Day 5 word count and...

They reached the library and grabbed a table near the window, where they could watch the people in the rain and feel smug that they were in the warm and dry. Josh excused himself after they had ordered coffee, and so Julia and Emily sat with their hands wrapped around their vanilla lattes in an amicable exhausted silence. Weighed down with the day’s purchases, the hills that made up the city had been even more strenuous than usual.

The cafe was quiet. It was a Thursday afternoon, and most people had either just finished their lunch break and were on their way back to work, or else were sheltering somewhere else from the rain. English weather annoyed Julia. She hated the non-colour of the sky on overcast days and the feeling that the atmosphere itself was pressing down on them, forcing them into smaller and smaller shapes they didn’t want to take on.

The only other people in the cafe were an elderly couple, both reading large print books while sipping at their respective drinks. Julia smiled as she saw them, the normality and contentment of their life was tangible; it hung in the air around them like a mist, not obscuring other peoples’ views, but complementing the scene they saw.

On the way to the park, I switched on my cell phone and was greeted only a
few moments later by its ringing. I never managed to set up the thing to
ring differently for different people sho I had absolutely no idea who
called. I ponered just ignoring it, but it could have been a call from one
of the members of the group. I sighed and answered the call. ``Karin
Greenville?''

``Saluton Karin, kial vi ne respondis hiera\v{u}? Mi penis telefoni vin
multega da fojoj.'' I recgnized the voice but I had no idea what was said.
The voice belonged to Grace, one of my best friends, despite occasionally
being excessively na\"{\i}ve.

``Hi Grace. I can't understand a word of what you're saying!'' I said into
the phone, despite the futility of it.

``La konektilo ne estas tre bona. \^{C}u vi eblas rediri \^{g}in?''

``This is of no use, sorry, Grace!'' I hung up. Doing so felt like leaving
her behind even though it of course could be an only temporary separation.
Actually: the right transmission of a videomessage could bring her onto the
same side of the language barrier I was on. This thought gave me an idea. I
would have to find the exact cause of the change and have it ready. This
would make it so much easier to spread the message of the divine language.
I knew that it would be hard to explain to others why this was of highest
importance, but I knew that there were people on my side. I imagined their
faces and their voices as well as their names when I could. The side who
would opposse it, come what may were mostly my brother and people who
subscribed to his deranged atheist viewpoint. I mean, I used to be as near
to atheism as I could come without actually caring. But to keep the argument
of the lack of evidence up despite not only having experienced one, but
being affected by it and sufering from its consequences and insisting on
retaining atheist beliefs was just ridiculous. What more did they need?
Others found some way to integrate the happening with their previous
religious beliefs, meaning mainly Christianity though one of the youngsters
was a Buddhist. They had no consistent explanation but apparently, someone
related the change with the glossolalia of the first pentecost. To me this
was not comparing apples to oranges, but to compare apples to toothpaste or
barbed wire. How could they even compare these uncomparable things? It
sounded like complete and utter insanity to me, like the absence of reason.