Dementors Strike Guate City

Dementors (Dementewhatzits?) are surely hovering around Vista Hermosa today. I can feel it as my mood persists in a grumpy state. I note the dull stillness of the people around me. Dementors are here; I can feel them.

Hurricane Dean swept across the Yucatán Peninsula in the early hours of today. Larger than the entire peninsula, diagrams showed its long, cyclonic fingers extending across Central America, including much of Guatemala.

I woke to a grey, still morning in Guate City. Rubbing the sleepy seeds from my eyes, I turned on the news to see reports on Dean. It had indeed struck Belize and Mexico as images of violent ocean, abandoned streets, and wind-whipped palm trees filled the screen. Satisfied it was not the apocalypse, I turned off the tube and returned to work. I had not yet noticed the depressing, Dementor-filled air.

Clouds banked in as the day progressed. When Rodrigo dropped me off after the Rotary meeting, he commented, “Here come the hurricane’s effects.” It was grey, dreary, and drizzling. In the afternoon I did my daily pilgrimage to Curves. Leaving the house, a cold wind whipped my hair and bit my cheeks. It threatened to rain, but instead only the wind whistled in the streets. Even with the wind, it was eerily still and silent on normally-bustling Vista Hermosa Boulevard. The guards of the wizard-prison, Azkaban, had surely left their posts.

I did my exercises and left the building to be greeted by a sullen grey mist. The sky was dark from the heavy layers of clouds resting over the city. What a contrast from yesterday’s gorgeous sky! Quickly, I hurried down the street, anxious to avoid being caught in a rainstorm. Muffled noises from cars filled the air. The sounds were less acute from everyday as they had to break through the mist to be heard.

It was more than enough stillness, dreariness, and depression for me. These after-effects of the hurricane wouldn’t stop me! I stopped at Pops and ordered a vanilla-caramel ice cream cone. It’s Brian’s birthday after all! As I hurried down my cold street slurping the sugary ice cream, I realized that since Dementors are on the loose, I probably should have ordered a chocolate ice cream. Or maybe I should just guard my soul, keep my mouth shut, and think happy thoughts. That gets them every time. Ha.