I always love reading pieces that take me by surprise.

In 508 words, Graeme McMillan successfully captures the isolation and loneliness that comes with that complicated relationship we’ve all experienced one way or another. It’s lovely writing in both its minimalism and its impact.

Here is how “On The Streets Where You Live” begins:

There was a walk, back when I was living in Aberdeen, that always felt… I don’t know, charged? That may be the wrong word, but that’s what comes to mind, that’s what it felt like. As if there were some kind of magic in it, as if the streets and the night and the still combined and made some kind of incredible that couldn’t have existed any other way.

Read the rest right here.