A long, hot night.

         The taller buildings in the city overshadowed the surrounding projects. And the projects themselves were decrepit, red brick houses built in close quarters, and though night had fallen, the setting of the sun did little to curb the temperature as the hot air of the summer's day remained caged within the skyscrapers and close-knit red brick houses.
         The street lamps flickered to life, and an ambulance siren wailed through the night, then died out behind the other sounds of the city.

         Robert looked around. It was quiet tonight, besides the Italian couple in the apartments on fifth street. But that didn't matter. They would yell and scream and say they kill each other, but he wouldn't lay a hand on her. During the day tomorrow Robert would see him running through the streets with a bouquet in his hand and a smile on his face.
         In the patrol car Robby and his partner cruised down the city streets. They drove once through the projects, and a couple times past the high rises and banks downtown, and then to the nearest coffee shop.
         Rob made his partner go inside and get the coffee tonight. Black, no sugar, no cream. And one jelly donut.
         Rob loved the city at night time. Some people like the country, they like peace and quiet, and can't stand the light pollution that blocks out the all the stars and makes it so it never gets really dark. But the city had it's own beauty. The orange street lamps and the red and green and yellow traffic lights, to Rob they were better than stars.
         He always thought about maybe one night when he was off, sitting on one of the park benches and painting the city around him. He thought about it, but never got around to it.
         His partner climbed into the passenger seat of the patrol car and put both their coffees in the cup holders and handed Robert his jelly donut.
"Thanks." Rob said.
"Don't thank me just yet, coffee's burnt."
"Son of a bitch." Rob put down his cup.
         They sat silent, with the exception of a curse word and a derogatory statement towards the Korean owners of the coffee shop every time one would take a sip of burnt coffee.
"So I guess the kid from that mugging a couple weeks back didn't make it." Rob's partner said after a while.
"Yeah, I heard about that." Rob said.
"Shame, I knew his father, good guy." He paused. "At least he's in a better place." Rob's partner said.
Rob laughed, he didn't mean to really, he just did.
"What?" Rob's partner snapped.
"Nothing."
"What about that was funny? What, just cause the kid's a nigger means he's not going to heaven?"
"I didn't say that."
"Well, then what was funny?"
"You still believe in heaven?"
"Sure I do, you don't?"
"All the things I've seen doing this job, no, honestly I don't."
"Well, that's crazy, you're going to hell."
"Oh, come on, you still believe in that shit? What are you ten years old? That kid died, and right now, he's sitting in a hole in the ground, and that's where he'll be for all of time, just like you, and me, and everyone else."

When his shift ended Rob went home, tried sleeping for a bit, but knew it was pointless then, got up and walked out the door, and he walked through the empty streets of the city, thinking about everything on his mind, focusing on the thoughts that raced by in clusters when he tried to go to sleep, and that manifest themselves in vivid dreams when he did, the thoughts that kept him wide awake now, and until the start of his shift, when he could focus on work and not think as much.