The 3 AM Fare
Pickup at St. Dominic’s I’ve been driving for Lyft since 2019. I work nights, generally six PM to about three or four in the morning, because I have a kid in elementary school and nights work better for childcare —…
The Graveyard Shift Diner
The Regular in Booth Six I’ve cooked nights at the Starlight Diner for going on seven years. The Starlight is on Route 9 in Coventry, New York, between a closed Midas shop and a self-storage place that’s been “coming soon”…
Wing B After Midnight
The Call Light in Room 214 I’ve been a CNA for eleven years, six of them on overnight at Maplecrest Care Center. I work the 10 PM to 6 AM shift, Wing B, which covers eighteen rooms on the north…
The Gas Station at Midnight
Pump 4, Every Night The Sinclair station on Route 191 is open 24 hours. It is the last gas for thirty-one miles if you are headed north toward the pass, which means it gets a steady stream of travelers during…
The Shadow on Dock 7
Dock 7 Has Been Closed Since 2019 The Harcourt Distribution Center has twelve loading docks. Eleven of them are active. Dock 7 has been closed since October 2019, which means the bay door is down and locked, the dock plate…
The Server Room at 2 AM
Rack 14, Row C I work overnight operations at a colocation facility outside Richmond. We run about four hundred racks across two floors of a building that used to be a paper mill before it was gutted and converted in…
The Last Bus on Route 9
Route 9 Terminates at Wickford Landing I drive the 11:40 PM departure out of Central Station — the last bus on Route 9. It runs through the industrial district, past the hospital, along the river road, and terminates at Wickford…
The Hotel Pool at 3 AM
The Pool Closes at 10 PM I want to be clear about this upfront because it matters: the pool at the Ridgemont Suites closes at 10 PM. There is a sign on the glass door. There is a sign on…
Guard Tower: Camp Redmond
Tower Watch at a Dead Post Camp Redmond is not its real name. I’m using that because I’m not interested in having this traced back to a specific installation, a specific unit, or specific people who would rather not be…
The Factory Floor at Midnight
The Plant Never Really Sleeps People think a factory shuts down when the day shift leaves. It doesn’t, not really. The machines cool down and the lines stop but the building itself keeps going — compressors cycling, coolant pumping, the…