Short Stories

In the time of night

The wind whistled through his ears as the rain poured late in the night. His glasses fogged up as he took in a sharp breath through his mask. 

His clothes hung onto his damp skin, his hair falling over his eyes as people shoved by, the edges of their umbrellas threatening to poke him in his eyes. 

He pushed through the tide of people, water dripping down his brow and spotting his already blurred vision. 

'Just a second', he thought, 'one second where I'm alone..'

The wave pushed him and he stumbled out of the path, stumbling into an empty park. His lips formed a thin line under his mask as he hastily took out a cloth from his pocket. 

Pulling the mask down, he took a deep breath in as he delicately held the glasses between his fingers. Confusion morphed over his face as he struggled to tell whether the cloth was wet or cold.. The weather was making it impossible to tell..

Carefully, he wiped the glasses, praying that it wasn't wet from the rain. As he slipped them on, he sighed, now much more annoyed than before. 

He slumped into the nearby wet park bench, sliding his glasses off once more.

"Damned rain.."

"You couldn't be more right.."

It took him a second or two to realise that he had company. A lady was stood beside him, holding her umbrella over the two of them, shading them from the waterfall of rain. Her mask was on but judging by her voice, she too was annoyed.

She put her hand into her pocket and took something out, giving it to the man. He was still in shock from how she so sneakily appeared beside him but as she outstretched her hand with the object, his gaze averted. She held out her own handkerchief and he needed nothing else to be told to him to take it.

"Thank you..?"

"Don't mention it. I know the pain of glasses."