Uncle Si gets his first look at Outside

Uncle Si stands below the exit sign for only a moment. He realizes this is it. He's about to see Outside for the first time since coming to Afghanistan. He leans on the door and it budges just enough to get through and as it closes behind him, he's in near complete darkness. Si had been standing for so long beneath the computer screen that any idea or sense of time he might have once had, was totally gone. It hadn't even crossed his mind until that moment that it might be dark Outside. Time had almost ceased to exist for him during the time he stood at his perch under the computer screen. The fluorescent lights in the cubicle world never turn off and he'd almost forgotten there was even a thing called darkness. 

So Si just stands there, hoping he will be able to see enough to explore. He's not about to let a little darkness slow him down. It takes a few minutes for Si's eyes to fully adjust to the absence of light, and eventually he can see pretty well. Even so, he still has to make his way carefully. There seem to be obstacles everywhere. Rocks. Cement walls.  Lumpy dirt. Roads. Barbed wire. Fences.There are lights on poles, placed here and there, that put out bright circles of light, enough to help Si see for the most part. But with the way light plays off Si's glasses, these lights also make seeing even more difficult at times.

So difficult, in fact, that he doesn't even notice, until his feel become squishy, that he's walked right into another kind of obstacle: a puddle of water and mud. 

In the very first hour of his first day Outside, Si wandered into darkness and now his boots were slowly soaking up muddy rainwater. Uncle Si remembers hearing thunder a day or two before he jumped off that desk but never had to worry until this very moment about how it can rain enough in the desert to leave patches of water for days, reflecting sun, moon and every other kind of light.

A puddle's-eye view of Uncle Si's dirty, muddy, smelly little boots.

After getting out of that mud puddle with just a couple muddy boots, Uncle Si stands next to a dusty street wondering where to go next. He's pretty sure he doesn't want to accidentally find any more puddles, though he does feel a strange enjoyment as he stomps the mud from his boots. After all, it was the first time he'd ever stumbled into a rain puddle. In the dark. Outside. In Afghanistan.