To Make a Decision

Today's Writer's Ink assignment was to create a scene.  The parameter's were: Time: early morning, 
Weather: a band of cloud, 
Location: the desert 
Feeling: a neglected feeling. 

Each of us did something a bit different. I have done some editing since this afternoon's reading: found lots of holes in my first offering once I read it out loud.

Here is my take:

To Make a Decision

Rudolfo was awakened abruptly from an already uneasy sleep.

“Out! Out! You only paid me for this far! Another bus will come.”

With that the surly bus driver left in a cloud of red sand that filtered the early morning sun. Rudolfo looked down the road. Nothing. This was definitely not fun. The bus stop sign, sand blasted and chipped with age, barely stood upright. Strange, unnerving calm settled in the dusty sand around him. Rudolfo looked into the desert for any bit of shelter. Only one lone scrubby tree leaned silently into the desert. The horizon was edged in a rolled up bank of cloud barely outlined with the golden dawn. Faint hope of seeing the desert come alive on this trip blossomed as the cloud rolled forward bringing the storm. A quick, panicked glance down the road made up Rudolfo’s mind. He dashed away from the decrepit bus stop sign to the lonely tree hoping that he would be safe, pulling his thin poncho from his back pack as he ran. Would the bus come first or the storm?

“A desert is a place without expectation.”

~ Nadine Gordimer, Telling Times