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The Silent Smiling Sunset Alley
[WIP]

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Herald stood before an alley wall recently dampened with a cool autumn rain. With his head against the wall, he stared up at the blue-less sky, the power lines from the web of steel and aluminum above dripping with wet dew. The radiant sun hid behind the towering skyline, only letting a peep of warm light creep through the cracks and gaps of the alley. Slam! Suddenly, the loud banging of a large, old metal door intruded upon the serene silence of the alley. Loud, angry footsteps followed shortly after. Herald lowered his head from the heavenly sky to the rusty terrace above him. A young man in a light coat, his hands gruffly stuffed into his faded jean pockets, looked down in the general direction where Herald was in, but was not looking at Herald himself; he was staring off into the distance with a blank face, but with a posture of impatience and an expression of irritation.

Unconcerned with the young man’s apparent problems, Herald returned his gaze to the sky, which had now coated the clouds with a musty orange. The gaps of the alley were no longer filled with the radiance of the sun, but instead with the same dull orange that painted the clouds above. Again, the sound of footsteps echoed throughout the alley, interrupting the peacefulness again, making Herald wonder if he could ever watch the sky in perfect peace. However, these footsteps were more casual than the young man’s on the terrace, more petite and curt, more eased in step, and lacking any sway of stress or worries, with an upbeat rhythm to match a now whistling upbeat tune.

Herald’s eyes returned to the earth once more and laid them upon the end of the alley where the footsteps hailed from, in which he saw belonged to a young, stylish woman with uniquely styled mahogany hair, adorned with a stylish rust-colored caddie hat, which rested on her head like a lazy fat cat, and wore a stylish grey cardigan over a stylish peach blouse that shadowed her stylish leather boots. She immediately stopped before Herald and greeted him with a cheerful smile that added a certain kind of radiance to the dull orange that shone on her skin and glistened off her honey-glazed lips. Herald greeted back with a warm nod and a small smirk.

Forgetting the dull orange sky, he focused his attention on the young woman, his close friend Maria, who he had not seen for many years. They looked at each other with reminiscent eyes without saying a word, as if they were communicating through telepathy. Maria then closed her eyes, remembering a past and dear moment for but a moment, and once she opened her eyes again, grabbed Herald by the hand and pulled him over to the opposite end of the alley.

Around the corner of the alley revealed an old iron stair case that skipped a floor and went straight to the roof. All that were present were chimneys that dotted the roof in a seemingly random yet organized fashion, puffing out white smoke every once in a while, and dozens of pigeons perched here and there, some flapping away at the sound of the two’s footsteps. They walked up another short flight of stairs to a taller roof; the only roof with a railing on it.

Maria skipped over to the railing and leaned over it, overlooking the terrace that Herald had spotted the irritated young man on below. The young man looked up at the two looking down to him and calmly waved at them, apparently having already gotten over his peeve.