Quiet Contemplation

It began, as far as you can tell, that morning. You awake to the sound of thunder and the pouring of rain outside your little apartment. The floods in the street would hamper any attempts at moving through the neighborhood without a motor vehicle and, unfortunately for you, that was exactly what you lacked.

"Well John," you say to yourself as you climb out of bed and approach the shower. "It's not like you haven't done this before."

And it was true. Walking had been your major form of transportation for years now. It didn't mean you preferred it, but you refused to succumb to any sort of despair. For months after getting kicked out of the house by your druggie room-mate, you had lived in the cheapest apartment you could find, working all the jobs you could find. It was hard, it was painful most days, and you wished with all your might that it would just stop raining for just today!

You sigh as you step out of the shower. You kept your head held high and your chin up despite the things that battered your relatively young life and today would be no different. You knew in the bottom of your soul that one day things would pick up, and when that day came every day before it would be worth every straining muscle!

Your heart invigorated by the self pep talk, your thin, lithe body clothed in the uniform of a fast food ****, a genuine smile on your face, you exit your apartment complex as fast as you can. You close your eyes as you open the door prepared to be blasted by cold New England rain. Nothing but chilled air, a brightly lit parking lot, and the warmth of the sun awaits you.