A curious case of my neighbour’s window

There was an old ash tree in my neighbour’s yard whose years of growth allowed for our windows to be a private sanctuary. It got infected by the small, but mighty beetle called the emerald ash borer and for the lack of a better solution they had to cut it.

With the tree gone, the house beyond the tree became part of my window landscape. Tucked amongst the pines and willows the house has many windows, two of which glow every night. They cycle through the shades of red, green and blue, like the clouds moving and melding in the sky.

Any curious mind would wonder about the possible explanation of this rare sight.

The nights I feel weary, the house remind me of the eternal ball at the mansion of lost hope, windows lined with flickering candles and ladies dancing under enchantment.

The nights when the sky is clear and the stars are seen, the movement of the lights appears to be a series of secret messages being sent to aliens in space.

And on the darkest of nights, the colours glow like a lightsaber fighting off despair.

Sometimes the house itself appears alive and one could expect it at any moment to either go to sleep or walk into the night.

At other times, the windows look like the eyes of a watchful animal of the night.

Perhaps, the lights are only a trick to scare the burglars, or the dwellers find a particular enjoyment in the phantasmagorical effects of these lights.

Whatever the case is, when I see those windows pulsing with colour at night, everything seems as it should be. It feels familiar and there is certainty amidst the uncertainty of things.