WARMTH.

I went over to my friend's house expecting a bonfire, as is the precedent for get-togethers there.  Instead, there was a small warm bedroom with one lamp.  And did you know that the rhythm of shadows created by a hand on guitar strings can be the same as those created by flames?  

As a prank, we swapped his room with his still-in-highschool sister's because she'd taken over the bigger one when he left for college.  Then we had a dance-countdown to the winter solstice.  She came home, became furious, then cooled off and warmed up with too many glasses of wine and we all danced some more.

Kansas City is so easy.  I could be a better friend to you here.  

This morning I went to the funeral of the father of a friend I'd forgotten to talk to all these years.