Signals

Common elements on a common path, but the signs are found in the singularity of everyday life...

It was supposed to be an ordinary day, ordinary morning, with nothing special or relevant, if not for the signs.

We only notice the signs when, when turning slightly to look for the starting point of the events, we identify the singularity.

It was a Monday like any other, if not for that strange impression of waking up at dawn – even with the alarm clock ringing at the same time every day – to follow the same morning ritual: Getting out of bed on tiptoe and go to the bathroom.

The dark morning indicated rain in sight, but this would not interfere with the ritual of a good shower, putting on the uniform, having breakfast and leaving without making a sound so as not to wake the puppy.

Arriving at the bottom of the stairs, the memory of the umbrella on the shelf came to my mind, the soft drops wetting my face, because the rain was so soft that it reminded me of dew. Climbing four flights of stairs at this time would cause a delay.

Signs or choices?

I chose to face the rain without any protection; a decision. The delay was not acceptable. So, I left the condominium watching the clouds in the sky and calculating whether the rain would last. The square opposite, which normally has rows of people waiting to be seen, was deserted and silent. Suddenly the signals intensified; when looking at the sky and the deserted street, the rain became intense in a few seconds. On the repeated path, for countless times, something unprecedented happened: a bird fight in the rain. It was a couple (I presumed to be a pair of birds of the same species) small, attacking a huge bird.

It seemed that everything was moving in slow motion and it didn't last more than a hundred steps in observation for me to think those birds – probably – would have a home in danger, a child in danger; a couple who, out of love, launched themselves against the enemy to save everything they had most precious.

It was a hundred steps that made me understand how inevitable a fight is, when you have a home and a child in danger; and the most ordinary day, became unforgettable.

Common elements (rain and birds) on a common path, but the signs are found in the singularity of everyday life, in elements that – somehow – become unique combinations.

What if I returned for the umbrella?

What if I don't wake up at the scheduled time?

The signs, in fact, are the choices that lead us to combine common elements in a single moment.

Cleisianne Leite.

Fomanda em Biblioteconomia.