Despite the weather, the narrow streets were dense with people, on the ground huddled beneath umbrellas, sitting up in trees, and leaning over the tiny, wrought iron balconies of the plaster-walled townhouses lining the street. I leapt up, banging furiously on my uncles door, and was dismayed when he still didn't answer. Picking myself up off the stairs, I decided that I would wander off in search of alternate lodgings.
As I fumbled slowly through the masses of cheering people, lightning would periodically flash, followed by a thunderclap crashing through the air, which would temporarily drown out the horn section of the band, leaving only the deep, reverberating sound of the drum pulsing hypnotically through the electrified air. I pushed past a group of people to find myself in a clearing amongst the crowd, and, looking over, was struck by the sight of a sad young girl.
She crouched gloomily in a darkened doorway, staring with a peculiar nervousness at the passing carnival as she attempted to shelter herself from the heavy rain. She was already soaked to the bone however; the rain plastered her lengthy black hair down about her slender face, and her thin, flowered sundress clung to her willowy frame. Her feet were naked and covered in mud up past her ankles and she shivered as she leaned against the crumbling plaster wall, fingering a string of turquoise beads. She crossed her breast in prayer and muttered something unintelligible beneath her breath.
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