The Uninvited

coarse. A brown close to Cinnamon Stickwith a few darker grains. It looked likemud and salt, with traces of fibre. I sniffedit and noted a faint vegetable smell with atouch of iron to it.When we’d disposed of our protectivegear and come outside, the sky wasdarkening and grumbling with thunder. Wewalked to the main road where SunnyChen flagged down a taxi. As we drove,flashes of sheet lightning began to scaldthe sky. The restaurant was in a square atthe edge of a public park: we reached itjust as the rain began to fall. Huge,swollen drops, silted with fine grit,hammering the formal flowerbeds.Picnickers, roller-bladers and childrenwith kites rushed in all directions across