There was a guitar sitting in the rain. It was propped up against a couple of bulging trash bags sitting under a streetlamp that seemed to be on its last legs. The light would flicker on and off like a slow strobe, illuminating the water droplets running down the hard black leather case in orange-colored rivulets for a few seconds before it went dark, the rainwater streaming down like liquid onyx.

            I had been walking home from the convenience store, heading back to my apartment, when I had gotten caught in a flash storm. The clouds had formed overhead and the skies had opened, sending down sheets of rain. Just as I had raised my head to curse at the heavens, pausing mid-stride on the sidewalk, the glimmer of the wet guitar case had caught my eye. I turned to stare at where it sat across the street, curious and confused.

            Who would throw out a guitar? I wondered. What sort of person would leave such an instrument in the company of three-day old garbage and the half-eaten remains of a Combo #4 at the local burger joint? Who did it belong to? Why did they discard it? Or maybe its owner had lost it and someone else had found it? Was its owner looking for it? If someone had found it, why didn’t they try to locate the person that the guitar belonged to? Or did they try only to have their efforts prove to be unsuccessful? Did no one come to claim it? Why didn’t anyone want it? Was there something wrong with it? Was it broken?

            I stared at the guitar, contemplating what to do. The rain had already soaked through my clothes and my hair was sticking to my face. By the time I had made my decision, I was already up to my ankles in murky water. The storm drains were clogged and the street had begun to flood. A downward current had formed, the force of the water carrying the random, scattered soda cans and soggy newspapers downstream. The current started to push at the rubbish across the street and the guitar began to tilt. Suddenly, one of the trash bags was dislodged and it started to float down the road, quickly vanishing out of sight. The guitar case fell over and the current started to carry it away.