Last night, after an evening with friends and fellowship, and watching some college football on our friend’s big screen, we returned home.

Before we retired upstairs to bed for the evening, I took Lady(bug), our Cavalier King Charles, outside to use the bathroom before bedtime.

As she walked off to do her thing, I looked up at the night sky. It was like something from a Hawthorne story, perhaps “Young Goodman Brown,” or one of Edgar Allan Poe’s tales.

The moon was visible but only through haze and leafless limbs cold in the night.

Clouds enveloped us and mystery filled this moment.