Around the Island
Night Driving You could tell it was going to rain. You could smell it in the musty dankness lifting from the soil. You could feel it in the heavy touch of the wind, fast and strong, around the hedges and rough pruned street trees. You could see it in the green tint edges of the clouds above, sealing in the sky, shutting out the early evening stars. As I reversed the car out and away from the house, the first heavy drops began to fall. By the time I stopped at the third set of lights it had become heavy. Real rain. Winter rain. All around me the world was full of mirrors; water sheened surfaces reflecting the light. Shop lights on the pavement, broken by passing figures. Car headlights on the road. The on off flash of my indicator in the paint sheen of the car in front. Waiting at the pedestrian crossing a man balanced a stack of pizza boxes in one hand and held a wine bottle in the other. He kep...