You are standing in the rain, waiting. That is, in the story I tell myself, you are waiting. I don’t know what you are really doing. Maybe you are smelling it. It is a temperate rain and I think it smells tropical, but my imagination is too easily influenced. I know this is the remnant of a tropical storm. The clouds originated over the sea south of Cuba, hopped over Virginia and New York. Our rain usually comes from the west, or from the north-east, cold and terrible. But in this weather a body can easily warm the water that soaks through. Still, you are dressed for it much better than I.
I want to give you something. This seems important. A mint canister is lying in the gutter. The cover image is of a girl with a rabbit and it looks too old, like a ghost from 1932 has dropped it. I pick it up and scrub it with rainwater and a finger. I pop its dents back out, but anyone can see where it was dented. Still, it opens and closes well. Now it just needs something to keep inside. I pick up a curl of hopeful red plastic to deposit.
You brush away a lock of wet hair that has stuck to your cheek. You say thank-you and seem to mean it. The drops are heavy. When I am around the corner, I close my eyes and lift my face into the rain. My heart is pounding.
The next time I see you, I offer you a chain of paperclips. When it is sunny I will gather twigs and wrap them in twine. But it has been raining for weeks. I am sure you are standing in it today, you always are. So before I find you, I gather pennies from the sidewalk. I am sure no one would throw them away if they weren’t denominated to be worth so little. The shiniest I find was minted in nineteen eighty-five. I give it to you with the promise it will reflect a disk of light onto your cheek once the rain has cleared.
God this is one of the most beautiful things I have ever read.
I agree with Nic
Gorgeous.
The rain makes everything perfect.
Yeah. I love the rain too! :D Gray skies are my favorite. The coolness of the day and the lucid dark day just fades away. I think I see myself in this post.
I’m so lovesick.. :P
Just reading this as the rain is pouring down in Scotland. It’s very beautiful, well written.
I see you’ve edited these! I hand copied many of them into my notebook when they were first posted. The revisions are interesting.
I thought I’d point out to new readers that all of the comments preceding mine are responding to the original version.