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all in all 10 miles
2013-08-19 - 1:59 a.m.

I went back three days ago. I went by foot. I ran three miles to the base of the hill that is Marin, next to the fountain. I walked to and away from it three times, debating whether to go or not. I made it almost a block before I turned back and started up the hill.

Almost a 45� incline all the way up, I could maybe run for a block. I had no idea where I was going. It was at the top? I knew what it looked like, but not street names.

At the peak I turned around for a second, all of East Bay was behind me. I kept moving down a side street that looked familiar. There would be two dead ends to my right, before I took a left onto...Latham. Latham Lane. "Sounds like Nathan Lane," I'd said two days before in the car.

I followed the roads I'd only been down once and I was back at her house again. A few neighbors waved as they drove by. Someone asked me for directions to a park, I told them I'd seen a sign a few blocks back, but I was from New York and didn't really know.

The driveway was empty, nothing had changed since last time. No activity from inside. I stood in front of the house for a few minutes, then sat down on the curb, stretching my legs out. Maybe I started talking to myself.

I got up after a few minutes and started walking up the street, away from the cul de sac and towards some higher hills. At a neighbor's house to my left I spotted an orange ball on the ground, which turned out to be an actual orange, fallen from a tree with more fruit hanging from it. I'd never seen one in person before.

I moved more up the block and a shadow passed over me. Some bird of prey glided over the houses and into the canyon in the distance. I stood at a crossroad for a few minutes, while a neighbor on a walk passed by me and said good morning.

On my way out of the neighborhood I stopped at the orange tree again and looked at the fallen orange in the mulch. No movement around me, I picked it up and walked back the way I came, peeling it as I walked.

It had the thickest rind on any orange I'd ever eaten. The inside was dry but sweet.

I walked back down the hill, and ran back to Sophie's.

earlier - later