After Ten Minutes the Noise Had Stopped -- Rhonda D.

The rain began with a trickle or so it seemed, because in a moment the clouds heavy and dark let loose bulleting droplets of steamy water onto the people and they were wet and angry and looking for relief in the streets. It is innate, the opposition of wills and the friction of egos rubbing violently to eliminate the other. Pain, sadness, anger, sorrow, they know no bounds and thrive in the heart of human beings. Waiting outside of her house his heart flailed in rapid beats and his chest responded in kind squeezing tightly to suffocate the pounding. And his thoughts ferociously nagged at him and he was not in control of his own self. In the infuriating heat of his own body, his arms drenched with sweat, he began to mumble out loud. He cursed his own existence and then cursed hers and then cursed her new lover’s. The car grew more suffocating as the rain blanketed it and he sat there across the street under that big oak waiting for a glimpse of her. He wanted to feel like he was a part of a scene from her life again, a life that he once lived in cozy co-existence with hers. He mumbled to himself, you are a damn fool, you never were good enough for her nor could you satisfy her. You were never man enough for her.

There they came into his view, running through the wetness, elated and overjoyed to be together. Even as the rain grew wild and streaks of light in the sky seemed perilously close. Even as the darkening night vocalized and screamed out in loud thunderous roars that seemed way out of control, there they danced and fell upon each other laughing as they slipped in the grass, and finally made it up the steps to her townhouse porch.

And so his heart was as the thunder’s, and he desired to lash out at the lovers and in that moment he felt compelled. In that instance he pushed himself from his enclosure, ran wildly through the rain and grabbed her precious lover, snatched him and fell upon him in the rain. Her screams and pleadings of mercy only fed his envious heart. In delight the night fell even darker and hid his deed as he pulled his knife from his pocket. In rage he sought to stamp out his pain. He pushed forward deeper and deeper with every plunge and as he rolled in blood he was cleansed, cleansed of all the hurt and pain of a lifetime. His demons bled out before him and he was healed and satiated. And the voices clapped and praised him and the thunder roared its approval. But after ten minutes, the noise had stopped, and the night had its sacrificial lambs and its joy. So, with all the culminating frenzy, and as the madness in the air rose to a crescendo it at once was soothed into gratified calm. It seemed that all was quiet and the night was at once bright and smiling. The rain had ceased as quickly as it came and all was still and he stood there and at once the scene in front of him came into view. The lovers lay at his feet slashed beyond recognition as if a monster had sought to devour them and he turned and raced back to his sanctuary, guilty, dirty and soiled.