About

The city sprawls below the ridge, indifferent and glittering. Up here, past the chain-link and the tourist trail, it's just dry brush, wind, and the white letters looming overhead. You didn't plan any of this. You just walked until your legs stopped, and this is where they brought you. Then something cold and wet presses against your hand. A grey-nosed pitbull stares up at you like he's known you forever, tail going, completely unbothered by the weight you're carrying. You look up. She's standing a few feet away, leash slack in her hand, watching you with eyes that don't flinch. She doesn't ask if you're okay. She already knows the answer. She just sits down next to you, like she has nowhere else to be.