Relief

The black ants scurried about. Scurried like they were on fire. Though the sun had been engulfed by the mighty clouds, the ground was still hot from the grilling it had faced all day. The sky was a smoky hue with dashes of faint blue. The air wasn’t still anymore like it was a few minutes ago. There was a breeze now. And the trees swayed gently to the light breeze. Cool and soothing…unlike the heat waves that had tormented throughout the day. And sometimes when there was a burst of wind, the coconut leaves rustled. Rustled like the waves caressing a distant shore. In the distance I could hear the shouts of glee of fellowmen. They had been silenced by the heat before. Now they summoned the gods of rain with renewed passion in their voices. And they were gleeful. On the roof of a nearby home, a lady draped in red, her hair unsettled from the deep sleep she had been in a moment ago, was busily running about gathering up the clothes she had let out to dry. A little girl, with open hair floating in the wind pranced around at her heels. I looked down at my faded jeans, the lower part of which I had rolled up in the heat. And my Converse lay beside me, one on top of the other. And the socks rolled up a little farther away. I ran my fingers through my hair…to let my forehead feel some of the air. And there was the smell. The smell of freedom. The smell of relief. The smell that could wash all my grief away. The smell that cleansed my soul. The smell that made me love my life like never before. The smell that made me want to live. It was the smell of rain. It made me tingle within. I looked up at the sky. There was no blazing sun to blind my eyes. And I closed my eyes…I saw some shapes…a man… a girl…running…orange…and then yellow…with an outline of green…and suddenly it all melted like wax…no no like ice cream…in to nothingness…a blur of faint orange…then slowly it darkened…and there were dots…dots zoomed around…Brownian motion ( hehe!)…random motion…zoomed here and there…hit each other…dodged away…came towards me and vanished…it made me dizzy…and I loved it! Then I felt something on my nose…something cool…and then again on my right eye…I stuck my tongue out for it…and then it came pouring down…little drops of heaven…it rained!