Cecilly was not afraid, walking home on her own after locking up her studio.  The twilight did not bother her, and that part of town was fairly safe.  In the event of something untoward, she had her self-defense training and a pocket knife for extreme cases.  Besides, the woman knew to carry herself with the confident air that discouraged the average assailant.  Most of them did not want to bother with a target that would be a hassle.  They wanted easy prey.

A few nights each week, she was out past sundown.  It happened more often in winter, when night fell early, but even in summer she occasionally end up walking home in the dark.  Cecilly herself couldn't tell it was dark, as she had no way to observe such a thing, but there was a subtle change in the air once the sun slipped out of sight.  It took her about twenty minutes to walk home, most of them along one of the major streets linking downtown to the closer subdivisions.  There was at least a little traffic there during all but the very early hours of the morning, though it wasn't busy as it might have been, if she lived closer to Chicago.  The rest of her walk consisted of a shortcut through the subdivisiion adjacent to her own, and there the only human sounds were those she made, and the muffled ones that came from the houses she past.  Sometimes a car's engine disturbed the peaceful rhythm.  More often it was just the wind and the crickets, and a few frogs when she passed the park during the warm months.

She reached her apartment building and a wave of her key fob unlocked the door for her to slip inside.  A voice and the noise of a television greeted her.

"Hey Lee."

It belonged to another resident, a huge sports fan who as often as not could be found in the lounge at that hour.  He always greeted her when she came in, and Cecilly smiled in his direction.  "Hello, Ronnie.  Who's winning?"

"Not the Cubs," he replied with a sigh.  "They did great last game, though.  How were the classes tonight?  You just started a new session, didn't you?"

"I did.  And not too badly," she responded, sitting on the arm of the couch and listening to the announcers on TV with half an ear.  "Especially considering that two thirds of them have no clue what they're doing -- as usual."

"In other words, the average number of trampled toes, but nobody fell down?" Ronnie quipped, joining in when she laughed.

"Yeah, that sounds about right.  Take care, Ronnie."

"You too, Lee."

She bypassed the elevator and headed for the stairs.  An enclosed space moving around her was always disconcerting, especially with that particular elevator's habit of lurching unexpectedly between the selection of a floor and when the doors slid shut.  That was absolutely nervewracking, and she avoided the building's elevator whenever possible.  It wasn't like two flights of stairs was any hardship, and her apartment was at the very end of the hall anyhow.  An eager feline greeted her.  "Yes, I know, you want your dinner.  Give me just a minute, Freddie, let me get settled!"

An hour later the cat was fed, her own dinner was cooking, and she'd gone out on the balcony to enjoy the warm weather of late spring.  The weather report called for rain the rest of the week, and she would be chased inside if that was the case.  For the moment, though, it was perfect weather.