Houses of red, yellow, green, and blue...

[One day I will return.]

Where the land becomes the coast, the place where the two great forces of nature meet; mountain and sea. There, the waves sing a song that is mournful and true. There the rocks hide stories of years past that no one ever speaks.  Shadowed houses of red, yellow, green, and blue rise out of the cliffs and between them stone roads twist and turn. Up, up, up. At dawn, the bell in the watch tower chimes, telling all to wake. The gulls join in with their screeching cry. 

Slowly an old man hobbles past the fountain, as he does every morning, to the Panaderia for his tea and pastry. He used to order coffee, but to please his wife he drinks tea now. She worries for his nerves. Some days, when she goes to the city to visit her sister, he orders coffee because she won't smell it on his breath. She pretends to not know.

The delivery boy rides his bike and waves as he passes the old man at his table in the sun. He always takes the long way on his deliveries because he says he is training for le Tour de France. He's been training for four years. Jorge, the delivery manager is always says he is going to fire the boy if he is late one more time, but everyone knows he never will because he has no other delivery boys and if he did he would have to make the deliveries himself. 

The fish monger in the market argues with Palo, the head chef at El Patio, about the price of fish as the fishermen unload the morning's catch. The flopping mackerel shimmer in the new sunlight as they are pulled from the nets. 

The square begins to buzz as the women come to purchase food to fill their pantries for the week. Children laugh while playing tag between the stalls as they hurry to school. Their shirts already dirty and their hair flying in every direction.

The bustle of life being lived begins again as the sun warms the stones and the dawn becomes the day...