The Essence of Water

OLD VERSION Chapter 3

              The dogs aren't in their beds. Henry hasn't made it home.

              I quickly run up the steps and into my room, I pull on my jeans and t-shirt and grab a coat from my closet. I don't wake Gretchen, maybe I should, but I feel that she would just be a hindrance rather than a help. Besides, if Henry is just down at the barn then I don't want to wake her for no reason. I slip down the stairs, not caring where the floor creaks. The thunder drowns out all the noise anyway.

              I feel around in the dark kitchen for my barn boots. When I find them I stuff them onto my feet, the boots are a little small for my feet, but I've grown used to them. I simply curl my toes and pull my hood over my head and push open the back door. The rain patters my hood as I close the door behind me. I take off at a run.

              The barn is just down the road, I cut through the backyard and side field to reach it quicker. I jump over the low wooden fence behind the barn. My hand slip and I almost fall into the mud but I catch myself just in time. My heart is pounding through the rain and lightning cracks close by. I pray I don't get struck.

              I go to the side door and push it open and step in. The tin roof sounds as though it's being riddled with bullets in the rain but its dry and warm here. The smell of hay, oats, and manure waft to my nose and I find comfort in the smell. But the barn is dark and quiet except for the occasional bleating of the sheep. I flick on the lights; both of the flocks are here. Which means Henry was successful in bringing them back, so where is he?

              I frown and turn the lights back off and go back out into the rain. I circle around the part of the barn that faces the road, being more careful when I climb fence this time. But through the rain and lighting I see that Henry's truck isn't here either. I stand on the edge of the road. I could take a right and go back home to wake Gretchen. She could call the neighbors or even the police and they could sort it out. I look to my left, or I could go to the upper field where Henry normal parks and see what's going on.  Maybe his truck broke down. Maybe he had to help another neighbor. I turn to go home when the wind picks up, throwing the hood of my coat off my head. The rain hits my skin in small stinging kisses and I struggle to get my hood back up.

              Only I stop trying. The rain, with each kiss, is singing to me...speaking to me. I hear it in my head, like a hundred different voices bundled into one message. It drips off my chin and down my back I lift my face to the sky and open my mouth.

I breathe it in and let it slip down my throat. I've never experienced rain like this, never felt so alive. And then it's here. The heightened awareness I felt in the ocean. It comes bubbling up from deep inside my stomach and flows into my fingers. I shiver with adrenaline. Lightning flashes and the world is black and white and beautiful. I see what the rain see's. I feel what it feels. The sheer unparallel freedom runs through my mind and speaks my soul. Every rain drop that hits the earth connects to my mind for just a flash of a millisecond. I see every drop everywhere. All at once I am everything, everywhere. I am not simply Adie.

"Help."

My head snaps down and look around with wide eyes. That was Henry's voice. Where is he? I can't see anything in the dark. The water shivers down my skin and off my finger tips. In some instinctive gesture I take off the jacket. It takes only moments for the water to soak my clothes.

Henry, where are you?

"Help. Someone help."  

I close my eyes. "Help me." I say to the rain, "Please help me."

I reach out. I dance with the falling rain, follow it into gutters and down ditches.

"Please...someone help me..."