The Song of the Universe

Rain splattered daintily on the rooftop where she stood. No, not stood. She never stood still. Instead, she danced. She danced on the rooftop, letting the rain trace rivers down her skin, following the rivets and dips of her body. The only music she had to dance to was the steady rhythm of the rain, dancing to its beat from the sky. That was when I first met her.

"Excuse me?" I asked tentatively. She opened her eyes, which were a hazel color, shifting in the wavering light of the thunderstorm. Her feet never stopped moving, even as she spoke.

"Can I help you?" she practically sang.

"Um, I'm not sure. I-I saw you dancing, so I-"

"Came to ask me why?" she almost had to shout over the sudden boom of thunder.

"Well, yes," I said. I wasn't even sure why I was asking that. It was the middle of the night, but I had seen her from my window before I fell asleep. I didn't know why, but I felt compelled to come and talk to her.

"Well, let me ask you a question. Why aren't you dancing?"

"Pardon?" Her feet slowed as she spun to face me.

"You heard me. Why aren't you dancing?"

"Well, I-I guess I don't know." I stammered. "I've never danced without music before." The girl laughed, which was a musical sound in itself.

"Neither have I. Music is all around us! You just have to listen." she tapped a finger to her ear, as she spun in wild sporadic circles, a long flowing skirt twirling around her like lightning itself.

"Listen to what?" I asked. She gave me an impatient look and sighed, as though informing people like me of the songs of the universe were the reason for her existence.

"Well, if I tell you, your symphony will be destroyed."

"My what?"

"Everyone hears their music. The universe has a song for everyone! If only you care enough to listen." I don't know why I didn't dismiss her as insane that night. But there was a voice in my mind that told me she was unique, and this meeting would be one I would never forget. It was right.

"Well, I've never heard my music before. But, I suppose I've never listened to either."

"Most can go their whole lives without hearing their song. I find that a sad way to live. Because whenever there is no music playing, people don't dance. And I find that life without dancing is as close to pointless as life can be." She had stopped whirling, and had begun an intricate foot movement, one that my coordination would never allow.

"Well, I don't know how to hear my song, and I'm not much of a dancer," I admitted. She laughed her musical laugh again.

"Everyone is a dancer!" she shouted to the sky, throwing her arms wide. The sky seemed to respond with a crack of lightning. She danced over to me and whispered into my ear. "And of course you can hear your song, but you just don't want to." She leaped back again, and began an odd series of hops.

"I wouldn't say I don't want to. I do. Desperately." I wasn't lying, either. I wanted to hear this music she listened to, take part in this joy that lit her face up. "I just don't know how."

"You better figure it out quickly. It's nearing its crescendo!" she shouted into the night. I strained my ears as hard as I could, and the girl laughed at me yet again. "Are you trying to listen with your ears?" she giggled.

"What else would you listen with?" I asked, perplexed.

"Ears are for the songs of mortals, like you and I. If you want to listen to the song of the universe, try listening with your heart." she tapped him on the chest, and the sudden gesture made him jump backward. She didn't see the motion though, because she had already turned and begun a wild and spontaneous dance with her arms, as though she had decided to conduct an orchestra and had no idea how to do so.

"How do I do that? Listen with my heart, I mean."

"Don't think! Feel!" This girl was making no sense, but she looked so incredibly happy that I couldn't help but feel left out. So, I tried to feel. Feel sound. Like the way that you feel the bass of a song thudding through your bones, or the way you feel chills throughout your body when the crescendo strikes, and there's just this feeling of absolute perfection. Suddenly, the rain wasn't just rain, the howls of the wind not howls. Somehow, it formed...

"Music!" I shouted joyfully. "I hear it!" The girl took no notice, wrapped up in the power of the world's orchestra. Suddenly, her dance moves weren't so out of place. Her body tossed itself perfectly to the tune of the universe, and I understood. The song was not happy, but not sad. It was a melancholy sound, but powerful and amazing.

"What does it sound like to you?" the girl asked. I told her what I thought of the song, and she frowned. "Melancholy?" her dancing slowed again, and those eyes met mine.

"Yes, but in a powerful way. Why, what does it sound like to you?"

"To me, it is a song of joy and celebration. I hear the sound of children on Christmas morning, of people falling in love. I hear a song of life."

"I suppose I do, too. There are two sides to life, you know." The girl quirked an eyebrow, but her dance never slowed.

"Only two?"

"Well, I think so. There are the hardships of life, the challenges. But life has it's beautiful moments as well."

"So that's it? That's all there is to it?" When I nodded, she grinned wildly. "If I believed that all there was to life was ups and downs, my song would be melancholy, too."

"Well, what else would there be?" I asked, somewhat defensively.

"Everything," she said simply. She hopped up to the ledge on the rooftop, and spun precariously on slippery ground. "Life is a crystal, multi-faceted. Some facets scuffed and dirty, but if you choose to look at the bigger picture, you can see it's true beauty." She froze, and turned to face me, frowning. "If you can hear the music, then why aren't you dancing?"

"I said before, I'm not a dancer." she made a sound that might've been a growl.

"You mean to say that I have given you the greatest gift of all, and you choose not to accept it?"

"That sounds extreme. I can hear the sound of the universe!"

"And yet, you still don't dance! Yet another reason for a melancholy song."

"And what is so bad about a melancholy song?" I protested. She smiled mysteriously.

"Now, you begin to see."

"See what?" I was met with nothing but the stomping of feet, which somehow matched the rhythm of the rain. As she twirled her hair flung her crystals of life around her, adding to the song when they split against the floor. She sighed, and lowered herself atop the ledge, and began to slide.

"Be careful!" I shouted. She paid no mind to my warning, letting the rain tug her below.

"Tell me something, if you truly hear the song." I nodded, ready to catch her in case she fell. "I have given you the song of life, and you hear something melancholy. But, are you sure that you listen to the whole thing, or only what you want to hear?" Before I could respond, the rain seemed to swallow her and she vanished before my very eyes. After that night, I was unable to hear the song again. But the girl's question rang through my head, and looking back I wonder.

Was the song truly melancholy, or was that the only thing I had been trained to listen for?