Points of light filled the grassy median beside the road.
They rose around us in tunnels and castles, bright against the December night. The boys ran beneath them, ducking through the arches and weaving between the trees.
Dani stood beside me, her breath hanging white in the air.
She shivered.
Two young men and a woman rode bicycles along the sidewalk nearby.
One of them clutched a bottle in his hand.
They laughed as they swerved across the pavement, weaving around each other in lazy lines.
Then, the one with the bottle’s wheel caught on someone’s foot.
His bicycle shot sideways.
He went over the handlebars and landed on his back.
The other two kept riding.
One looked back.
Words.
They stopped.
They turned their bicycles around and rode back.
The boy on the ground didn’t move.
His friends dismounted.
One stood over him.
The other crouched beside him, then stood again.
More words.
Nothing.
Their voices sharpened.
They pointed at him, then at each other.
Neither seemed to know what to do.
Dani stepped closer to me.
“Should we call the police?”
“In Japan? I wouldn’t even know how.”
“But they’re—”
She stopped.
Behind us, the boys ran through a twinkling pirate ship.
“Daddy! Daddy! Take my picture!”
I turned.
Corbin was standing beneath the lights, looking back at me with his hands raised toward my camera.
I lifted it.
Avery ran past him, laughing.
Their voices bounced off the storefronts.
I lowered the camera and looked back across the median.
The boy was still sitting on the pavement.
The wind picked up.
Dani pulled her jacket tighter. I put my hands into my pockets.
We waited.
His jacket was still flat and motionless against the pavement.
“Daddy!”
I turned again.
The boys were running toward the castle.
“Take my picture!”
I raised the camera again.
When I looked back, the boy was sitting upright, rubbing the back of his head.
His friends grabbed his arms and pulled him to his feet.
He stood there for a moment.
Then they all started laughing.
The three bicycles rolled away down the sidewalk.
Dani looked across the street.
“There’s a restaurant over there.”
“Yeah.”
I pulled my hands farther into my pockets.
We moved out of the cold.