Rain
It was raining in Sweet Water but it does that a lot. If you’ve lived here for more than a year, it simply doesn’t matter anymore. It’s not that we don’t like it or anything; it’s just that after awhile the novelty of seeing lightning streak across my room has been worn thin and it extracts the same excitement as changing a light bulb. Sweet water is the town all your friends say they’re going to leave when they grow up, but truth is, they probably won’t. They get married, get pregnant, whatever. It’s the town you see on a trip to a big city, the only town with real restaurants and people that look like they have a pie in the window. At first it all looks fake; it looks like cardboard and really good actor, some documentary on the lost innocence of America. It seems too good to be true, with grandma’s baking cookies and people dance in the rain. It’s a dry county, too, because in a place like this, the last thing teenagers or bored husbands need is a reason to get drunk. 3
It’s one of those cold afternoons that you check your Myspace a billion times to see if that girl you have a crush on has broken up with her boyfriend. Sweet Water is like that, boring and with nothing out of the ordinary. It’s one of those cookie cutter places where everyone follows the speed limit and smiles back. Lying here, on this bed, my skin feels like taut elastic, pulled to a breaking point. Every car that passes by feels like the ticking of a clock and I can hear my heart in my ears. Sweet Water is killing me. “Let’s get out of this house.” It’s not a suggestion, it’s a command. We hit the ground running, the rain on our backs. For awhile, it doesn’t even seem like the rain is hitting us anymore, like we’re so fast it can’t catch us. Somewhere, Einstein is rolling in his grave. The trees aren’t clean anymore, they aren’t separate entities, and they’re this blur of green and brown, this spattered mess of a druggy’s mind. Before seconds pass my feet aren’t touching the ground anymore and I feel like a liquid seed, filtering through all the jumble of the forest and life. The speed relaxes and suddenly everything is in that extreme focus one feels after a heavy sleep, every sound is amplified, every color, saturated. Rain pours down her face and she looks young and innocent, those blue eyes holding the ocean. 4
The sky cracks open again and Zeus’ anger streaks brilliantly across the darkness. “I need to get away.” I say, dipping my fingers into the shallow pools of rain. “I’ve had enough of that damn town.” She doesn’t say anything but I feel her head on my shoulder, her hand in my hand, the warmth of her strange against the chilled rain. “I don’t get it,” Another bolt of light flashes through the clouds, a stellar game of chase. I breathe in and I feel the weight of the world on my shoulders. Wet strands of hair cling to her face and those blue eyes match mine, holding an encounter.5
“You just have to learn to deal with it.” The fabric of her clothing clings to her like fresh skin, that beautiful torso on display. “I know it’s not fun, but it’s better than living in a vampire invested hovel.” She pulls herself to her feet, dancing in the rain, holding her breath and raising her hands to God. She dances around me like a prism, colors warping beside her. Even now, after that run, I feel my skin tight and my nerves bust against my muscles. 6
“I don’t want to talk about it anymore…” I inhale deeply, letting her scent of sweet rose run throughout my body, infecting my blood with her serenity. My skin goes loose for a moment, Sweet Water leaves my mind and all of my anxiety and worries flow out with the rain. I feel contorted as she sighs against me, the wet cloth heavy on my skin. It’s not the sexual type of tension; it’s her carefree heart that burns me too wildly. My lids feel heavy, hair hanging down, water sliding down my face. They feel like fingers, like tiny caresses of a woman I have yet to meet yet, with all of it, I feel like I have known her my entire life.7
Behind these lids, that angel dances in the darkness. She is overwhelming and every cell within me is supercharged and burning. She smiles and my world explodes with color, trees are brilliant and skies are blue, Sweet Water is my heaven. I open my eyes, the illusion of the moment distorting the surround nature. The rain gives and the clouds break-free, the sun giving a new light to all the leaves, now glistening with that rain drops. All the tightness and discomfort of the moment leaks out. I allow myself fall into that sweet darkness of distortion, this dimension like perfection with her and her angel's smile 8
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