her neighborhood was made up of close-packed small brick houses , and in those days it was almost a suburb , and the streetcar from downtown would come clanging up on its last run , and her father would get off of it and come home when twilight was falling and the lightning bugs had begun to spark and fade across the green-blue lawns and the shrubs and gardens were beginning to yawn back their perfumed moisture to the fading sky , and she loved him and she loved that time of night when he came home .