The city that turned black and white

The Atlas of Curiosities: Part 33

The street was black.  The air was white.

It was the middle of the city and the burning of the rice fields had started just outside of town.  Also, the cars had been moving, back and forth, since we could remember.  Now the city was black and white.

You could hear the clamour of traffic through the dreariness of the monotone city.  The building were black.  The spaces between them were white.

It sounded like the braying of animals being driven through the city.  And in some senses it was.  We had made them out of metal, but they were still beasts of burden.  The street was black.  The cars were white.

Despite the noises that crept through the gloom, other things were silenced by our altered perception.  Footsteps were silent.  The flights of birds were silent.

The footsteps were black and the birds were black Where the footsteps fell it was white.  The birds flew through white.

We looked across the river and began to cross a bridge.  The left side of the river was black.  The right was white.  We tried to discern where the sun should be.  The sun was black.  The sky was white.

The city was black. We were white.  The city was white.  We were black.  There was no color.  There was no sound.  There was just white and black.  There was smoke.  And there was silence.