Liquid Sky PV Stelle

Stelle's remained motionless for a few seconds, her breath still ragged from running. The wind continued to tangle her golden curls, and the rain fell with an almost poetic obstinacy, soaking her already heavy uniform. Yet none of that seemed to matter in the face of the spectacle unfolding before her eyes. The lake was not the same one she had known under the sun. It was a different creature. The waves breathed like the chest of a sleeping giant, and the water seemed to swallow the sky in an immense watercolor of grays and silver. Each flash of lightning illuminated that immensity for an instant, revealing mountains of water that vanished again into the curtain of rain. There was something profoundly terrifying about that beauty, a kind of loveliness that didn't ask to be understood, but rather contemplated with the reverence one gives to the ancient gods. Stelle felt her heart beat with an eerie calm.

"It's beautiful..." she whispered, almost as if afraid of breaking the spell with a voice too loud. For a moment, she forgot the cold, the mud clinging to her boots, and the long walk they had taken just to satisfy a shared curiosity. Pam's question made her chuckle softly. She turned to face her with a warm smile as a few drops of water trickled down her eyelashes.

"I think so," she said, glancing back at the rippling surface. "If I were a giant squid, I'd choose stormy days to go for a stroll. No one could see me in all that rain... and I'd have the whole lake to myself." For a moment, she imagined those enormous tentacles moving beneath the dark waters, invisible from the shore, following the rhythm of the waves as if they too were dancing with the storm. She took another step closer to where the water kissed the flooded land. The wind lifted the edge of her cape as if to push her toward the lake, but Stelle remained steady, her hands clasped behind her back, her eyes lost on that nonexistent horizon.

"You know what I like most?" she asked, without taking her eyes off the water " The lake isn't trying to be pretty today. It's not calm, nor does it reflect the sky like in fairy tales. It's raging... and yet it's still beautiful." Her words were almost immediately lost in the roar of the wind. She inhaled deeply the scent of rain and wet earth, letting the cool air fill her lungs.

"It was totally worth coming all the way here, don't you think? Even if we catch a cold for a whole week afterward. I think I'd still say yes again." And without taking her eyes off the lake, it resonated like someone who has just captured a memory they know they will cherish forever.

She let out a low laugh at the name, one of those laughs that seemed to escape her before she could decide whether to share it with the world. She gazed out at the vast gray expanse of the lake, trying to imagine such an ancient and colossal creature obediently responding to the name Herman. There was something deliciously absurd about it.

“Herman?” she repeated, as if she needed to check she’d heard correctly. “I don’t know what I find stranger: that the giant squid has a name, or that someone decided to call it Herman.” The idea lingered between them, almost as absurd as the storm raging around them. Stelle ran a hand through her hair to brush away some wet curls that had stuck to her cheeks. The wind insisted on pushing them back onto her face, as if it had its own opinion on how much a person must suffer trying to maintain some semblance of dignity in such a deluge. When Pam asked her to save her if she fell into the water, Stelle immediately turned to her with an expression of feigned solemnity.

“Of course. But I’ve never been a lifeguard.” The smile that accompanied those words made it clear she was joking, though she didn’t seem particularly interested in testing whether she could actually save anyone from the lake. She took a few more steps toward the shore, letting the water barely reach the tips of her shoes before stepping back slightly. There was something hypnotic about the Great Lake that afternoon, its vast, restless, and dark form. Stelle had always been fascinated by things that seemed to change their personalities depending on the circumstances. Perhaps that was why she found storms so beautiful. There was something honest about them, something intimate. They didn’t try to appear calm when they weren’t.

“I think you’re right,” she said simply, watching a wave break against the shore. The contradiction brought a smile to her face. It was easy to talk about beauty when you were standing in the rain, gazing at the lake from a safe distance. It was quite another thing to come face to face with what made the lake dangerous.

The question about living underwater made Stelle raise her eyebrows. For a few seconds, she seemed to seriously consider it, as if weighing the pros and cons of abandoning dry land forever.

“I think I’d like it,” she admitted. “Imagine having a window in your room and not a garden on the other side, but fish swimming by all day. You could wake up and see enormous creatures swimming overhead.” A particularly strong gust of wind made Stelle close her eyes and cover her face with one hand. Cold water trickled down her forehead and trickled down her neck. She was completely soaked, and yet she didn’t seem to have any intention of leaving. She remained silent for a few seconds, gazing at the ripples stretching out before them, and then, after a few seconds, Stelle glanced sideways at Pam and smiled.

“And if I wake up with a runny nose tomorrow, you owe me soup.”