(100 word challenge)

Rain. Dark night presses on windowpanes. There is the soft glow of moon through dispersing clouds.

“Are you coming to bed?”

“Soon,” she tells him. “My thoughts are restless and I am enjoying the beauty outside.”

“Don’t be long. The cats won’t settle down if you don’t come to bed.”

Five slow, deep breaths and there is peace again. Leftover rain drops dot the window. Beyond, the wind begins to lull the neighborhood to sleep.

Beauty without. Beauty within. Come what may, she will not yield to ugliness and pain. She likes the person that she is.