A Beijing Morning

Frank's eyes opened at 6am on their own accord. It seemed his mind didn't care that his alarm was set to go off 45 minutes later. He had been up at this hour every day for the past two months so that his daily hour-long commute to school would end on time. Classes had ended a couple days before but he still wanted to get up before the sun rose to enjoy the crisp winter air and exercise. His body just wasn't ready to leave his cocoon of a bed at the moment though so he was left to stare up at the ceiling of his girlfriend's apartment and let his mind wander.

Lying on his back in the darkness, his long slender frame stretched almost the whole length of the queen size bed but only occupied an eighth of it's width. Ann, his girlfriend lay on the opposite side of the bed leaving a no man's land of about half a meter in the center. Besides the sounds of her quietly snoring and the faint rumblings of the apartment complex's elevators all was still. Lying in this pool of darkness with his head on the pillow, Frank explored the various dim shapes and shadows that made up the apartment with his eyes.

The red glow of the morning sun was starting to bleed past the large curtains that covered the windows to his left, slowly getting brighter and more yellow, giving hints to the mess of objects and unpacked boxes that littered the room. A suitcase lay at the foot of the bed, next to it lay a camera bag with a little used Canon 5D. In the shadows and darkness that still remained there also lay the hidden dreams and regrets that Frank had accumulated during his one and a half years in Beijing.

This play of light and darkness, reality and dreams lasted until the alarm finally rang.