An empty interior hallway in late afternoon light, sun falling across the floor toward a closed door at the far end.

Afternoon, Empty Hallway

Light moves across the wallpaper in the way light has always moved. There is no one to watch it. A clock keeps time the building does not need. Somewhere a faucet finishes its long argument with itself. The hallway is the kind of place a person walks through quickly, looking for a door they have already passed. It is not lonely. Loneliness is a feeling and feelings require someone. The hallway is something quieter than that. It is simply where the afternoon spent its life.