The Weather

I raised my head. The offing was barred by a black bank of clouds, and the tranquil waterway leading to the uttermost ends of the earth flowed somber under an overcast sky--seemed to lead into the heart of an immense darkness

-- Joseph Conrad, Heart of Darkness

The weekend ended, and the clouds wrapped the city back up into its pocket of darkness. Sometime in the middle of the night the rain began to fall. I didn't notice though, because I was asleep. A deep sleep in a strange place. I awoke, and shortly after found myself smoking on a street that I had never been on before. Standing under the cafe awning with the rain pummelling its green vinyl stripes, the odd raindrop, only the heaviest ones, would slide off the edge of the awning and splash onto my forehead. The street was busy with the comings and goings of a working society, and the rain had brought with it the melancholy that had been absent for the past few days.