OyaJava · Free mini-book · 6 short chapters
Soft After Dark
Six original evening readings.
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01
The last cup
The cup makes a pale circle on the table. Outside, headlights slip across the wet street and disappear. Inside, one lamp is enough for this corner. There are things you have not answered. For this minute, they can remain unanswered. Lift the cup with both hands if you like. Let the warmth be ordinary. Nothing needs to become a lesson.
What comfort is already within reach?
02
The unfinished list
A list can tell you what remains. It cannot tell you what the day cost. It does not know the conversation you kept gentle or the effort it took to begin. Fold the paper. Leave tomorrow a few words if that helps. You do not need to turn every unfinished thing into a story about yourself.
Which task can wait until daylight?
03
Black joy in ordinary rooms
Joy can arrive without an occasion. A song catches you halfway through folding a shirt. A friend sends the exact ridiculous thing you needed. You laugh before you remember you were tired. Let that moment have its own space. Black women deserve pleasure that does not need a speech before it, and rest that does not need an explanation after.
What made you laugh before you could stop yourself?
04
Choose the sound
Perhaps you want rain. Perhaps you want a familiar voice, a record, or the refrigerator humming in an otherwise quiet room. Choose a sound you can stop. Turn it down if it asks too much. Silence is available, too. Your evening does not need to resemble anyone else’s idea of peace.
Tonight: silence / music / conversation / something else.
05
A little company
Send the simple message if you want company: Are you around? No polished opening, no report on how well you are coping. Or choose not to send anything. Being alone can be welcome; needing someone can be welcome. There is room for both versions of you. Let the person who arrives tonight be enough.
I would like company / space / a short hello.
06
Morning can wait
The kitchen is not perfect. The chair holds yesterday’s sweater. A small light falls across the floor. This is still a place where you can put down the day. Leave a cup ready if you want to be kind to tomorrow. Then let tomorrow stay where it is. The room does not ask you to become someone else before you rest.
One thing I can leave for morning: __.