In the vicinity of my old apartment there lived a bat.
I'm sure it never knew me, but I had a great affinity for
it. It would fly between the top of the clubhouse of my old apartment and the top of a warning light on a street nearby all night long.
When I drove back to my apartment late at night, coming
down that street, I would see it perched on the pole. It
seemed to always take flight and head back towards my
apartment as I drove along that empty road at 3am. I like
to think of it as my bat, and that it was looking out for
me and welcoming me home each night.
I miss it, and was sad that I didn't see it when I took a
lonely walk this evening from my new apartment to my old
apartment. The bat's absence emphasized that my old
apartment was no longer my home, and I no longer needed to
be welcomed there.