Dragon's muse
03-09-2007, 06:00 AM
from Queenie, by Michael Korda
"In the gray half light of the clouded moon, the streets gleamed with water, and the palm trees had a spiky look, like a woman who has washed her hair but not yet brushed and dried it. In places, the streets were flooded; Los Angeles was built in the belief that it never rained -- as if drains and gutters would have shown a lack of faith.
The whole scene reminded Dawn of Calcutta in the monsoon, except that here the streets were empty, and the rain was an inconvenience rather than a blessing. In Calcutta, she remembered, millions of people ran out into the streets just to stand and feel the rain, howling with joy; here it was regarded as an unwelcome freak of nature, a reminder to people who had fled from New York, or Chicago, or Berlin that even in Southern California, which was as far as you could flee, your couldn't escape from all the realities of life. She needed no such reminder."
"In the gray half light of the clouded moon, the streets gleamed with water, and the palm trees had a spiky look, like a woman who has washed her hair but not yet brushed and dried it. In places, the streets were flooded; Los Angeles was built in the belief that it never rained -- as if drains and gutters would have shown a lack of faith.
The whole scene reminded Dawn of Calcutta in the monsoon, except that here the streets were empty, and the rain was an inconvenience rather than a blessing. In Calcutta, she remembered, millions of people ran out into the streets just to stand and feel the rain, howling with joy; here it was regarded as an unwelcome freak of nature, a reminder to people who had fled from New York, or Chicago, or Berlin that even in Southern California, which was as far as you could flee, your couldn't escape from all the realities of life. She needed no such reminder."