(a short story)
It was an ordinary day in the month of May in the USA. After I finished lunch by myself in the high school cafeteria, I decided to spend my remaining time in isolation.
Other people were sitting in the hallways, eating, or talking. A few empty cans of soda and boxes of fries lay on the floor. I picked up one can and examined it in my hand, but the edge of the can cut the tip of my finger. A little hint of blood emerged from the cut.
A tear rolled down my cheek as I felt loneliness settle in. It is my senior year and I haven’t got a friend to soothe me. I felt suffocated, drowsy, and abandoned. I longed for fresh air.
At last, I made it to a corner of the building, away from my peers, and left through the front doors.
Hot air greeted me the moment I stepped outside. The breeze was dry just like the asphalt and the dead grass patches in between the cracks in the sidewalk. I sensed the rain and the low heavy, gray clouds hanging over my head. I wanted to reach out and touch them.
A raindrop landed, creating a dark spot on the sidewalk, followed by a second drop, a third, and a fourth. Then came the downpour. Moisture fills the air and its cool breeze is rushing into my lungs — alerting my senses.
I stretched out the hand with my injured finger and felt the tiny, diamond-sized raindrops washing over it. The rainwater cleansed my cut, soothing the dull pain.
There was a constant noise as the rainfall roared like a rushing river, pouring down hard on the concrete. The oval-shaped raindrops hit the asphalt. and splashed like exploding water balloons.
I spotted ripples of waves racing each other along the empty school bus parking lot, indicating the direction of the rainfall.
For a brief moment, the rain grew softer and quieter. The grass was livelier, standing upright, and greener with a little help from the rain.
I’ve found a new respect for water and thought of the similarities in clouds and rain. Clouds come from the evaporation of water, and then rain eventually comes from the clouds. It’s a substance that can fly as vapor, float as a liquid, and break rocks as it expands when frozen.
Listening to the rain, I felt frozen while breathing in the cool air. That’s when it hit me: water is not only one of the coolest substances in the universe, but can provide alleviation, too.
The rain offers relief during hot, sunny days, cleanses nature from pollution, and soothes the thirst of Earth’s living creatures. The thought of it certainly made me feel better and strangely less lonely.
The noise of the rainfall died down, my injured finger felt better, stress levels have diminished, and I was ready to face the rest of the day.
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