As they passed one chamber which led to a vent Above,
they could hear a low rumble far away. Vincent looked down
at her.
"Thunder. Samantha's rain must be coming back."
"Good. I like to walk in the rain."
He released her hand and slid his arm across her shoulders. After a moment he murmured, "I have walked out in rain..."
"...and back in rain." She leaned against him. "I think you would have had a friend in Robert Frost." She paused, "Vincent, if we can't have the balcony...we will make a place. Below the basement. Our own place... where we can be together. We can make it almost the same."
"Without the stars."
"I can live without the stars, but I don't want to live without you."
They reached the entrance, and Vincent touched the lock release.
As the door slid open, Catherine slipped
his cloak from her
shoulders and handed it back to him. "Will I see you
soon?"
He nodded. "I will get word to you." He swung the gate open for her.
She smiled with her lips, but it did not show in her eyes. "Goodbye."
She walked a few steps, then his voice stopped her, "Catherine."
She looked back.
"Thank you."
With a nod, she smiled again and left him.
***
Vincent pulled his cloak over his shoulders and
watched Catherine walk away. He could smell rain in the air as a
cold draft whirled around the corners of the pipe. Outside
he heard the wind moaning in the trees and again the rumble
of thunder. He thought for a moment
of calling Catherine back, but she had already
passed beyond hearing. He watched the opening for a moment, then
turned to walk into the Tunnel. He closed the panel behind him and
had gone a short distance when suddenly he had the simultaneous
sensations of an explosion Above and a shock of fear from Catherine.
He whirled and ran back to the gate and out into
the drainage pipe. The storm had broken without
warning in an unexpected fury. Another bolt of lightning sounded
somewhere very near as the wind whipped into a gale force.
Vincent hesitated only a moment, and then he was in the rain trying to locate Catherine. Her fear still vibrated in his mind as he ran up the ditch and out into the open space beyond. She could not have gone far, and wherever she was, she was afraid. The trees above him whipped violently in the wind. Somewhere he heard a large branch rip loose and fall to the ground. Then the rain began to fall in great driving sheets which were caught in the roar of the wind and threatened to take the breath from him. "Catherine!" Her name was ripped from him and lost in the wind.
At the top of the rise he halted and tried to make contact with her. Above the path which she must have taken was an outcropping of boulders where children played. He knew the spot from his own childhood, and he remembered the shallow cave among the rocks. If Catherine knew of the place... He ran up a wooded shortcut which brought him to the top of a rise directly across a wide ravine from the cave. As he reached the crest, he suddenly felt the relief of Catherine's fears. The anxiety she had felt was replaced by an awed wonder, and she was no longer afraid. With the next arc of lightning he looked toward the cave in the distance, and he knew she was there, tucked safely under the overhang, out of the rain and wind. He also knew she had seen him at the top of the rise. All sense of emergency left him, and he stood motionless in the wild rage of the gale. Catherine was safe, and for the first time he became aware of the majesty of the storm about him. Only feet away from him a small tree bent double in the wind and snapped at the base, sending branches swirling and thrashing.
Suddenly all the energy he had given to Catherine's search was redirected and focused upon the forces which tore at his cloak and whipped through his hair. He froze upon the spot, his feet planted far apart and braced against the storm. Exhilaration flooded his being, and he lifted his face into the fury of the skies. As if in response, a great bolt of lightning ripped the sky and tore into a tree only yards way, shooting shards of burning bark and wood in all directions. Vincent lifted his arms far apart as if he would reach for the corners of the earth itself, and, in answer to the thunder, his throat issued a primordial roar which echoed across the valley and beyond the rocks where Catherine hid. It was the cry of a being too long bound and caged...as it breaks free and claims the freedom which is its right.
Catherine watched from her shelter in fascination and horror. The lightning was so near, and Vincent was challenging the forces of nature itself. In the bursts of light he looked like some ancient god appealing to the tempest, controlling the skies with his will. She wanted to run to him and pull him into her shelter, but in the next blaze of light she could see his face, and she knew this was a battle not between Vincent and the storm, but between Vincent and himself.
The skies suddenly opened in thick blinding curtains of rain which obscured everything. The downpour freed the storm of its anger, allowing the lightning and wind to pass as quickly as they had come. Daring to leave her shelter, Catherine dashed into the deluge. Water streamed down her face making breathing difficult as she ran through the mud and debris, losing both her shoes. Nothing mattered except the cloaked figure in the darkness before her. And then he was there, mighty and unyielding in his stance. "Vincent!" She threw herself against him, burying her face in his vest. His chest rose and fell heavily, his body tense and rigid against her.
For long moments he did not respond, but then his voice cut through the pounding rain. "Catherine, did you feel it?"
"Vincent, you could have been killed!" Gasping, she pushed her wet hair out of her eyes as she looked up at him.
He shook his head. "Power...and freedom."
"I was so frightened!" She held him more tightly, relieved to feel his arms come around her.
"Catherine, I was free." The words were spoken like a prayer.
By the light of a distant flash of lightning she glimpsed his face. Glittering with joy, strength, and a triumphant abandonment, his eyes startled her. His lips parted in an exultant expresssion, and he whispered, "I was...free."
Feeling disturbed and strangely apprehensive, Catherine lowered her face and breathed against the security of his broad chest. Something in the storm had transformed him, giving him a radiance and force which was overwhelming. He was so beautiful..., but something in her heart trembled with a new fear.
Slowly Vincent's chin came down to rest upon her hair, and he brought his sodden cloak around her chilled body to enclose them both. In the protection of his embrace she found it easier to breathe.
"Are you all right?" he asked. She nodded, grateful his voice sounded familiar again.
Looking down at her mud-spattered bare feet, he bent without a word and lifted her. Completely encased in his arms and his cloak, she closed her eyes and pressed herself against the wet warmth of his body.
Unable to see where they were going, she clung to him, savoring his nearness, while she tried to suppress an uneasy feeling of foreboding. Vincent was Above, for the first time in two months. He had told her he was "free", but she could not help wondering what this new found freedom would mean to them both.
Carrying her effortlessly through the rain, he walked down the rise and through the trees to the edge of the park. Traffic was almost nonexistent on the street in front of her apartment building, and he moved easily into the alley. In the shelter of a service entrance he stopped. "Catherine, I can take you no further." He put her down, and she looked to see where they were. Voices came from the other side of the door, and Vincent pulled his hood over his head. "I must go."
"I know." Her mind was full of questions, but she knew Vincent did not yet have the answers. "Will I still see you soon?"
He nodded. "I will send for you." The voices grew nearer, and Vincent stepped into the shadows. Catherine looked toward the sounds, and when she turned again she could barely see his back retreating in the dark rain.