Rain

She pulled the collar of her coat tighter to her neck to stop the rain from sneaking its way down her neck, while her drenched hat clung to her sopping hair. Trying to somehow save what was left of her shoes, she stepped gingerly around the puddles on the sidewalk clutching a package. Soon it was just her alone on the sidewalk, alone on the street battling against the wind, the rain and that unseeing hand that swoops down and plays havoc with our lives.

It came without warning. The car sped down the street making its way, unaware that there would be others out on a night such as this. She heard the splashes behind her like those waves against the stone jetty during a stormy high tide. She heard the gears grind, the brakes being applied, the sliding of the rubber tires against the wet pavement. It wasn't until she smelled the grease of the engine that she looked up in to the headlights of the approaching car.

In her wet hands the first thing to go was her package. She reached out for it like a struggling swimmer, but it was possessed with its own momentum flying off in to the dark. Soon she was flying herself, like a ballerina on stage taking a leap in to the waiting arms of some forlorn lover. Her wet hat once stubbornly attached to her head slid off and fell heavily to the ground, beating her arrival to the pavement by at least a second.

It was her soaked wool coat that saved her, acting as padding against the pavement. She stood, the car’s windshield wipers beating out the time with her own heart beats. Turning away she hobbled on her broken shoes toward the warmth of home.