Empty Shoe Shine Stand Rainy Midnight Street

Wet asphalt reflects sudden streaks of white light from passing headlights that cut through the deep night shadows of an alleyway. A solitary shoe-shine stand sits abandoned at a tram stop in Oral, its polished wooden surfaces slick with late summer rain. Dramatic, heavy clouds loom overhead, their dark undersides illuminated intermittently by the fleeting beams of street traffic. Raindrops bead and roll down the metal frame of the stand, pooling in the cracks of the cobblestones. One yellow safety line on the pavement curves around the wet corner, against the grey concrete of the tram platform. The scene is silent and still, save for the glistening surfaces that catch the brief, harsh glare of a passing vehicle before plunging back into darkness.