• The lonely sigh of a gust of wind rustled the dead and dying grass, the pitifully brown and broken stems fluttering sadly, the stalks broken, making it seem like even the grass had lost the will to live, necks broken and heads bowed. The cement had large cracks in it, the grey stuff slowly crumbling and smothering the few green blades of grass that had dared to try to live. Even the weeds were dying, brown creepers stretching over the decomposing concrete like hands desperate trying to pull themselves from the wreckage.
    The steely grey cloud above growled and sighed, the first few drops of rain hissing down and spattering in a few of the standing puddles already in the lot. The first few daring adventurers were joined by their companions, the rain now pouring down. With the rain blurring the edges of the picture, it didn't look so bad. The grass didn't look broken, merely bent. The cement seemed to come together at the cracks, and even though the sun was hidden from view, hope seemed to be beaming down, erasing the ugliness and filling it with a scarred beauty.
    Two people stood together, hands brushing. All around them for quite a ways, there was only the dead grass, yellowed and decaying. The square of cement was so seemingly out of place, even though it had been ravaged by the elements. Two pairs of eyes gazed sorrowfully at the desolate plain, the hands reaching out and grasping each other as the rain continued beating down relentlessly, washing away the footprints the two people had made. It was as though everything was being washed away to start again, new and untainted.
    The girl bent and plucked something from the mud, the rain washing away the dirt that clung stubbornly to it. It was a scrap of a book, the ink smearing and faded from time. The man pulled her close to his side, and the wind tore the scrap of paper away, sending it cartwheeling through the sky, vanishing in a few blinks.
    "Home," whispered the girl.
    "Home." murmured the man. They gave the place one last glance, then slowly walked away, never looking back.