Hell VII

I reached home laden with bags. I set down my purchases and splashed some water over my face and hands - a ritual that would usually make me feel instantly better but today all it did was highlight the lack of air circulation in my room. The water clung to my face, running in lazy rivulets down my cheeks, settling in the tiny little crevices where my lips meet only to overflow and run further down. My ability to enjoy the cooling sensation that the restorative power of water would bring had diminished. It had evaporated in the glare of the harsh lights that I had subjected it to and was now lost, perhaps forever.
I walked out into my small private balcony and felt the smooth flooring beneath my feet. The touch of the cool floor brought home memories of the environs of the Mall that I'd just left behind.
I sat down, concious of the hard softness of marble chips embedded forever in mortar, possessed within a singular space, prisoners of a permanence that would end the day that the house would be razed to the ground. I smelt it then I as I do now - change. The first whiff of rain.
The sky darkened, moving from a robin's egg blue tinged with black to a grey that deepened with each passing moment. And then without preamble came the rain. Beating down hard on ground, sending up small puffs of smoke wherever it hit, bringing to life the scent of the earth and all thats contained within.
I sat there mesmerised. Soon when the cold began to seep into my bones I got up and made myself a cup of warm coffee. I sipped it slowly and peacefully while the earth and the sky made love to each other and mere mortals like me watched.