Lost for Words

The staccato sounds, like gunshots, made by the rain on the smooth surface of the helmet.....
The water running down the once dirty visor ..... making rivulets in the dirt that's been there for weeks.
A hazy curtain of water that doesn't part even when one tries to push it away.... appears like the screen in a movie theater, a canvas for an imagination stunted by months of disuse and abuse, struggling to hold onto the last vestiges of an individuality lost over time ....
The images come unbidden .... vivid, lifelike ..... the gunshots vanish, replaced by the sound of soft laughter ...... the ghost of a smile, dredged out from the mired reflection of a corroded mind .... reality fades ......

A young girl ..... woman, playing in the rain - dancing to the song playing in her head, humming wordlessly the bars of a song only she can hear .............

A light in a window ..... burning bright like a star ..... red eyes, blinking against the rain, looking toward it in the hope of guidance ..... with regret, with guilt ...............

Looking up at the sun through the rain, bright against the dark clouds surrounding it ........ thinking of foxes and crows.............

The rhythmic thump of thickly soled feet as they land on freshly laid asphalt slick with the falling rain ........ splashes made as they land in puddles made by the rain ....... a cellphone ringing somewhere in the distance....... a promise of admonishment to come.....

The throttle turns in an effort to outrun the visions ........... the memories.

It lurches forward, as it has so many times in the past. Forward ......... follow the road ... almost like a tunnel .......

They still come ...............

The feel of someone riding shotgun, arms wide ..... open to the drizzle coming down ...............

Sweet sounds of soft laughter ............... an even softer rendition of “Raindrops keep falling on my head” ...............

Sounds replaced by a roar loud enough to make a man deaf.
Almost there ...............
A door slams shut .... the sonorous sound of a bolt being thrown .... footsteps walking away ......

The rain’s letting up....