I had just run across the lawn and was taking cover beneath a hedge row of trees. The sky was grey and thick with dark clouds. My lungs burned from running. I looked up at the clouds and thought of the beauty on the other side of all that darkness. A blue sky; the sun’s brilliance cast over white pillows stretching out forever. But down here it was dark and cold and wet. People were dying.

I noticed something moving across the field toward me. A deer. It ran straight at the windbreak and took cover under the tree next to me. I could have reached out and touched it. It stared at me, holding its head low under the branches. I looked into its blank eyes and could not tell if it seemed sad, or afraid, or felt nothing at all. One thing was clear, however. We were together now.

We made a break for the buildings at the edge of the manacured, green lawn as the rain dropped down on us, where other terrible things might soon rain down on us. We made it to a covered alley between two buildings and ducked down, leaned against the brick wall in the shadows. We crawled alongside the wall like that, stayed low, until we came to the other side.

Things were slower there. Cars drove liesurely on the street in both directions. The approaching swiiiiish of tires on wet pavement, getting louder and then fading away as the vehicles passed. We waited there in the alley. We waited there and watched the rain.

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