Eighty-Six — Summary

At midnight, a speaker sits alone by a fire made of hickory bark when a bobcat steps through the ferns and pauses to watch the flames with them. The feeling is quiet and almost dreamlike. There is no fear here, only calm wonder at being close to a wild animal that has chosen to linger. The bobcat does not approach or threaten; it simply joins the speaker in watching the fire. That final phrase, “with me,” is what gives the moment its warmth. For a little while, human and animal share the same small circle of light, and the mood becomes hushed, still, and faintly magical—like a private encounter at the edge of the wild, leaving the speaker alert, grateful, and briefly connected to something not entirely knowable.