The street is silent in the rain

The street is silent in the rain. He sits there huddled under the overpass shivering, but nothing moves. Then the rain dissipates and leaves the streets wet glistening in the yellow light of the streetlamps. Slowly he slides down the paved slope he’s been sitting on and wrapping his coat tightly around him starts moving down the street. This night the houses all seem empty. No lights are burning in any of the buildings. His eyes scan the streets but the houses seem to be shrugging back into the darkness, like shapeless hulks in the overgrown gloom. It seems impossible that he has ever walked here so many times before; many brighter days full of life now seem impossibly distant. Now the only thing that drives him on is a weariness, like a heavy load on his shoulders. He needs to let this heaviness rest, but until now it has followed him everywhere like a loyal friend, cursed and rejected but still unable to let go. This load, this wretched friend has gently pushed him on, over highways and rail tracks, down riverbanks and mud tracks, through farmlands and city streets. On and on he’s walked without meeting anyone, without speaking, just him and his ever-present burden.

Now they’re on this lifeless street in this burrow of the dead. Drops falling from branches accentuate the silence, his load so heavy it feels like he can’t take another step. Exhausted he falls to his knees and starts crawling up some anonymous driveway. In front of the house there’s a table, rusted and overgrown with moss. And as he pulls himself upright he sees a note pinned to the table with a rock. He pulls the note from under it and stares at it. The rain and sun have faded the handwriting, but there are two words still legible. He reads the words but his mouth doesn’t make a sound. “… Forgive me.” In the distance the first rays of sun start lighting up the street, it brightness reflected in thousand little pools. As the sun paints his house with light he knows he has finally come home. The weight has gone, but as he faced the sun he cast no shadow.

For Billy