It was one of those sudden, unexpected rainfalls that sometimes break out in the middle of a hot sultry summer afternoon, just as your thinking how nice it might be to spread out on a sun lounger in the garden, or perhaps to check if there's a Choc ice lefty in the freezer.
But I wasn't in the garden, I didn't have any Choc ices in the freezer, so I'd wandered off down to the shops for provisions, and reached the High Road just at the moment the sky burst asunder.
Expecting it to rain itself out in a matter of minutes, I planted myself under the shelter of a nearby awning, not pressed against the window panes but close enough to avoid the dribble off the canvas and splashes from the pavement, and tried to pass the time studying the nearby shop signage, the paving stone patterns, soaking up the surroundings .
The water kept coming, running in from the slate roads, the gutters and drains of the nearby streets, building from a gentle to track to a rushing stream, a torrent of blues and grays, rushing towards the drains.
And then out of nowhere a speck of colour, standing out amongst the dull, drab surround, a speck of yellow popped up and bobbed and weaved through the swirling current. Tossed about like some heroic seaman, facing the swells of a might ocean, it burst free, a small rubber duck buoyed and triumphantly carried fourth on the voyage of adventure.
Again and again, the waters sort to sink this heroic duckling shaped vessel, yet each time this mighty maritime marvel fought its way back to the surface, undefeated, unstoppable, afloat on its strange cruise to some faraway shore.
But I wasn't in the garden, I didn't have any Choc ices in the freezer, so I'd wandered off down to the shops for provisions, and reached the High Road just at the moment the sky burst asunder.
Expecting it to rain itself out in a matter of minutes, I planted myself under the shelter of a nearby awning, not pressed against the window panes but close enough to avoid the dribble off the canvas and splashes from the pavement, and tried to pass the time studying the nearby shop signage, the paving stone patterns, soaking up the surroundings .
And then out of nowhere a speck of colour, standing out amongst the dull, drab surround, a speck of yellow popped up and bobbed and weaved through the swirling current. Tossed about like some heroic seaman, facing the swells of a might ocean, it burst free, a small rubber duck buoyed and triumphantly carried fourth on the voyage of adventure.
Again and again, the waters sort to sink this heroic duckling shaped vessel, yet each time this mighty maritime marvel fought its way back to the surface, undefeated, unstoppable, afloat on its strange cruise to some faraway shore.
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