Short story: Life as It Is

It was a pleasent evening, it had just rained, the city was bustling with activity on that damp sunday evening, a cool humid breeze darted around the metropolitan. A perfect opportunity to walk down this hustle-bustle and observe the organized chaos we call urban life.

I walked on the damp sidewalk, just taking in the scene around me. On the distance I saw skyscrapers plastered across the horizon. A frenzy of cars, shouts and honks lay upon the downtown road to the right, As I walked down the footpath I came across a Bookshop shelves were lined with various novels, boasting colorful covers and titles of sorrow and joy. I continued down my path, coming across a cafe, "Mick's cafe" it said in bold, the scent of freshly brewed coffee and baked bread intruded my nose, I looked inside through one of many windows, behind which i saw a waiter getting yelled at for what I reasoned to be a spilt cup of coffee, a young couple chatting away, a mid-aged man typing away at his laptop his eyes glued on the screen and a woman who seemed to be in her 30s just enjoying her cup of coffee alongside her book, her eyes met mine as she looked up and she smiled, so I answered with my own.

I then continued again, coming across an oddity that stopped me in my tracks; It was a drape, a curtain that extended to the sky, it was the same shade as the evening sky itself, I went towards the "curtain" as I looked closely I realzied it might've not been a curtain, but rather something behind the brick walls of the cafe and the fancy restaurant that the "curtain" was located in between of, it was about a metre in width, I called out to a young woman passing by and asked her to check the oddity out, but she just nodded with her eyes glued to her phone, "Okay, let's try another one", I repated the same ritual with an old couple walking down the street, this time they just looked at me funny and continued, slightly unnerved by this, I decided to do my own investigation, it looked oddly similar to a stage backdrop, behind all cardboard walls, buildings, people there lies a curtain, a black curtain, designed to fade in with the artificial sky, used as a neutral support for all the buildings not directly important to the main character in a play. It was then the reality of what I had just done sunk in, I quickly took a step back, fear and regret starting to build up, I glanced around to see if they were coming, Had I broken my character?, Will I be removed? What happens next? I continued down my path, trying to forget what I had done, I went back to observing the people, the characters of the play, the play we call life.