It was a rainy summer's evening in New Orleans. The rain was heavy, drenching all that was beneath in but a few seconds. Thunder rolled up above, and lightning danced across the sky, lighting the world in fitful, ecstatic bursts, and occasionally a gust of wind would toss a flurry of leaves into the air. In short, it was a beautiful night. At least I thought so. The downpour came after a hot and muggy day...one of those days you can actually see the clouds forming...in fact now, you could see the occasional wisp of steam rolling along cobblestone pavements, as well as coming down off the roofs. The water came down in thick sheets, the brief gusts of wind making umbrellas and other shelters all but useless. It didn't stop people from trying though, much to my amusement. Men ran by with soggy newspapers or with briefcases above their heads as a semblance of protection. Almost everyone scowled at me as I walked along the sidewalks, seemingly against the hurrying, dodging crowd. I was in heaven. I loved this weather, I couldn't understand why others ran from it. My T-shirt clung to my tall, wiry frame, as did my jeans, and my light brown hair was plastered to my head (looking much darker because wet), but I wouldn't have had it any other way. My glasses had small droplets covering them, but I didn't mind as the water ran off them as quickly as it poured down. The clowns who ran by me somehow seemed aggravated that I didn't seek shelter like the rest of them. But even if I hadn't liked the weather, I would not have been hiding under any newspapers. The damage was done (if you called it that) with the first sky burst. What would a newspaper do? Watching their antics was almost as amusing as the weather was invigorating. I hopped a little as I headed down the street, and twirled a bit as I looked up, and opened my mouth to taste the rain. If there was any acid coming through, I couldn't taste it, rain always tasted clean to me, better than any bottled water.
I had no particular destination in mind when I left the coffee shop, I simply had known that exposed to the elements was where I wanted to be. I wanted to feel the rain, and the chill of an occasional gust of wind. I even enjoyed the occasional wet slap of a leaf tossed at my face by the wind. If I could have whistled, I would have. However, overly wet lips don't tend to whistle. Humming, however, was fair game.
The park proved to be my destination, and for a moment I could see why, possibly, others might be uneasy and frightened by weather like this. The darkness of the woods was most definitely uninviting, if it weren't for the occasional flash of lightning, the shadows might have made me avoid it. I wandered in, and was slapped by a sudden gust of wind, seemingly funnelled through the trees...I shivered involuntarily a moment, and seriously considered simply turning back the way I came...but then, suddenly, a following wind came through, and seemed almost to caress me, rather than buffet. I stood there a moment, wondering if it was my imagination...in the breeze I had caught a whiff of jasmine, or lilac. Storms always energised me, filled me with a portion of the energy which whipped the clouds about, or persuaded them to give us light-shows. However, in that moment, I felt that a more potent magic was at work, drawing me on...
The darkness lit often with flashes of lightning, and thunder rolled above. I marvelled at the shadows, eerie and dancing in the intermittent light, and was glad of my choice. The statues in the park seemed alive, as did the trees. Eyes appeared and disappeared, the lightning revealing occasionally the sources, a bedraggled and wet owl, a crow, a raccoon or skunk. Despite the rainy weather, I saw more animals than on a sunny day, and I wondered what kept them out, when most would be more happy in a hole somewhere...they seemed almost to be keeping a vigil.
That was when I saw her, a blue silhouette, at first, twirling up ahead in the distance. I blinked, wondering if I'd seen anything at all as she slipped behind a tree and disappeared. Then I saw the apparition again. It was a woman, without mistake. Her curves were perfect, and she moved with cat-like suppleness. She was without a doubt the most ravishing creature I'd ever seen. I found myself moving to the nearest statue, a large rendition of a Greek muse, not because I necessarily wished to be unseen, but rather because my knees had gone weak. She appeared human, but on this night, I felt certain she couldn't be. She was a goddess, and I was rapt, completely enchanted. Like Actaeon, I was unable to look away, certain that I was a doomed man for interloping in Diana's grove.
She was a goddess in my eyes, to be sure. Her skin was a soft golden bronze, and her eyes a bewitching dark brown, almost black in the flash of lightning that lit her dancing form. Her hair was plastered to her back, as she moved, dark chestnut brown, and the blue I had seen was her sundress, plastered too, like a second skin. She strutted, danced softly, and sensually, occasionally pirouetting as a roll of thunder echoed overhead... her nipples, hard from the chill but still comfortable rain, jutted out as if daring anyone to look, or perhaps, daring anyone to look away. Her eyes slanted slightly, making me wonder if perhaps indeed I had found an elf or a nymph of the forest... Her ears were covered by dark strands of soaked hair, so I could not see if they were pointed, but she seemed entirely too much a magical being for me to seek out a mundane explanation. Her lips were soft and full, and I licked the rain from my lips, wishing nothing more than to taste them, knowing they'd quench my current thirst better than any liquid, even this sweet rain.
