Untitled — 017
For days,
it had been raining,
and the sky had stayed gray.
Even in the rain,
it was hot outside
and cold inside the buildings.
Going back and forth
between heat and cold,
my body was slowly wearing down.
Today, for the first time in a while,
the sky was filled
with billowing white clouds.
The rain had stopped,
but it was still hot and humid.
I was walking through
a large outdoor shopping complex.
Bright storefronts stretched along the walkways,
and the restaurants were crowded.
People passed carrying shopping bags,
and children ran around,
stopping to look at things.
People eating,
walking with drinks in their hands,
taking pictures,
waiting in line outside stores.
Music drifted through the streets,
and laughter came from every direction.
There was barely enough space
to move between people.
I was walking among them.
Then
I heard music from somewhere.
It was slow.
A low, heavy bass
repeated steadily.
Unfamiliar sounds
slowly layered over it.
It wasn’t a melody
that was easy to hum,
nor was it music
meant to lift the crowd.
If anything,
it seemed out of place.
A bright, colorful space.
People constantly in motion.
Only the music
seemed to move at a different speed.
I stopped walking.
Everyone else kept moving.
Something felt strange.
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Their movement hadn’t changed,
but time where I stood
seemed to be slowing down.
It was as if I had slipped into a place
where time moved differently.
We were in the same place,
yet somehow, we were moving
through different times.
The low, repeating bass
and the slow rhythm
seemed to slow time itself.
I couldn’t tell
whether it had been a few seconds
or a few minutes.
It didn’t matter.
For days,
I had been looking at things,
walking,
moving from place to place.
Outside was hot.
Inside was cold.
Walk again.
Look again.
Move again.
Without realizing it,
I had begun moving
at the same pace as everything around me.
Then the music
pulled me out of that flow.
A moment when I didn’t have to go anywhere.
A moment when I didn’t have to look at anything.
A moment when I could simply stand still.
For that brief moment,
the fatigue that had built up inside me
seemed to slowly settle.
Back at the hotel,
I found the music
and listened to it again.
Once.
Then again.
Each time I listened,
that moment came back to me.
We had all been in the same place,
but for a little while,
it felt as though
we had been living
in different times.
I was walking among them.
It was slow.
I stopped walking.
Everyone else kept moving.
Something felt strange.
It didn’t matter.
Once.
Then again.
Originally published at https://hallelujah.com on October 7, 2026.
