Elsewhere

(Excercise: Write about arrival at a different place - with no other explanation  of how you got there. Reflect on your senses.)

The first thing was the smell... well, smells, actually. They were carried around by the hot wind, lingering only for seconds, only to disappear forever, and get replaced by something familiar. Something different. I kept my eyes closed. Burnt tires, scent of love and disappointment, coal and piss, blooming flowers. Smoke. 

As I opened my eyes, I realized, I was there. A once in a lifetime experience, seeing a city for the first time, the colours, the patterns, the movements. There were huge buildings, shadow, rain, tiny little people running into tiny little directions, chaotic, mundane, pointless. But, I guess, they see the point, and that is what really matters. I, standing with my eyes wide open, can't see it.

Strange thing about the voices: they arrived last. Smells, first, sights, second, and, as if someone suddenly turned up the volume, I heard everything at the same time. Laughing, crying, time ticking away. 

I stood still for a moment, then plunged into the city. Now I'm just another smell.