Alis Volat Propriis

Two O' nine 209

The black pavement was becoming cold beneath me and the rain starting to soak my very core. I watched the water congregate and slowly make their way down the driveway. Screaming in delight like it was on a roller coaster, they screamed all the way down to the storm drain only to be swallowed by the drains thundering.
I watched a single drop race down my arm. Then another down my thigh.
Splash.
Fall.
Splash.
Fall.
Splash.
Fall.
"What are you doing out here?" Came a voice from above. Strong but gentle. And deep.
I laughed, looking up at him and the gray clouds beyond his broad shoulders. "I promise I'm not crazy," I started, "I'm learning right now."
I noticed this stranger couldn't be more than 2 years older than me as he looked up and around our drenched neighborhood in slight confusion. "Learning what? How to catch pneumonia?" He joked and smiled.
I smiled back and said "No. I'm watching the water and the drops interact with the world around it. We don't know what it's like for it to fall down to earth. So I'm trying to learn by watching it."
He has a blank look on his face.
"I promise I'm not crazy." I repeat.
"Well this sure isn't what most people do." He says finally coming out of his confused state.
"Then most people should try it." I calmly reply.
He has no reply again and just stands there watching me.
"Would you feel better if I told you I'm an artist?" I say after a minute of only the pattering rain.
He chuckles and I realize I still don't know his name but my thought is interrupted when he says, "Yea, I guess. So does that mean you're going to go back and paint this?"
"No." The driveway is starting to turn silver and reflect the sky
"So then what do you do?"
I look back up at him not knowing when my eyes strayed back to the ground and the trees. He is soaked now too. His red shirt clinging to his lean frame and cargo shorts now a shade darker then they once were.
"I've done it all." I tell him, "I've performed on stage as different people, sang to a crowd, painted my emotions poorly onto a sheet of paper and then drawn a woman on the back of a receipt. I've tried to play a handful instruments and I've written poetry while starting on a novel. I even tried to dance a few times. I'm simply an artist, And I've noticed that most artists aren't confined to one simple profession within the arts community. So again, I'm an artist and I don't know how I'll use this in my art next." 
__________
Thanks,
-donnie