Five Photos, Five Stories Challenge: Day 4 - Magic Hour

This is her favourite time of the day. When the sun has slipped gracefully to the other side of the world, the sky is blinking sleepily, and the clouds arch, stretch and get ready to tease their friends, the stars,by obscuring their view of the earth below. 

This is her one hour of the day where she is at no-one's beck and call. Not work, nor home can claim her attention. 

She waits at the traffic lights, not upset in the least when they take forever to change. Instead, a little smile plays on her lips as she mentally steps out of work mode - in much the same way as she would unbutton a tight-fitting coat. One button at a time, feeling herself breathe a little freer with each button. 

Some days, some buttons don't undo easily. On those days, she imagines secateurs shearing off unsightly tangles of buttons. One time, she even shredded the coat and set it totally alight. 

But today, she has no need for such measures. Her work thoughts are tossed aside in the discarded coat. 

Now, her hands idly on the steering wheel as she watches the sky darken to night, she imagines. And dreams. 

She fancies that all street and traffic lights are full of light crystals, which, when opened, spill into the street like a stream of emeralds. Or corals. Or yellow diamonds. Unpolished and uncut, of course. 

She can run her hands through them. They have a texture like sand, the colours spilling through her fingers. 

Her light goes green at last and she joins the highway. The cars all around her are metal animals, wanting to reach the lights and gobble up the light crystals first. 

She drives with a smile. Imagining all the other cars as metal animals removes any irritation she feels at silly driver behaviours. She imagines cars at the lights gulping greedily on traffic light crystals while the cars behind them watch enviously. She is oblivious to the heavy volume of cars, only that her car, well-fed on traffic lights, is staring smugly at the cars surrounding it. 

In this way, She makes good time and it isn't long before she is pulling into her driveway under a night sky. As always, she is almost sorry her magic hour between work and home has ended so quickly. 

But she smiles wide and runs into the well-lit house to greet her family, and to hear the welcome cries of "Mama!"

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My Day 4 of the Five Photos, Five Stories Challenge! I was tagged by Sarah Brentyn and I am currently trying to bore her with my thanks because I'm so enjoying using the visual photos as a writing prompt!! :-)

The “rules” of the Five Photos, Five Stories Challenge are:

1) Post a photo each day for five consecutive days.
2) Attach a story to the photo. It can be fiction, non-fiction, poetry, or a short paragraph. It’s entirely up to the individual.
3) Nominate another blogger to carry on the challenge. Your nominee is free to accept or decline the invitation. Just have fun.