SD:H The Storm

The stars begin going out. It shocks me back into this place, her arm still intertwined with my own. I look up at the sky to see the gathering storm and breathe a sigh of relief, just a bit of clouds, nothing world altering. The fireworks are now coupled with lightning for but a moment and then lightning is all that lights the sky, the other observers all having disappeared in the first flashes.  Thunder shakes the foundations of things. I look up expectantly, "I can't remember the last time it rained, but I remember well the last time I remember the rain." Rain came pouring down and she pulls on me "yeah, me too. Let's go!"

We run back to the car, this time I'm driving, which seems like a poor choice under the circumstances, but we do not have time again to fiddle about. I turn on the headlights and for one still moment in time it is as though each raindrop is a reflection of itself, all around dazzling the night sky, before light behaves normally once more. I recall the hurricane at the dinner party as I start the car "don't worry," she says "that part is done, the door has been held and holds still."  I turn the car around and we drive through the woods at a pace just balanced between caution under the conditions and expediency to avoid staying exposed for too long. I know a place we will be safe and warm, and I know the way, and I know it's close. A few white knuckled minutes through the woods and we make our way out onto the highway. The highway graciously provides a shortcut and one more dirt road later we have arrived.

We jump out of the car in the carport and begin to circle the house to the front door. She grabs my hand in the one location where we are still getting drenched between carport and overhang. "Promise you'll never leave again." My mind flashes back to the night we were in the storm and she was absent, but I found my way to her door anyway. The calculations that were made that night with her father, when her mother challenged me to remember her eyes with her gone. Looking into them now the same eternal realization echoes- I don't think I could forget them if I wanted to. "I promise. There is no place for me to go. There is no place I could find myself where I could stop searching for you. Even in the absence of will, I would whistle my way back to your front door." She kisses me, sealing the arrangement, and lighting strikes again as witness to the words, booming its agreement.

We run inside and out of our wet clothes, I start a fire and we simply watch the night sky rage, rain washing away innumerable days of misuse of this realm. We are once again alone here, once again peace coos from the silence. "Here's to after the storm." I remark with a smile in my voice. She stands and walks slowly to the piano. Sitting at the keys she begins to play, flashes return of moments similar, but ones when I listened like a ghost from the curtains. Had I ever been here in the flesh before? Or was even 'something like a dream' closer to hearing these keys strike each their own chords with my own ears than I had been before now? I remember Thanksgiving and the scavenger hunt; the awkward dates and unexpected arrivals; the improper but not rebuffed advances, the concerts, the pools; the testing tugs and tears and reinforcing threads night after night. I remember the dancing most of all, and feel like we are now sliding gracefully through the curve of the U, kept in motion if only by each beautifully out of place note she slips into the song she plays, our song, now seeping back into my memory from a dream half forgotten.

"I have had years to calculate this, blessed with centuries of foresight to cram it all into one span. One life to spark many and a flame that will never die. I have spent over 12 years now mastering my area of study. It has been only you since the moment I laid my own eyes on you, the art of knowing you through and through. Is such a thing possible separated nearly the whole time? Not only yes, but what those who kept us apart did not realize is that all the space between has been our sandbox, castles built and torn down time and again without interference. In the delay we have grown in so many ways - together and apart - that would have been impossible together alone, piling treasures so vast that now we allowed the others to pretend their countless walls and fences, as these attempted artifices are the only way the trove can all be contained. That time is at an end though, any slip will unleash a torrent, and any treasure will do the same; one more planck of wall will cause the pressure to burst, one more planck of space will unbalance and tip the dominos. So we wait to see how they choose to end their turns, once and for all." She plays the last note, it is deep, rich, luxurious, as expensive as any I've heard. I find I have been sitting by her side for some time now, was I playing in tandem at all? I'm not even sure I know how, so likely not. Still, the last note echoes familiarly, in an unfamiliar way. I hip bump her and we run upstairs laughing. Let the storm mind itself tonight, lightning still flashing all about, we have a tiny fort to build!