Night Lantern Landing

I leaned forward off the trowel handle, leaving the garden table behind as dusk deepened into night. The yard air was chilling down quickly, so I caught a faint rising thermal against the house wall to climb. Right beside the deck door stood a heavy wooden storm lantern with clear glass panes, radiating a faint, warm glow from an electric tea candle inside. A sudden cross-eddy swirled along the cedar siding, but I banked smoothly into the turn and leveled out. Flaring my wings to check my descent, I taxied straight onto the lantern's flat wooden roof peak. Tucked securely beside the dark metal hanging ring, my nose cone looks out over the dark lawn, perfectly docked for the night.