In the middle of the night, I remember waking up in that little house on the streets that saw very little use.  Even in the mornings and afternoons, it was rare to see cars on them.  In the middle of the night, there's nobody.

Once it was a dream that woke me up.  A strange actor from a television show, dressed as a mysterious spy, sprang up from between my bed and the wall, smiled the smile that probably won her the job she had on the TV show, and said "Hi."

I followed her out, but I couldn't see her anywhere.  I don't think I understood that she wasn't really there.  I had grasped that she was a real person, different from her TV personality, but maybe my grip on the difference wasn't quite that strong in my sleepy mind.

Other times, I remember walking around the street and coming home, or going to a neighbor's doghouse and sitting in it while the dog was with the neighbors, inside the big house.  But I came back those times on my own.

The only time I didn't come back by myself was the time with the birds.

There were dozens of them.  That's what I remember, but that might not be true.  Going by memory, they were in a giant cage, more than twice as tall as I was, and they were quiet until I came closer.  They began flitting around, chirping and calling at me.  Parakeets, I knew some were blue and some were green but I don't remember much about these particular colors, since it was dark.  

I let myself into the big cage and sat down while they fluttered around and called, disturbed but not afraid of me.  I might have gone home on my own eventually, but the people in that house heard their birds and came outside to see what was the matter.  It could have been a cat, or a raccoon, or a wandering dog; it was me.

They either knew who I was, or I told them what my home phone number was.  I sat at their kitchen table and waited for my father to walk across the street..you know, when I think back I can't tell you where that house was, in relation to the old house we lived in.  How far did I walk?  How far did I sleepwalk?

It must not have been far, because we walked home, my hand in my dad's hand.  My mom was awake, and she put me to bed.  

It's a hazy memory that drifts away from me when I try to resolve details.  Did it actually happen?  Yes.  Was that the only time my folks had to come looking for me?  I know that isn't true, but it feels like it is.

Maybe it's because this time I was caught by someone else besides family, caught in a cage with all of the other birds.

As I grew, I found birds of a feather and flocked with them.  After falling out of the habit of wandering the streets as a child, I started wandering the streets as a teenager, a young adult.  
What is it about a good time that makes it slide back and forth in my memory, making me think it was something that could be recreated easily?  Maybe some people can easily bring forth these memorable times, but to me they seem to happen by accident, and almost always in the deepest hours before dawn.

Sitting in the cage with those birds.

Putting a candle on top of the fire hydrant in the heart of what was once my old paper route, and coming back much later to find the stub.

Staring up at the chemistry building while standing on the air conditioning grates, feeling a powerful updraft sneak up the legs of my pants and causing my trenchcoat to flap around, and watching my friend's curled, permed hair flop around.

Running up and down the 45 degree angle slopes of the drainage canal and wondering idly what we would do if we got stuck down there, since there were no ladders in sight.

Discovering the outer stairs in the physics building led up to the roof, and that door up there was hardly ever locked.

Discovering there really were tunnels running all over campus, but you needed to have keys or lockpicking skills to really explore them.

Finding someone in a chat room who seemed perfect, who I wanted to keep talking to for hours and hours, even though I planned to go to bed in the next few minutes...over and over and over again.

I've fallen out of that habit again.  Maybe someone needs to put up a coop or outdoor aviary in my neighborhood.