The ground started shaking as my drink shot out of its glass towards the ceiling.
Mary, wearing a red dress, is now drenched in a martini of her own. Her eyes look terrified although she seems to be familiar with the feeling.
“Don’t worry about it,” she says as my eyes dart around for clues as to what happened. “I’ll be back.” She heads to the washroom as I catch a glimpse of her stunning figure hugged by the red dress drenched in her drink. As she disappears, I look out the window. Where the sky once stood clear is now clouded with despair, and the moon hides away. Who is she? What just happened? Questions run through my head as she heads back from the washroom.
“May I ask what just happened?”
“It happens, but don’t worry about it, I’m used to this.”
“I don’t think that gives me an explanation.”
“I’m sorry I can’t tell you right now, but I will soon.”
Time flies as we talk for hours and connect as we both share our interests in the bar. The moon starts to peek out of the clouds that were holding it behind as we walk the streets of Vienna. Lightning shoots across the sky.
“Uhm…. I think it will rain soon.”
“I don’t think so….” she whispers. “SHH…He’s listening.”
Wait, what? I thought. What is she hiding? Who is she talking about? Who is this mysterious “he”? As my thought finishes, lightning hits the ground a foot from my feet.
“RUN,” she yells. We run through the streets, her leading me. Her heel slips out of her red sandal every time her foot hits the pavement, and I notice Greek inscriptions on the back of her heel in gold, almost shining as if they are alive. So much for my Greek class in college; I only understand the part which says, “Mother of all gods.” Thoughts run through my head while my legs run through the streets, and we come to a sudden halt.
She looks back at me, tears in her eyes. “I’m sorry, I didn’t know what to do. I thought I was free, I thought I could be with someone ordinary, but he follows me around.” Her words stab through my heart, my head spinning.
“What are you talking about?”
The words barely leave my mouth, and the sky cracks open with another colossal streak of lightning that cuts into the lake in front of us, crashing through the water. A shining man with a golden complexion levitates above the water, holding a lightning rod in one hand and wearing a crown. At first, I thought she took me to a magic show, but the lightning rod in his hand seems too real to be a prop.
“Why do you always do this, my beloved wife...?” HE ROARS.