Have You Ever Seen the Rain? - Part 1

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(a short story written for Creative Writing class, 2009)

It wasn't a day that you would remember for anything.

It wasn't even a beautiful day, to begin with.

Heavily overcast sky overhead - it had been that way since that morning - and it seemed as if the sky was whining for having endured a life that insisted sorrow upon sorrow long after it could bear no more. That was when it started drizzling, and slowly it got heavier.

I knew I could no longer keep walking along the road to wherever I was supposed to be. I started running with a sling bag on my shoulder - and I almost slipped for the ground had been rather slippery by then - when I saw a deserted bus stop in front of me.

As I can recall now, the bus stop was not only deserted, but barely looked like a proper building. The roof had had little holes in several places where the raindrops found their way through it and trickling down like little diamonds, before they fell onto the hard ground - and gone. When I was finally seated on two rows of long painted metals for a seat - you can almost see this kind of bus stops everywhere nowadays, where they possess the aesthetic value, but not the practicality - I saw worn-out bills, stickers of all sorts and job advertisements on every possible corner of the bus stop. They were all old bills, and there were no recent advertisements on sight. These signs only strengthened my idea previously that this had been a neglected place. The oddest part was, I had been using the path back and forth every single day and I barely noticed that there had been a bus stop at all. Well, come to think of it, life in general is more than just stopping by a bus stop and sink in all the unflattering details about it.

Unless, it was a moment like that - when you needed a shelter to bring short comfort - before it was sunny again and you could just get on with your commitments.

When I had finally settled in inside the bus stop - and the rain had gotten so much heavier - that only I noticed a figure at the far corner of the bus stop. Well, you cannot blame me for not noticing her previously because she was hiding behind the bus stop - and as I can recall now - she was not at all hiding. It was her place for she had built herself a little shelter made of dirty boxes, filthy rugs and a few other things I shuddered at when I first saw it.

When I saw her inside that little place, I shifted my seat to the far end of the bus stop. The place was completely deserted, and I could count using my fingers how many cars had passed since I had been inside the bus stop. And having a creature like this in such a place was not an idea I would be so keen about.

I looked up to the sky; it was still heavy with dark clouds - an indication that it would stay this way for another hour or two. Stuck at this place. What a misery. So I reached into my sling bag and took out "As I Lay Dying", a novel by William Faulkner. This must have been this time - the moment I was reaching into my bag and was taking the novel out - when my cell that I had put inside the bag fell out and made a "thud" sound. And it must have been this "thud" sound that made her turn around and look at me.

-to be continued-




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2 comments:

Azie Nazri said...

Woahh, saspenss man!! hehehe.

You write in such great detail Aziz. Looking forward for the 2nd part!

Aziz said...

Hahaha.

Suspense keeps us flipping the page, huh? :)

It's coming very, very soon, Azie. =)