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She stood on the balcony watching the somber clouds gather in the distance like a dark miasma of despair coming to eulogize her-that-once-was and baptize the her-that-is-now. The air was dense and the winds whirled ferally along the tree tops, anticipating the approaching downpour. There was movement behind her and she could feel those keen eyes penetrating her flesh, digging deeper than any doctor's knife could into a secret space that no other could see into.
"Where are you?" he inquired solemnly.
"In those storm clouds."
She could feel rather than hear the question that was to come.
"I like the rain," she answered. "It is the element of lonliness. The water is kidnapped from its home, forced to mingle and mix with foreign water, connecting it to places it has never seen. Then it is dragged where ever the wind takes it; clouds littering their paths with a medley of sky juice. This of course is not what makes the rain so desolate, it is the fall that does. As it plunges to the earth, the water is parted into small drops, no longer part of a whole source. Until it dies as rain and is reincarnated as a new form, absorbed into a new body of water or living creature, the rain drops are isolated as they descend."
"So why do you like the rain?"
"When it falls, I like to catch it, absorb it, so that for a time, it is not so lonely. We merge together so that neither of us is companionless anymore. I like to share my sorrow with each drop so that it washes away the pain of involuntary solidarity...it makes me happy for awhile."
"The rain is not your only companion though. Even when your friends are not around, there are others that would listen to your sorrow aside from the rain."
"No, there isn't. Words spoken to those would fall on deaf ears. The rain is real to me, they are not. I cannot touch or feel them as I do the rain. There is no comfort to be found down that path."
"Do you belief in nothing then?" he quibbled.
"What a horrible thing to say," she remarked nonchalant. "I belief in the warmth of the sun and the sweet light of the moon. I belief in the plants that nurish and the water that sustains. I belief in life. Is that not enough?"
"No, what happens after life?"
"Nothing, just uninterrupted sleep after a long battle."
"Such dark thoughts," he stated.
"They are not dark," she argued indignantly. "Why should there be anything more than this? Are you so selfish that you cling to another existence that you hope is true while ignoring the splendor of this one, which is real. Why can you not enjoy this life for what it is worth? Do you think a dog or a cat wishes for an afterlife? Or to be reincarnated? No, it makes the best of this life and lives it as well as it can. Besides, I do not think I could endure the thought of an immortal life, even in some paradise."
"What about reincarnation?"
"My existence, in a sense, will endure rather than be reincarnated. My ashes will give vitality to a plant, which will be eaten be an animal to sustain it, and I will be part of that animal and it's progeny or any predator that consumes it. The world is made up of endless cycles that I will forever be a part of."
"Why are you so content with such an absolute end?" he implored desperately as if wanting her to submit to his philosophies rather than accept the reasoning of her own.
"Because there is no such thing as an absolute end. And you call me dark." she commented off-handedly. "The fact is I enjoy my current existence and see no reason why I deserve more than any other living creature. Life is my patron provider and nature is my matron sustainer, because of them I can savor the beauty of this world consciously before returning to the basic state in which we all began. Why can't you appreciate what you are instead of wishing to become greater than this life?"
To that, he had no response. As if to fill the awkward silence, it began to rain.
