The car is in the way.

The following is a short story based on today's prompt provided by @mydivathings for the #365daysofwriting challenge. I am a bit late to the party, but better late than never.

Every other passerby was focused on the vintage car. Kurt didn't care about cars, vintage or otherwise. Kurt was focused on the puddle beside the car, pleasantly pooled into a recess in the middle of the road. Kurt cared a great deal about puddles. They were a secret obsession of his.

He set up his camera on an open stretch of sidewalk opposite the car. He activated the time-lapse setting on his camera, then unfolded his chair and sat down. Then he waited.

The clouds were forecast to dissipate soon enough, and then the sun would begin to evaporate the fragile collection of water before him. He would catch each moment of evaporation on his camera. Then he would process the video to play in reverse and add the video to his growing personal catalogue of puddles forming from vapor.

As he waited, he became aggravated by the reflection of the vintage car upon the surface of his puddle. After verifying that his camera angle was not also capturing the offending car's reflection in his time-lapse, he moved his chair several feet to the side so as to relieve himself of the same visual sore.

It took six hours for the puddle to evaporate in full. Longer than average, for certain! Fortunately, the sun never came out as the forecasters had anticipated. Six hours of bliss. When he could no longer perceive any evidence of moisture from his vantage-point, he walked over to the now-empty depression in the middle of the road and placed the palm of his hand flat against the pavement. Dry as dry can be.

Finally, Kurt folded up his chair and slung his gear across his back, then walked off to a tune of satisfaction entirely of his own making.