She missed the last bus and walked slowly along the side of the deserted highway. It was getting dark. The orange disk of the sun had long gone beyond the horizon, but the sweltering heat of the day was not going to give way to the coolness of the night. Above the distant hills, high clouds froze like ghostly chimeras - strange, whimsical accumulations. The clouds seemed to be hiding something within themselves. She felt it. It was as if someone very big was watching her and this whole world from there - from the high sky. She felt like a small grain of sand. The wind will blow and carry this grain of sand into vast distances.