Towels and flip flops were ripped from the sand quicker than I could even remove my sunglasses. Car doors slammed closed, their engines fading softly in the background. The sea was abandoned, crashing against a beach where only a handful of us remained. There were the locals, huddled below indigo blue umbrellas chatting over cold cervezas, and the two of us, trying to savor the last of my husbands cigar before the maduro wrapper grew as wet as our swimsuits. Raindrops began plummeting through the canopy of leaves we had sought shelter beneath, clumps of damp hair stuck to my cheeks and my lips grew wet with the taste of sunblock. Within moments we were weighed down with water, we looked at each other and tossed our towels against the tree trunk, sprinting toward the ocean.
Contrary to my expectations, the ebb and flow of the tide calmed with the darkening sky. The water enveloped me, as warm as a glass of iced tea left for hours in the July sun. I was waist deep, arms outstretched, fingers dancing gently within the waves of the surface, overcome with tranquility I spun within the water, it was absolute bliss. Raindrops melted into my skin and water splashed around my hands as my body made a circle against the tide. I was weightless. I was intertwined with the sea. Lightning pierced through the clouds and with a single clap of thunder the rainfall quickened.
The wind sprayed salt water across my back and the rain soaked into my shoulders. Time stood still. Standing there, our bodies moving with the pull of the ocean in a torrential downpour, this is a moment I will look back on for the rest of my life. I may never find the right words to describe to you the sound of the sky falling into the sea that day, but I won't stop trying. The rain traced a song upon my skin, a melody more pure and rhythmic than any sound I have ever heard, it’s become the song playing on repeat, the lyrics I can’t get out of my head.
The waves softened like silk beneath the weight of the rain and there we were, the sky pouring into the sea, into us. I glanced to the left and my eyes met Sam’s, he smiled and the most honest of laughs escaped my lips as we tilted our heads again toward the sky. Thunder shook through the trees and the black clouds above us flickered with lightning as we made our way toward the sand. If every one of my memories were taken from me in an instant, I have no question that my body could recall this moment. My skin has memorized the sensation and my ears will always remember the sound, this moment is ingrained in me, it is a part of me.
We joined a group of locals under their nearby tent to watch the storm pass, sitting on a fallen tree amongst a pile of surfboards with cold cervezas in our hands. Finally the clouds began to separate and the sand grew bright again beneath our feet. Cars appeared from the winding dirt road and multicolored towels once again peppered the beach, but the moment that everyone had fled from lingered. I closed my eyes and replayed the storm, feeling lighter as I inhaled. It was as if what we experienced here was a gift, a secret almost. Dozens of people surrounded us now, soaking up the sun and swimming the exact spot we had stood just moments before, unknowing.