Urban Volcano

Fiction by Börkur Sigurbjörnsson

Flash fiction

Downpour

I was speaking at a lunchtime meeting when it started to rain. The shower fell from the heaven as if poured from a bucket.

Downpour — Illustration by Börkur Sigurbjörnsson
Illustration by Börkur Sigurbjörnsson

“Excuse me,” I said and left the room.

I walked along the hallway, down the stairs, across the reception and out the main entrance until I came to a halt in the middle of the square outside the headquarters.

I stood still and let the rain bombard my head. I enjoyed feeling the water trickle down the sideburns, neck, chest, stomach, thighs, shins and all the way down to my toes.

After five minutes in the downpour I returned to the headquarters, through the main entrance, across the reception, up the stairs, along the hallway and toward the meeting room.

The meeting was in full swing with a lively debate that stopped as soon as I opened the door, walked to the stage with a torrent of water trailing me and took up the thread where I had left it.

The flash fiction story Downpour is part of the flash fiction collection Flash 52.

Börkur is an avid storyteller with a keen eye for quirky characters, funny dialogs and vivid scenario descriptions. Much of his writing falls within the genre of realistic fiction and his stories are more often than not based on real events in the author’s life. Although the tales contain grains of truth, they are melded with fiction, making the reader curious to know the line between reality and fantasy.