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It couldn’t rain today. The clouds were white and clearly defined; the breeze, paper dry yet strong enough to make the leaves flutter, like a million butterflies trying uselessly to detach themselves. The lake sat by me, deftly weaving rays of sunlight into a plethora of abstract patterns like she were doing the world a favor.

I had been there for hours now, gazing at her; at her conviction on doing something that would come to no effect with such intensity, day in and day out. And she had been weaving all the while; blissfully unaware of the power I exercised on her this very moment, of what I could do to her – if I wanted to. At long last, I flipped a pebble into the lake and watched as the ripples spread out.

I smiled, amused, as she struggled with this new found disturbance to her tender equilibrium. A startled bird skidded out of her nest and then settled on a neighboring branch, alert. I turned back to the lake; she looked almost impregnable – all I could see was a distorted reflection of the skies – and yet there was a vulnerability, somewhere beneath that tacit surface.

Was she startled at me, at herself, I wondered. Was she staring back at me indignantly – in shock of sudden betrayal? Or was she titillated, excited at the change I was invoking in her uneventful existence; Perhaps both?

Or had she suddenly wondered if she was growing into an ocean, her waves swishing about wildly, crashing down on the shores that held her – restricted her – for years now. Had she begun to believe that she was free at last to respond to the voice of the wind with ardor? Was I doing her a favor by letting her feel something she could never experience or was I making her yearn for something she would wait for with all her heart – and never have.

Slowly, the ripples settled and she grew silent. Calm and Thoughtful; or disappointed, heartbroken; I wouldn’t know. All I did know was that she looked beautiful – just the way she was. Calm and serene – reflecting, traveling within with no sign whatsoever on the surface. Letting that sheath of green moss gain over her like forest fire like she knew nothing could do anything but add to her grace. I looked down at the coin that had been glittering through slits here and there in my clenched palm.

As I tossed it into the shimmering lake, I looked up and let the rain absorb her silence – and mine.