Little Circles

She loved watching the rain. It was her favorite pastime: to watch a few drops as they slid down the window pane and hit the ground, making little circles around the spot where they fell. Sometimes she followed one droplet on its journey: from the clouds, onto her window sill, down to the window pane and onto the terrace.
When her mind was in turmoil and she was distracted, she would sit by the window for hours together just watching the rain.



Like now: she sat with her head pressed to the cool glass, eyes closed, ears plugged and waited for her mind to clear. She held a cigarette in one hand and a cup of coffee in the other.
The neighbor's dog whined and barked. Her mobile vibrated next to her as she received text messages. Someone knocked at her door. The phone rang several times and all the calls went to voice mail: "Hi, I'm unable to take your call right now. Please leave your name and number and I'll get back" *beep*
She didn't move.

Several hours later ...

She heard a thud and her eyes flew open. She saw that the rain had stopped. Her ears were still plugged but the ipod battery had died. The coffee had gone cold. The cigarette lay on a piece of paper that now had a burn hole. At some point during the night it had fallen out of her hand and onto the piece of paper.
The sky had a red tinge and the neighborhood was slowly stirring awake around her. She realized the thud meant that the newspaper was at her door. She awkwardly got up and stumbled down the stairs on numb legs to pick up the newspaper and read it while reheating the coffee.

Sam