So here it is. Admittedly it didn't turn out quite the way I thought it would. I wanted something deep, something thought inducing, but couldn't come up with anything; one of the reasons the story got delayed as much as it did. So instead I've written it in a different way, more of a 'sights and sounds essay' than a real 'story'. Instead of big drama, we have just some dude taking a walk in the rain. Not to say this is a bad thing. For once, instead of asking you guys to listen to some drama, or idea, I'm asking you guys to just come take a walk with me in the rain, and see what we could see.
The Rainwalker
Around this time of year, it rained almost everyday. Every afternoon, just before the mad rush of commuters getting home at about the same time it would rain. Sometimes you would get a light drizzle, the kind nobody paid attention to, and sometimes you would get a full thunderstorm, with thunder crashing and lightning flashing across a grey sky. Most of the time, though, it was heavy rain with little or no thunder, with just a soft breeze blowing the rain to and fro.
Always, Russell would walk when it rained.
He would usually already be off work by that time, and armed with his trusty orange umbrella, he would set off from his apartment home and walk around town, a blip of brightness against a grey world.
He found it strange that a change in such small details led to a different view of familiar places. Right now he was walking along the wooded road that led from his apartment into town, and he marveled at how different the woods looked with an overcast sky. The woods in sunlight would be unseemingly bright and cheerful, yet plastic and unfriendly, somehow like a postcard picture, or a travel agency advertisement. In the faded light of the grey sky, the woods looked mysterious, foreboding, yet somehow more real. The muted palette made it seem more vivid, and less like a cardboard backdrop to a scenic drive.
