Prose: Waiting
The pounding of the rain was more than a little irritable by now.
Drip. Drip. Drip.
What was she doing?
Was she going to stand me up?
The cold was just as mocking as the rain, only it had decided to take advantage at my stupidity for even being outside at this time of night. A sharp gust caught me off guard, slicing through me like a knife. Damn it was cold!
Five more minutes... it’s all I would wait. Five more...
But what if she got lost?
Maybe she thought it was tomorrow we were supposed to meet? Or maybe she just got the times wrong! Or maybe...
Ten more minutes then... just ten...
Ah hell!
She could be held up in traffic and I would miss her when she came if I left now.
Traffic? At this time of night? Here, in the middle of nowhere?
Listen to yourself. She’s probably right around the corner. The corner! Maybe she didn’t mean this bus stop; she might have meant the other one! What other one? This was the only one for a mile out of this place. I must be paranoid.
Drip. Drip. Drip.
My body was sodden and my night gown was ruined. Water dripped from my face in a tempest of sorrow. And if that wasn’t bad enough I started to cry. The whole portrait of water was giving me a headache... I wanted to go home.
Could I catch pneumonia if I stayed out to long? What if someone dodgy was lurking around here, would he attack me? I don’t have anything valuable on me... but they’ll take anything these days! Even the clothes off my back! And I’d lay there in the gutter, naked, cold, killed by someone on the street or left to freeze my way into death...
C’mon! You said you’d be here already!
A hot tear rolled down my pale cheek and I furiously wrapped my arms around myself for warmth.
Fifteen more minutes... It’s all I’ll wait...
IMAGE: trans alp
