The Small Pleasures of Life

Victoria Ng

Returning from a walk around the block you turn right upon recognizing the stripe pattern of wood partitions. Like entering through a portal you pass through them, into an small field. A few kids are playing soccer and someone is gardening. Walking up the stairs, you pass by a mom and her daughter who are watering the plants in the “above-ground forest”, as you like to call it. “Hello?” A girl answers the phone as she walks by you in the corridor. Your neighbor Richard gives you a nod as he takes a seat on his porch. Hearing the sound of a guitar you look across and over the field to the laundry room on the rooftop. Clothes are waving in the wind and a dog is chasing its owner around. It’s getting dark as you step inside your home and enter your bedroom. A warm light bleeds into the room from the playground lit below. In the centre of the city, you find yourself living in a special kind of playground.