The rain stopped just as I reached the archway

I was walking back from the site, head down, and the sky had been weeping steadily for an hour. Then, at the edge of the old forum, the clouds split like a curtain—just enough to let one shaft of light hit the stone steps. For a second, everything was wet and gold. I stood there, not moving, because it felt like something should happen. But nothing did. Just the quiet after the storm, and the way the water still dripped from the cornice like it hadn’t heard the sun yet.