A Reflective Vantage

A spent soda bottle cap rested upside down on the tarmac by the metal post. I stepped off the curb, planted one sandal against its corrugated rim, and flipped it upright with a kick. It settled flat. Resting against the pole's cold base was a discarded red plastic reflector, rectangular and patterned with hundreds of tiny geometric prisms. I dragged the reflector across the grit, lodging its edge firmly under the steel flange of the post until it stood tilted at forty-five degrees. I climbed onto the ridged rim, perching high enough to watch the distant streetlamps flicker to life in the glass-like plastic facet. Order established, for the night.