A LUCILIUS PARABLE: RAIN GAIN

February 14th, 2021

Lucilius smiled, and sighed.  He’d just figured out a crucial component of a project he was working on, and as he basked in that content sense of accomplishment, his gaze focused and the current time suddenly became readable.  His smile dropped.

“Oh crap,” he stated.  He realized he was running late for work.  He stood up and looked around in a flurry of thought.  He’d have to take a shower at work, he figured, but calculating the time left again, he realized there wasn’t time for that either.  

There was only enough time to hoof it on a bicycle to make it on time.  Lucilius absolutely hated commuting and for that reason he’d made sure he lived close to work.  

He hadn’t done laundry either, he realized, and now he was really getting irritated. He briefly huffed a sarcastic laugh at the idea that such petty and stupid details were combining to create such grief.

He reassessed and grabbed yesterday’s clothes and sniffed them.  They were fine, they’d have to do, he figured.  He dressed, grabbed his bike down from it’s ceiling hooks and opened his door.

“Just enough time,” he muttered to himself as he saddled the bike and stepped a pedal to start, but then it hit him right on the shoulder.

A drop.  He looked at the wet spot and then looked up, realizing how tense and warm the air smelled as the rain began.

He retreated back through the door and watched as the summer rain suddenly filled the air.  Lucilius closed his eyes with mounting frustration.  Calling a cab would take too long, especially now with the rain, everyone would be hailing cabs.  He suddenly hated his job, his projects always getting squeezed around it’s blocky, greedy schedule, disembowelling his days of time, over and over.  A sense of embarrassment started to heat up his face, realizing how tedious this whole process was, how moronic it felt to be trapped in such a dumb puzzle of circumstance.

He breathed in, and for just the slightest sliver of time he couldn’t resist enjoying the smell of that summer rain.  

Then Lucilius eye’s brightened, searching rapidly from side to side for a moment.  He let out a genuine laugh, leaning the bike against the door frame.  He ran into the bathroom, grabbed a towel, then he took off his clothes, wrapped them in the towel and stuffed all of it into a backpack.  Then he opened one of his dresser drawers and pulled out a pair of swim shorts.    Next to them were some goggles he used at the pool.

“Why not?” He muttered.

He put on the swim shorts, the googles, and slung the backpack around his shoulders and went back out into the rain with his bike.  He smiled, looking up, feeling the hot rain on his face and smiled. 

Seems like he’d still get his shower after all, he thought, as he rode off into the rain.