midnight
Each tier of windows seemed backed by the same blinds , each street-step barricaded by the same door . I stopped and looked up , wondering if behind those neutral-tinted walls and blinds were lives as bald and monotonous as the materials that screened them . I wondered if an environment so without distinction would not actually evolve a type equally destitute of individuality . I turned where I stood , and was about to pass diffidently on , when one of the most unexpected things that can come to a man at midnight happened to me . Out of a clear sky , without a note or movement of warning , there suddenly fell at my feet a heavy bundle . Where it came from I had no means of telling . The house above me was as silent and dark as a tomb .