorns and crushed them as they passed.

Morning brought children, dressed in sweaters and fleece, zigging and zagging across the street, intent on finding nuts that had survived the fall only to smash them with their shoes. A little boy, holding his mother’s hand as she pushed the baby in the stroller and following his big sister – a girl in a plaid skirt, her back pack bouncing against her thin back – pulled away and stopped to nudge at something with his toe.

“Not now,” his mother said, pulling at him. “We’ll be late.” The toddler dawdled a minute longer, scrubbing at the acorn paste on the street, watching the ducks, who had moved out of the pond, through the cattails and reeds and across the damp grass littered with leaves blown down in the wind, and waddled up to where he stood. Warily, always just out of reach, they snatched at the acorns pieces and gobbled them down greedily.

When the mother and her children moved on toward the school, squirrels, frenzied and foolish, darted in, grabbing what they could, stuffing their mouths and then scurrying away with their bounty.

Soon the crows, dark and mysterious and noisy, swooped down and ate their fill. They hopped around the throng, flexing their long wings, cawing and lifting off the ground when startled.

The feast went on all day, through the morning and midday and late afternoon, until the people were once again in their cars, driving slowly, careful not to injure the birds and animals, back to their homes. Warm houses with windows that glowed golden in the deepening twilight.

As night settled over the park, the cold wind returned, slicing through the moist air, and the oak trees swayed and danced in the breeze.

One, then another and another, little acorns dropped and fell to the ground.

While the city slept.