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Between Appointments 
By Tom Endress
Outside my slightly raised second story office window, I hear an orchestra of fall insects singing with abandonment as dusk approaches. A 6:00 client is late for her appointment. I am concerned about her welfare because she desperately sought the appointment, but I am also enjoying the unanticipated break in my schedule. The space between the green deciduous trees bordering the back of the office park darkens as the sun begins to set. No longer can my eyes penetrate through this thickening darkness to the swamp vegetation I know lies some fifty yards beyond. A few trees have begun to wear their orange fall foliage. Heralded by the chirps of a few birds anticipating nightfall, a sense of magic begins to descend upon the landscape. The orange deepens into orange-red. However, in only a second or two, these multiple pockets of color spread across my field of vision, transcending further through beautiful shades of tomato, crimson, firebrick, and finally, maroon, before disappearing into the darkness of the surrounding trees. No sooner have the eyes registered one vibrant shade, than another replaces it. Then, just as suddenly, the display was at an end. Against this nether backdrop, the tops of the tallest trees jut upwards in a three-dimensional vividness against an azure, northwest, cloudless sky that has also begun to deepen in hue by the minute. Azure slides into Microsoft "Aliceblue", "Aliceblue" into skyblue. Then, pausing a moment as though patiently waiting for my eyes to catch the shift, the sky turns a cornflower blue. I feel all the physical sensations alive in my body drawn into this depth and presence by the transformation of these colors and the ubiquitous, thunderous sound of the insects. Any previous thoughts, feelings, and preoccupations have been absorbed by this tranquil wholeness engulfing the trees, the sibilant insects, a bright park lamp that has suddenly flickered on, and me. As the sky begins to settle toward a bluesteel, the sound of the front office door closing can be heard. My 7:00 has arrived.
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