He was looking downwards on his way back home through the dark, narrow alley that connected his dead-end neighborhood with the full-lit supermarket. It was raining, more strongly than usual. He was wearing his pilot hat and jacket hoodie above it, as an extra means of protection from the water that was following one of its favorite routes, from the sky to the ground. Despite that, the hat was carrying drips of water to his shoulders, to be added to the free-falling ones. In his hands was a simple nylon bag with the market’s logo on it, held horizontally to protect the contents from getting wet.
He didn`t know what the weather was like when he dressed to leave as he had been indoors all day, occupying himself with unimportant tasks, at least not as personally important as we would like. But he had to get out to get something done — isn`t this the reason anyone gets out? — and seized the opportunity, feeling proud of himself, to get something that seemed unimportant as well at a glance but to him it had the appearance of purpose. He had received earlier that day his recently purchased Silver Reed Leader II typewriter, in a moderately good shape, and he was carrying the pack of blank pages that would allow him to put this machine in use, sooner rather than later. And it was important that the paper stayed dry and usable…
There were pools of rainwater trying to hinder his short return, causing him to jump around to avoid them, always looking down. He was feeling warm, but dared not to unzip his jacket to the rain. He just kept walking the familiar way, hearing just his breath and the tip-tap of the drops on the bag and the surroundings. He turned left in the narrow and dark alley. His front door was soon in sight, just waiting there in silence as always. His right hand, already in his right jacket pocket where his keys rested, came out and unlocked the door.
He didn`t have much time. He had to get ready for his early morning trip to Athens. He entered his room, placed the typewriter on his cheap, foldable table and removed its cover. The pack of papers had a few water drops on it so he quickly removed the outer packaging before the moisture transcended to the valuable content. He took out the first page, placed it in the designated position, rolled the wheel on the side until he was satisfied with the height of the paper and started typing: “He was looking downwards …”
“I need to buy a new tape …”, he thought and only then did he finally remove the still dripping hat.