Impermanence - Part One

Rosa looked out of her bedroom window and watched the rain patter down hard onto the sidewalks.  Each drop merged in the rivulets as they snaked their way from streets into underground channels, skirting all that lay in the path - pebbles, a runaway paper boat, a black puppy. Rosa watched the doleful creature exposed to the elements, its shaggy fur matted and soaked, its floppy ears drooped in sadness. She grabbed her yellow umbrella and charged out her front door, but when she reached the side street, the dog had roved away. She treaded down the alley circling to the back of her house where she spotted shaggy tail disappear down a bend. Her feet splashed through the twisted path, another turn just before she saw the dog disappear through an arched doorway.

Rosa followed and found herself in a courtyard swathed in ivies of pink bougainvillea, lush in their wet beauty. A bark directed her attention to the south wall of the ivy and she balanced her yellow umbrella at an angle, parted the green and pink wet curtain and peeked in. Behind it she saw the puppy beckoning her in with its short, staccato barks, as if to share his shelter. Rosa folded her umbrella and ducked in through the ivy curtain, her hair catching sprinkles of rainwater and pink flowers. Inside the shelter, she bent down to the puppy with her hands reaching out as if in friendship.

As soon as her fingers touched the wet paws, in the blink of her eye everything changed around her. She found herself in a dark room holding tiny fingers of a small child standing next to her. Her yellow umbrella stood as tower in the child’s hand, glowing like a street lamp. The child opened it and like the sun, her umbrella illuminated the world around them.

Rosa froze in her place, her eyes unblinking, absorbing all that surrounded her. The little den had transformed into a park with a dancing fountain in its center. She saw sculptures scattered throughout, partially hidden in hedges that were pruned to shapes of mythical creatures. She spotted a unicorn and a couple of elephants with a baby’s body. Thin, tall trees towered over her, their tops too high for her to see. Not a drop of water reflected on the park surface, only sunshine from what used to be her umbrella bathed her with its radiance. Music of rainwater reached her ears as if from a faraway land, its romance gradually fading.

To Be Continued...