A Little Night Imagery

The steely streaks of cold rain were jabbing down the neck of her coat like splinters of ice. Hunching her shoulders up to her ears, she ran a little faster - not much; her heels wouldn't allow it.

"Oh, the hell with it," she growled, and stopped to kick them off. Just those few seconds allowed another wall of rain to sluice down her neck and back.

"Dammit!" she muttered, then, shoes in hand, she began to run in earnest.

She wove among the multitude of suddenly slower strangers blocking her way - each one a sodden pillar of anonymnity looming out of the downpour. Her bare feet slapped the pavement, splashing the puddles up around her knees, onto the people she passed. Heat began to build in her body and the icy rain lost its edge as her breath began to come a little harder, filling her lungs with a cleansing burn. God, how long had it been since she'd run like this? Years. Since she was just a kid. She'd forgotten how free she felt when running flat out - almost like flying. Her lungs hurt, but her legs felt too good to stop.

A large black shape loomed on her left, then moved over her head, and the rain's tune suddenly changed from splattering shower to hollow thrumming. She chanced a quick sidelong glance and saw a pair of eyes looking into her own - deep, dark, almost black, and sparkling with a secret mirth. She turned her face quickly forward to hide an answering grin, and ran on. The umbrella easily kept pace.

One block to her building. One block to think about how this could play out. But maybe he'd disappear before then. Maybe. Something in his eyes, though, made her think not.

Just ahead, a large puddle beckoned and before she'd had time to really think about it, she'd jumped in with both feet at once, soaking no less than 6 passersby with a spectacular wall of water. Dirty looks lasered toward her from all sides. Someone muttered "Crazy Bitch!" But another man stopped dead, sucked in by her gay abandon, wistfully watching this free spirit as she ran on and became lost in the crowd.

Her building loomed ahead now, and a good thing, too, because soon she might not be able to breathe anymore. And yet her self-appointed protector still ran beside her, seemingly effortlessly. She smiled a little secret half-smile to herself. Well, why not?

to be continued. . .