To tell you the truth, this is a very ordinary alley. Running for a quarter of a mile, this alley connects a main road and a residential district. It hides itself between two groups of buildings, all of which are five to six stories in height. The alley isn’t a prosperous one. The only stores visible are a barber shop and a drugstore, both of which lying at the entrance of the alley. As you reach deeper into the alley, you will only meet bare walls on either side. And several trees of different sizes and shapes grow beside the walls while crowds of weeds spread themselves wherever they can.
However, as the night falls, the alley would assume a quite different look .It is incredibly dark at night because not even a single light has ever been set up there. As a result, this alley isn’t frequented by pedestrians at night, especially on those moonless nights.
Unluckily, there are still some people who have no choice but to cross the darkness of it to go back home. And I used to be one of them.
It was in my Grade Five that I made the adventure for the first time. Walking alone in the dark alley was really horrible. Even the trees there seemed grotesque in the darkness. Wind swept through the dry branches, making strange and frightening sound. Leaves waved in the trees, looking like goblins. It felt as if a monster was hiding in the darkness, ready to spring upon me. My heart pounded with terror and the only thing I wanted to do was to get away from there. So, I ran, faster and faster, till I dashed out of the darkness.
When I went to high school, I had a classmate who lived not far from me. At that time, classes could last very late until the sky turned dark. But having a friend by my side can, to some extent, ease me the terror of walking across the alley at night. We usually talked a lot to spice our tedious routine of walking back home and the laughter echoing in the alley could somewhat leave the alley less terrifying.
For safety concerns, my mom chose to pick me up at the entrance of the alley. On most occasions, my mom would bring with her a torch, the light of which was like a knife, stabbing into the darkness, and showing us the way home. Sometimes there would be a starry night. The gleaming moon and the twinkling stars hung high above, and the moonlight was streaming down through the trees, casting shadows on the ground. The once scary trees and weeds seemed like our friends, enjoying the fascinating scenery with us. That was quite poetic.
Honestly speaking, there is nothing obtrusive about the alley itself. But for me, it is quite meaningful, because hiding behind it are the stories of growth, of warmth and of love. So it is by no means an average valley, but a distinctive one.
