1.

This is the first time I am flying into the city at night. Well perhaps that is not entirely accurate, but it is the first time I am truly noticing the city as I am flying in. I am finally noticing the grandeur of the city, the beauty, the shear massiveness that lies out before me. It is a sea of lights that have flooded over the land, reaching far beyond the horrizon. Lights, lights, lights. But more importantly, it is alive. Seeing this city at night, I see that the city itself is a living entity. The streets, the highways, the interstates connecting every little space of the city together. And at night you see the life. The lights. The lights from the cars that flow through the city, moving through the veins and arteries, branching out, converging together and giving life, providing light, to every part of the city, and bringing people to all the places within the city. Bringing life together. Breathing life into the city. The city is not simply a dwelling, it is a creature. Grand and marvelous.

2.

The lure of the city is enticing, hypnotizing. And to the wide-eyed boy from a small town it is a liberating place - full of freedom, full of opportunities. He comes in hopes of fulfilling his dreams. He comes in hopes of feeling that he belongs. He comes so that he may feel that he could be somebody. He leaves his world behind for this captivating, mesmerizing place. But instead, he finds that idea of freedom is just a trap, and that the city has caged him behind bars. He sits alone in his apartment drinking to the sorrowful sounds emanating from the speakers, pondering his folly. Those bright lights of the city only serve to daze and confuse. And to blind people from all that truly matters. People forget in the city. They forget the important things. He now lives amongst a crowd of shells. To live in the city demands a certain amount of selfishness. It is an isolating invironment forcing him to serve himself first. In a city it is best to be blissfully unaware of the consequences actions may have on others. And in a city, human interactions have a temporal element. Everything has an expiration date. Ultimately, his spirit succumbed to the weight of the city, and it expired.

3.

She steps out of her apartment building and waits in the cold. She breathes in the cold air and feels the chill run through her lungs. Exhales and sees the water condense in the cold air in front of her. A car pulls up and she thinks finally and begins to walk towards the car. The man steps out You're not Ahmad are you? No, of course not. Sorry. The two stand there for a brief moment. But only a brief one. So this weather is ridiculous. Yes. It is a simple conversation starter but it continues. It snowballs. The conversation lasts for five minutes while she waits for her order and he waits for his orderer. A man steps out of the apartment and takes the food from the deliverer and quickly rushes back into the safe warmth of the apartment. The conversation lasts for five more minutes while she waits for her order and he just converses. Finally her order arrives. I guess it's time to depart. Yeah, sure. I forgot to ask, what restaurant do you work for? Excelent I was going to order Italian tomorrow.

4.

He had died for the city. He was a promising young teenager, full of aspirations, full of hopes and dreams, always regarding himself as a big fish. His entire life he dreamed really of one thing: drive off into the horrizon and find an ocean of lights welcoming him in. He was a good student. He was a smart student, far more intelligent than most teachers would like. He was set on his goal, and nothing would get in his way. His father lived by the bottle, never putting it down, and never leaving the four walls he lived in. His father passed out drunk more times than she cared for and so she left him. So he quit school, he quit his dreams. Every year he would care to his father, wasting away his potential, and watching year by year his friends leaving to cities all across the country. But he stayed, longing for the city. His father left drowning in intoxicated guilt for destroying his future. So he found himself driving off into the horrizon to find the ocean of lights, finally freed from the town. Only he found two drunkenly speeding headlights, and the headlights drunkenly found him.