short stories

Solar Weeping

Must stick between 250-350 words.

The sky was as grey as the hair of an old widow. The strong wind shook the leaves of the eldest tree of the Central Park of my town. Birds flew as if they were being chased by The Death itself. Not only were dogs howling noisily, but also the few babies around were loudly blubbering too. The aura of sadness and a feeling of what-the-hell-is-happening covered us all. There were abnormal thunders, but it did not seem to start raining soon.

Never have I seen such a phenomenon before. People started leaving the park, rashly. Would I do the same but a strong feeling was attaching me to stay there, to watch what is wrong with climate. Time passed and the dense cumulus clouds were getting darker and darker. I sat under the cork tree near the bench I was sitting, to cover myself from the upcoming icy stones that will fell from the sky. But it was not it.

It started raining, softly. A slight drizzle. However, the raindrops were quite unusual. They burned on my skin. Acid rain, perhaps? Why is this happening in this desolated and unknowable town? I thought this happened in megacities such as New York, not a small place like this. The next thing I did was to run towards my modest cottage that was in the west of the town. Hardly had I entered my home, I left the wet clothes inside the washing machine before they could get damaged by this horrible water. I stared at the window next to the machine and saw what could have caused this anomaly.

A huge column of black and blue thick smoke was coming out of one of the chimneys of the factory on the outskirts of my town. Atrocious was the contamination caused right now. No wonder there is this acid shower. My town is surrounded by this kind of factory since we live in the middle of nowhere so, you know, businessmen from the cities should have their dirty work far away from them. No doubt, nature was crying. The Sun was weeping. Earth is being harmed.