* Production - This is a picture that I've been planning on doing for years and it has a lot of special meaning to me personally. This is a merging of reality with fantasy and the production of it started late September 2024. I went with a friend, (Okari) from my place on the east side of the bay to the west side. On the beach there I took several photos looking back at the city where I live, plus other cities that are to the north of there. The background in this image is made up from 4 photos sewn together with some of it being touched up, repainted and finished to show the north side of the bay from the west side beach. The silhouetted images of Kyel and myself were painted on a separate layer and added to the image along with additional finishing work to get the final result.

* Story - This story goes back to the time before I moved to live with Kyel, he had come back to spend a few more days with me after his house sitting job ended. I hated to see him go when he left to return home about 2 weeks ago, during the past week he told me that he was coming back to see me. For the rest of that week I was giddy, excited and cleaned my apartment from top to bottom before he arrived at the end of the week. Late Friday afternoon I heard the double rings from the front door intercom and let him in. He bought a couple of bags along with him and once we had put them away we went out for dinner.

I had taken him to a well known restaurant on the beach and then went for a short walk until the sun went down. After sundown Kyel and I watched the lights of the city on the opposite side of the bay turn on. As we started to walk back to the car Kyel asked what this beach looked like from the opposite side of bay. I suggested to him that we should drive over to the beach on the west side of the bay and see for
ourselves. He liked the spontaneous suggestion so when we got to the car we entered and drove to the freeway, then around the north side of the bay.

I had to show Kyel which way to go because the park over there had closed it's gates shortly after dark. By going to the south end of the west side beach we found a parking spot in a residential area next to a beach trail. Once the car had been locked up we noticed that despite it being fall the evening was still warm. The beach trail was dark but we could see well enough to walk out on to the beach. The tide was in
but there was plenty of room to walk on the sand between the logs. The view was amazing, the lights of the city we had just come from were easily seen and I pointed out a group of lights that were the place we had been walking about 40 minutes ago.

The bay was lined with small groups of lights to the east and then as we looked further north we saw three large groups of lit up towers and high rises. We saw a large bridge that stood just south of the first group of tall buildings. I pointed to another area between the second and third groups of towers on the left, an area full of houses. Just below the top of the ridge in that sea of homes there was one house somewhere over there that I used to go to a long time ago. I went there weekly for game nights and I fell in love with a guy there that became special to me. I said that the people since then have scattered to other living situations. The man that I loved back then was gone, changed, wasn't the same guy that they had been and that I hadn't heard from them in a long time, I missed those days. Kyel's response was to assure me that things were going to be a lot better with him and that our relationship was different, our bond much stronger.

Kyel hugged me from behind, tickled the side of my head with the whiskers on one side of his muzzle. Kyel had a mischievous impulse and gently bit one of my ears and giggled, let go of me and jogged off down the beach. I ran after him and when I caught up I took one of his hands in mine and ran with him for a moment. I felt his fingers tighten and hold my hand as we jogged, occasionally looking at each other until we stopped and hugged, kissing. I loved his smell, the firm warmth of his body and romantic mood of the night. For several minutes we stood and looked at the city lights around the bay until we felt that it was time to go. We returned to the street where the car was parked, it was a very quiet night as we got into his car and left.

As we drove home Kyel turned on the vehicle's radio, turned through several stations until finding something listenable. After a couple of songs had played I heard one that I had heard at the gym a few times. After what had just happened on the beach it suddenly had a lot more meaning than it ever did before. I was going to move to his place soon and leave my life here behind. Kyel was that special to me and as I heard the lyrics they were very fitting for this occasion...

"...Oh, I'm running in the night so soon, I've got nothing left to lose,
I'm leaving it all behind. . .

Running in the night with you, I won't let you get away again, We can see it through to the end,
But whatever we do, I'm running in the night with you... "

"Running in the night, " FM 84 link - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bv4jOz-mySA