Rain - Flash Fiction

Miss by Wang Ling

Rain

By Emmett J Hall

“Sweetheart, it’s time.”

“Oh, I don’t know Mom.  I don’t think I’m ready,” Sue raised her wide eyes from the Harlequin Romance in her lap. She unwrapped her legs out from under her in the soft overstuffed chair, dogeared the book, and set it on the end table.  The clock showed 11:45.

Sue had hoped that reading would settle the butterflies in her stomach.  The book only helped a little.  Now it was time, her stomach felt like a gross of cocoons had dislodged their winged inhabitants, and they were bursting to get out.  

“Get your umbrella and jacket. The email said your rain will start at noon.  It will only be for an hour.”  Mom opened the closet and pulled her light fuchsia umbrella out along with a matching short jacket.

Sue took the jacket.  “Do I need to put jeans on?”

“No, Sweetie.  It’s a warm rain.  You’ll see. I remember my rain like it was yesterday.  Your father was such a brooder.  His rain was so thick I hardly could see him in the column. You’ve heard the story many times.  I’ll just let you go.” 

            Sue stood in the threshold of the townhouse facing the narrow alleyway.  The sky presented a pinkish-gray overcast high in the air as though the sun would burn it off any minute from now.  No dark threatening, moisture-laden clouds showed. 

            One step into the alley, Sue felt a drop hit her shoulder.  She snapped open her umbrella and raised it over her head.  The heavens opened, and a gentle rain fell straight in the windless alley.  Did it matter if she just kept walking or if she ducked between two buildings and took another path?  Would her soulmate still find her?  Suspecting he would, with her heart pounding, she didn’t vary and kept walking.     

~~~

Tim twisted his wrist, pulled back the sleeve to his dark leather jacket to see his watch.  11:58. He leaned his scooter against a light pole at the end of the alley that the email directed him to go to and withdrew his umbrella from the box perched on the end of his seat and pushed it open.

The instant he raised the rain-guard over his head, the rain began.  Tim was a long way down the alley before realizing he hadn’t taken his helmet and goggles off.  He meant to leave them in the box, but he spent so much time as a messenger on his scooter the protections were like a normal part of him.  Then again, he had to admit he might be a bit nervous. 

Rationally, he knew he didn’t have all that much to be jittery about.  He was studious, only two months from graduating with his Finance degree, had a job lined up to replace his part-time messenger job.  Tim considered himself good-looking if a person could get the headgear off him.  His mom accused him of showering with it on.  He took the jabbing with good spirits, although he admitted leaving life on a scooter behind didn’t bother him in the least. 

The most important chapter of his life had come.  The rain.  There was no surprise when the email came.  He expected it.  The perfect mate, a life partner to shoulder the rest of life with, was out here.  It was all a bit heady, like waiting for Christmas, knowing it was months ahead then suddenly the day was upon him.  Had he done all he could do to be ready?  He thought so, but then what could he have forgotten.  Doubt crowded out the moment.

The rain stopped.  Tim lowered his umbrella and looked up at the high overcast.  This can’t be good.  Had he, in one beat of his heart, become unworthy.  Was he letting his doubts slid him down a dark path unworthy of the perfect woman?  Way down the alley, he could see a column of rain slowly working its way toward him. 

It had to be her.  Oh, my gosh.  What am I to do?  Would she accept me without my rain? I will soon find out.  Tim couldn’t let the moment pass.  As much as he felt like turning and running back to his scooter.  He needed this woman.  She was the part of him that was to be the best part of him.  He prepared himself to be the best of husbands.  The girl deserved the best, and he was ready to be just that. 

“Here goes,” Tim muttered to himself.  He raised the umbrella again as he stepped down the alley, the rain fell on him.

Tim glanced up in his googles and whispered, “Thank you.”  All it took was for him to get over himself and think of his approaching love.

~~~

The young pair, the slender scooter boy, and the thin romance reader met in the center of the alley and stopped.

The rain merged. 

Sue said, “Hello.”

Tim said, “Hello.”

The End

Together - short story

Together

The tide retreated slowly as a high far out to sea pushed a cumulation of moisture-laden clouds into shore.  Such weather patterns were not uncommon in the northern climes of Maine in August.  The Sun had beat down on the providence for the past three weeks, baking everything it touched with ninety-degree temperatures.  Surprisingly, the only respite was the low humidity despite the coastline of the Atlantic Ocean a scant half-mile away. Nevertheless, everyone wore bonnets and hats or sported umbrellas on their shoulders if they needed to depart the protection of shade. 

            Jane and Martha met at the corner where an occasional customer entered or left Myers Bakery.  A youngster with a dark green welder’s cap pulled down to his eyebrows sat in the wide-open window and waved a massive bamboo fan that his thin arms could hardly manage, to force the cooling air from outside into the store.  Yesterday, the boy waved the fan the other way.

            Martha and Jane embraced without a word.  Pulling apart, Jane spoke first.  “We both are wearing the same apron today.”

            “You, silly goose.  You know I only have two aprons, and they’re both the same.”

            “I did.  Let’s go down to the water and enjoy this cooling spell for a while,” Martha said.

Jane’s bright blue eye’s sparkled.  “Nice to leave the bonnet at home.  I especially like your fiery red hair, so much like moms.  I got dads mousy brown.”

“Listen to you talk.  You don’t have to keep this unruly hair in place.  Your hair goes right where you put it and stays there.”

“Well, maybe.  But we both got grandma’s heftiness.” Martha said.  They laughed and stepped up the two grayed wooden planks into the bakery.

            “Let’s get a buttered bagel to eat on the way,” Jane said.

            “Mr. Myers, how are you this fine day?”  Jane asked the tall thin man behind a glass counter displaying croissants, a variety of loaves, and a basket of bagels with the accompanying aroma of bread.  He had a long-hooked nose that turned sharply to the left that was doubtful he was born with.  A quarter-inch wide pinkish scar ran from the start of his eyebrow, between the base of his nose and left eye before curving out to the middle of his cheek providing a town mystery.  He never talked about it. Guesses fell to rumors.  Jane figured he most likely got it when he was a cook on whaling ships.  A bar fight didn’t fit his demeanor. Yet, one never knew for sure of one’s past.

            “Good morning, Ladies.  I am well. How are the sisters?”

 “We are in fine shape today.”

“What may I get for you today?”

            A single bagel ordered and buttered.  Jane with half the bread in the right hand and Martha with her portion in the left hand, they threaded their way arm in arm through the dusty narrow walkway between Clemens Feed store and the dark, brooding cobbler that hunched over his sewing machine all day.  Jane made Steven go to the cobbler whenever there was a need to stitch a harness or re-sole a shoe.

            The heat had baked the mud of wagon tracks into concrete.  The ruts crisscrossed in the narrow road that led to the rocky beach and the town five miles away, where a port harbored whalers and merchant ships in a natural deep-water bay.  The sisters chatted as they walked along in the short brown grass to the side of the road.

            They passed a field of bright red bricks.  “Hi, Mr. Anderson,” They called out and waved in unison.

            He waved back and returned to stacking bricks on a flat cart.

            “I’ll bet he’s been making the most of this heat to dry his bricks,” Martha said.

            “Oh, I’m happy for him.  I heard he got a commission to supply the brick for the schoolhouse addition.”

            “That’s wonderful.  Mr. Anderson does make lovely bricks.”

            Jane’s eye’s widened.  “Isn’t that Mr. McFarland up ahead?”

            “Why, yes, it is.  Seems he has broken a wheel.”  When they got alongside. “Mr. McFarland, do you need a hand? I see you have a cart full of produce.”

            “Yes, indeed.  It would be most appreciated if you two lovelies could set this new wheel on the axel when I lever the side.”  McFarland was of average height and worked as the middle man between the farmers market at the harbor and the outlying providences. “The heats been a terror on my produce this past month, it has indeed.  I welcome this cool spell.  It’d be nice if it rained a bit.”

            Jane immediately grabbed one side of the whole wheel, propped up alongside the yoke. “Martha?”

            “Certainly, my dear.  It looked as though you wanted to do the task all by yourself.  You do realize I need to pull the broken wheel off before we can set the new one.”

            “Jane’s eye’s narrowed.  “Of course, I knew that.”

            Mr. McFarland jammed a thick branch between the bed of the wagon and a dark, greenish stained barrel no more than a foot and a half across and readied himself to lift the cart.

            “Mr. McFarland,” Martha asked, “will the barrel hold the weight?”

            “Yea, Lass.  It’s fire-hardened oak of pickled herring.  Are you ready?”

            “Yes, lift,” McFarland grunted and rose the wagon to level.  Martha jerked the remains of the old wheel off and let it drop to the roadbed with a resounding thunk.

            Jane stood up the new wheel straight, and Martha took hold of the rim, and a spoke, and they lifted together.  “This a bit heavier when whole,” Martha remarked.

            “Ah, this ought not to bother you with all the oats you beat down into meal.”

            “Different muscles.”  The sisters hung the center of the wheel on the axel and wiggled it into place.

            After spinning the on the axel nut, McFarland slipped the locking pin through a hole in the axel and bent the ends over.  “You two are right handy gals to have around.  I’m thinkin’ your husbands are right proud of you two.  Thank you for your timely assistance.”  His mouth twisted into a lopsided grin. “Help yourself to whatever you’d like from my cart.”

            Martha moved to the back of the cart and slipped on the edge of a rut and almost fell.  Jane clamped her by the elbow and kept her steady.

            “Thank you,” Martha said.

            The cart was replete with all sorts of edibles. Bushels of lettuce, cabbage, and potatoes lined one side.  On the other were apples in reds, yellows, and greens.  Down the middle were closed barrels.  McFarland was hiking the one he used to fix the cart back up into the row.

            “Jane, look.  I’ve never seen an apple so yellow as these.”

            “Neither have I.  Mr. McFarland, what kind of apples are these?”

            “Those there apples are wonderful.  They’re called Golden Delicious. Quite a handful one of them is.  Try em out.”  McFarland pulled two of the largest, blemish-free apples and handed one to each of the sisters.

            By the time, Jane and Martha reached the rocky shoreline, they had finished their fruit and tossed the cores into a patch of wilting reeds.

            “Mr. McFarland is right.  Those are going to be popular.  I don’t think I’ve ever had a sweeter apple,” Jane said.

            “I agree.  Let’s see if he left any at the General store when we get back.”  The light breeze picked up its pace and threatened to toss Martha’s hair under her faded ribbon.  “Let’s sit here on the giant’s teeth for a while before we go back.”

            “Splendid idea.”  They sat.  “Where do you suppose the giant’s teeth name came from?

            “I don’t know.  I supposed it was because this short wall of rock looks like teeth.”

            Jane sat quietly as did Martha.  The sisters occasionally laughed when some boy tried to grab something out of a tide pool and jumped back with a yelp as though there was a shark in residence.

            Martha noticed the fellow first.  “Jane, look over there.”

            Jane turned her head and cocked it to the side.  “Isn’t that Mr. Homer?  What’s he doing?”

            “That stand he’s sitting at is an easel.  He keeps looking our way.”

            “Oh, I didn’t know he was a painter.  Do you suppose he’s painting us?”
            Martha stood.  “I don’t know.  Let’s go see.” 

            

Looking Out to Sea by Winslow Homer

Innocence - Flash Fiction

                                                            Innocence

The instruction came to her in a dream. In four days, she had to be at the pinnacle of her building at midnight on the fourth day of the fourth month in her fourth year.

At supper, Celeste without qualm announces her dream to Mom and Dad.

Mom made a furtive glance at Dad.

“Remember, we agreed,” Dad said.

"Mom, Dad. What is the highest part of our building? That is the pinnacle, right? Jimmy said because they put a cell tower on theirs, it made them taller than us. When will they set a tower on ours?"

"Yes, Sweetheart. Pinnacle is the tip-top of any structure, the building, a mountain, or anything else. I'm not sure about the tallest spot for our building, Honey," Dad said, "but I think it's the middle air-conditioning unit. It feeds all the common areas like the hallways, recreation room, and lobby,"

Mom grinned. "I think Jimmy's building has always been taller anyway. They wouldn't put a tower on us because other skyscrapers are much more suited to their purpose than ours."

"Oh, okay," Celeste said. The time came to ask. “Mom, will you take me to the roof in four days?” The roof at night was no strange place to her. Mom had taken her up there a few times after dark to explain the absence of stars were due to light pollution from the vast city stretching for miles around. Celeste accepted mom's explanation and wasn't sure what she was to expect at midnight on the appointed night.

Dad nodded.

“Alright, Honey. I’ll take you up. You have set an alarm and wake me. I can tell you we are not climbing on the air conditioner.” Mom said.

The final declaration of mom’s agreement bothered her. The dream was explicit. Go to the pinnacle. “Thank you, Mom.”

#

The next day, Celeste snuck up to the roof to double-check for the pinnacle. The air conditioner was much too tall for her. Getting onto the unit worried her. There appeared to be no way to scale the tall sides. Hopefully, Mom will relent and figure a way to get up there. On heading back to the access door to the roof, she realized it looked taller than the air conditioner as it jutted up from the smooth rubberized roof.

Circling the access, she found a sloping ladder affixed to the back, heading up to the top. If she were to go to the tallest part, then the creator of the dream would provide a means for her to do so. Celeste accepted the ladder as divine providence. 

On the third day, with two days to go, Mom pushed through the access door and stepped out on the roof with Celeste.

“Over here.” Celeste lead Mom around to the back of the access.

“You think this is the highest spot?” Mom asked.

“I think so. Look at it, isn’t it higher than the air conditioner?”

Mom studied the two and decided. “You’re right. It is.” 

Sleep eluded Celeste as she lay awake, waiting for 11:45 to come. She was a special little girl; mom and dad told her so, they never talked baby talk to her. They conversed with her like an adult. They explained things she wondered about and much she had not. She had not doubted for an instant that Mom or Dad would not have permitted her to go to the roof at the designated time. They had always promised they would listen to her.

She understood those things; she had been reading chapter books since the age of 3 and got the gist of the concepts the authors tried to convey. Celeste heard her dad tell a neighbor one day she was a twenty-year-old trapped in a four-year-old body. 

Celeste climbed out of bed and tip-toed out the door and headed down the hall and tapped on Mom and Dad’s bedroom door. “Be right there.” Mom emerged from the bedroom fully dressed. “Let’s go.”

Mom waited at the bottom of the ladder as Celeste gained the roof of the access. The sky appeared the same as she had seen before, dark with a few sparkles. “Stay in the middle.” Mom instructed as she made no move to climb.

“Okay, Mom.”

In the distance, a clock tower began to chime. The sky lit up in bright blue specks of light blending in with the city lights. A lovely cloud of pale blues and purples with dashes of red presented a heavenly scene.

Celeste satisfied God had called her up at this time to be a witness. In the light gray-violets of the cloud, he appeared. 

The little girl, Celeste, could not have been more pleased to learn God was a Bunny Rabbit.

Lisa Falzon - Kissed by starlight