Henri Cartier-Bresson's photograph Puddle

This short story is based on the puddle in Henri Cartier-Bresson's photograph aptly called puddle.

I had been raining all day; the rain seemed to be coming down in sheets. Puddles were forming everywhere. Women were wearing raincoats and carrying umbrellas. The women dodged the other pedestrians and tried to keep their feet dry by dodging the puddles at the same time. It became almost a dance.

The more the women tried to dodge the puddles, the more people they bumped into with their umbrellas. It became a dance; take a few steps, dodge the puddle look up and dodge the oncoming person or person carrying an umbrella.

Then you got the two women in deep conversation, both carrying umbrellas and ignoring everyone, bumping into other pedestrians, and walking into puddles. It did not seem to matter to them; they just walked on deep in conversation.

The men walked with umbrellas; they were content to stride through puddles but keeping their large umbrellas high up to dodge the torrent of smaller umbrellas.

The rain continued to pour, and the small puddles became bigger puddles until the roads began to flood. The water started to rise in the roadways until it began to spill over onto the pavements. Very quickly, the pavements became deserted as the roads began to flood and became torrents of water.

One man running to catch his train had to leap across an enormous puddle at the station entrance. Other passengers watched in amazement as he completed cleared the puddle with a giant leap. Onlookers spoke about the man being a ballet member—the ballet advertised on a poster on the railings behind the puddle. Then the next man tried to clear the puddle and ended up landing in the puddle. There is great laughter as he sits in the puddle soaked to the skin and nowhere near home. Still, the rain continues to pour.