One Moment...

A pause, a hesitation, before the crack as shoe met stone. The sound multiplied in the echoing stillness until it became a thousand tiny crack-crack-cracks. A pearl of rain-water rolled downwards, flattening the tendril of cut-grass against the scuffed shoe and darkening the stone under-foot. As if summoned the birds began to jostle one another from their perch high above. They scattered like blotches of ink from a broken nib across the cerulean canvas framed by a lichen covered arch. One, and then two passes of swooping and cawing, until finally all was settled and calm once more.