all negative things

It was as if the earth was breaking. The rain was that heavy. His glasses kept on fogging up, even as the water flowed through them. The water would drop, and would find its way down the landscape of his face and then to his neck. It would drench his shirt and then soak in there. Some made its way off his shirt, saturated as it was and bounced off. The rain was so fast that even though the water streamed off his glasses like water should, it did not give him a break. His sight was blinded. He sighed, stopped to the side, and took off his glasses. He hung them on his shirt. There. He could see better now. He tucked his hands inside his pockets, and then out, breathing hot air on them. He almost could not feel them. It was painful.

He moved back onto the road and began to pedal away. He didn’t need to pedal furiously. His bike was electric.  They had just introduced electric bikes and they were free for members for another week or so. He would start to be charged the start of March.

He was on his way back from meeting his old friends after a break of a year. There are some friends you dont see for months, for ages, and when you see them it will be like time never passed. These were those kinds of friends. But that doesn’t mean it’s all good. Their interaction, other than questions about what the others were all up to, was like before. But that didn’t mean it was good. The friendship had started to fizzle and break down. Once, they had been close.  Towards the end, they had not. It was like that now. It was tragic, really. His heart was full. It had been nice seeing them, however.

The rain pattered with a constant tapping. His bicycle whizzed through the wet streets, cut through puddles, spraying water everywhere. A car whooped through a puddle, the water being sprayed onto him. He shook his head, his hair was so wet, he brushed it with one hand. It was nice. The cars were many, the lights were everywhere. He was right next to Central Park, coming back from the upper east. Home was in the upper west. The trip, which should have taken twenty minutes on this bike was now, he pressed the backlight button on his watch, twenty five and counting. Another car splashed a puddle all over him. He could hear a bus honking angrily from somewhere behind him. He veered as close to the sidewalk as he could and it drove by. Damn, it was that close?

He could smell the alkaline water, could taste it on his lips, could feel the pedals underneath his drenched shoes, and could feel the engine humming between his legs. His hands were cold, his meeting with his old friends had reminded him how not close they were. He was wet all over.

And yet, there was the largest smile on his face. His heart was joyous. He was back. He could not stop smiling.