The sun was shining as Jonathan pulled up into his parking spot and turned off the car. He took a sharp breath in and checked himself quickly in the rear view mirror, making sure he looked presentable.

It was a big day for him, and he was very excited about it: internal job interviews were always exciting. A promotion was something he always desired, and now, all that stood in between him and it was two interviewers for half an hour. He had practically danced his way through getting ready in the morning, mentally preparing himself as he dressed, as he drove to work, and even as he sat there in the rapidly cooling car.

With one last sharp inhale of air, he unlatched the door to the car and got himself out. In just a few moments, he was inside the building, walking down the hallway to his desk and greeting people as he went. A couple of people complimented him on his attire; he normally didn’t dress this formal for work, but today it was fitting.

The day seemed like it just flowed by easily for him as he commenced his work as usual. Soon, Jonathan glanced at the clock and realized that it was time for his interview.

“Good luck, Jon!” said his cubicle neighbour Kelly enthusiastically to him.

“Thanks,” Jonathan replied politely; truth be told, he only semi-believed in luck. The rest was shaped down to his own destiny. Walking away, he looked back once on the desk that had been his home for the past six months and smirked before heading out.

The walk didn’t take long, but it was an opportunity for Jonathan to get his nerves settled. He smiled at the people he passed in the hallway – which was surprisingly empty for this time of day and for this main of an artery of the building, he mused softly to himself – and soon was standing in front of the door that would be where he was to be judged about everything.

With one last breath, he put on a smile and grabbed the doorknob, turned it and walked in.

**********************************************

The interview itself didn’t take long, and soon, Jonathan was walking back, smiling even more than he did when he walked into the room. His mood had brightened considerably; a great weight had come off of his shoulders after this interview, and he felt like he was dancing down the hallway back to his desk.

Kelly, his cubicle neighbour, looked over at the very happy Jonathan and said, “So… how did it go?”

Jonathan looked over and smiled widely. “It went… very well,” he said. “They were impressed… I think I nailed the job.”

Kelly nodded. “Congratulations!” he replied. “You deserve a promotion for all the work you put in here!”

Jonathan nodded humbly. “Thanks,” he replied.

This same basic conversation was repeated a few times over the next half hour, and Jonathan couldn’t remember having any of them in a half hour of work. He continued with his work, which just seemed to be melting away under him in a blur of easiness, the stress of the job bearable if it meant that he was getting it done and out of the way so he could get that promotion.

“Hey, Jonathan?” Kelly called out soon enough.

“Yeah?” Jonathan replied, swiveling in his chair to look at his friend’s inquiry.

“You know this is a dream, right, and you’re still in bed?” Kelly asked.

Johnathan smiled. “Yeah, I know,” he replied. “I don’t think my conscious mind realizes it yet, though.”

“Just checking,” Kelly replied, then he nonchalantly turned back to his work as Jonathan turned back to his work as well-

*************************

With a start, Jonathan sat straight upright in bed, blinking in the darkness and with a greater confusion than he had ever felt in his life.

He glanced over at the clock, noticing it was well before he had to get up for the day, and just said to himself, “That was just weird…”

With a start, James woke up in a cold sweat, eyes blinking at the cool twilight light of the morning around him. A shiver ran down his spine as the cool air of the room mixed with the liquid sweat over his body served to chill his already aching body, telltale signs of the dreams he was having the night before; the nightmares had consumed him in fear, as he could tell by the thumping sound of his heart bouncing around his chest.

He was upright in bed, and not to disturb his wife, he cautiously slipped out of the covers and walked quietly into the dim hallway that led to the living room. They were not rich, but the apartment suited their needs… and the large bay window in the front gave them a great view of the city lights. It was among these that he began gazing, eyes falling on the numerous lights that he could see just from his window, trying to clear his head of the terror that befell him just moments ago.

Dreams were always hard on him, he had to admit to himself. Tonight he had dreamed about some creature trying to eat him, chasing him around and around the city in his car. He had awoken when in the dream he was about to crash the vehicle into a concrete barrier. It wasn’t there one moment, and then it was.His mind raced over the dream and kept trying to decide whether it was a mistake or not on his part. Dream or not, in his solitary contemplation staring out that bay window, he was going to arrive at the truth.

Observing the world at six in the morning had some unexpected results. As James’ brain came to its own conclusions, his eye wandered over the windows that he could see. Not being a voyeur, just curious about his surroundings and the people he hadn’t met (and probably never would). Are their lives better than his? Are they worse? It somehow calmed him to do so. Maybe it was the constant digest of tabloids in supermarket lineups or newsstands that got him into this habit, but he would do this every once in a while.

In one, he could see a person, what he assumed to be a female from the colors the person was wearing, was busy in the kitchen preparing herself for the day. He couldn’t see the fine details, but the way she moved around the kitchen, she looked like she was experienced with it. Whether this woman was happy or not in her daily routine or not, James didn’t know.

James’ eye wandered to another window, where a man sat at a table with food and reading a paper. He was quite still, and James could tell that he was particularly engrossed in the subject on the paper. James couldn’t tell what he was reading, of course, but the act of reading the paper must have been particularly interesting: the entire time James watched, which was less than a minute, he hadn’t moved or changed the page.

After a brief glance around, James’ eyes came across another window, where he saw two people embracing in their living room. They looked like they were dressed up, maybe just getting home from a night of partying, James guessed. Whatever it was, he didn’t know. Suddenly, they separated, and one led the other away to another room and the lights shut off. James just smirked for a moment and then looked around again, looking for the next moment of humanity he could see.

The next one was dark save for the eerie light of a television casting shadows across a room, playing across the face of the person watching, who James could barely see. Perhaps this person was a little too engrossed in his show, or not, he couldn’t tell. It made James think of his own television, sitting on the stand facing the couch in the living room. How many hours had he wasted away just watching the device, or thinking about what was on it.

As James’ mind wandered, so did his eyes, eventually to another window with a curious sight there: a man was standing there, dressed much like himself, and he was looking out the window at other places around that he could see. James’ heart raced as he saw this man, thinking he might just be like him. In his mind, the man was trying to search for peace himself, taking comfort in the surroundings of concrete, metal and glass that made up the city, and searching for signs of life to affirm his own is not alone in the world.

“James?”

The voice startled James out of his thoughts and he turned to face his wife. “It’s early, and you don’t have to be up,” he replied in a cracking voice. His vocal chords hadn’t woken up with him, it seemed, and he cleared his throat.

His wife shook her head. “I felt you get up, and I came out to see if there was a problem,” she explained, followed by a yawn.

“I…” James started, glancing back out the window again and trying to find the man that he was looking at not a few seconds before, but James couldn’t locate him, lost in the sea of glass and concrete set before him. “I was just…”

“You had a bad dream again?” his wife asked.

James’ only reply was a nod.

He felt a hand touch his back. “Come back to bed, and let’s talk about it,” she was saying, gently guiding him back to the bedroom.

With a last glance out the window, James nodded and allowed himself to be led away. He threw one last look out the window at the coming day, and then came with his wife into the bedroom.

“What were you looking at, love?” his wife asked, curious at the glance

James paused for a moment, then smiled. “Just looking through windows at big city life,” he said. “And realizing you can be surrounded by people and not know a thing about them.”