The wind pushes at the window in such a way that Graham stands to check it. He glances outside, noticing the sound of the wind scraping dry leaves down the city streets. The sidewalks below are empty, as though the weather has blown them clean.

Suddenly, Graham notices how green the world has become. Rain is coming soon. He imagines it falling on the streets, saturating the crisp air and bare pavement.

A woman in a red coat walks into view. She heads into the wind with shrugged shoulders, her chin tucked into her gray scarf to keep it from the wind’s sharp edges. Graham watches her with the lonely desire to know someone, the brain’s desperate search for a familiar feature in the face of strangers. He does not know her.

A gust of wind, and the woman stops mid-step. The wind continues its stampede, freezing the woman in place.

Then, the woman stands erect, opening her arms wide against the wind. She leans into the gust. She is smiling, her eyes closed.

When the wind dies down, the woman lets her arms fall to her sides. Her eyes drift up to Graham’s, as if pulled above by his gaze. Then she smiles, blushing, and raises her hand to acknowledge him. He waves back and grins, and she walks away, the shared moment between strangers over.

She is gone by the time the rain starts. Graham watches the rain fall in specks then sheets, washing the green world clean and new.