A Sunset

[Zadown]

I can't paint and sometimes I wish I could ... but I can always write...

 

It is a normal evening in the late summer in Finland. Rain has ended, and most of the clouds have gone away, leaving only a few odd ones behind, long trails of mountain-sized jet planes. Sky is steely blue-grey, already fading to black from the corners. In the horizont, above a lake, a massive anvil-shaped cloud blocks the sunset, standing there alone. Only a few fiery rays of violet-red escape from behind it, bathing some random clouds with blood.

 

Under this sky walks a lone figure. He is clothed in black and grey, his pale, almost white skin looking even more pale against his dark clothes. Bald and skinny, a trench coat billowing around him, he is looks like some eccentric monk from an unknown sect of Tech Buddhism on a pilgrimage here in Real Life.

 

All around him are colors: the various deep greens of wet bushes, trees and grass, the rich grey of the asphalt, man-made orange stars of streetlights, winking into existence one by one. He alone is devoid of them; black and white, some shades in between.

 

He goes down a winding asphalted path, glances at an intruding (but dark and silent) motor home with distaste, and continues, past a sand beach, past boats, to a pier made of rocks tied together with wire netting.

 

The man looks around, trying to see all there is to see. Water and forest, sky mirroring itself to the lake, dark trees surrounding everything. Here and there he catches a glimpse of civilization - behind him stands a factory, constellations of electric lights flash in the distance to the right, boats line the pier where he stands. But all in all, the view is mostly ruled by nature. Musing, he does not notice a water bird, and both are startled.

 

The bird swims away, splashing.

 

After a while, having seen the sunset, the man walks away, thinking.

[Starlight]

*thumbs up* captured the scene nicely I'd say, makes it easy to picture in your head