IT WAS GOOD
The thunder that filled the sky was a friendly thunder. Deep and resonant, like when Agatha laid with one ear against her father’s chest while he talked and his voice rumbled about inside his depths. She knew it would rain soon, but it was the kind of warm buttery afternoon that could never be ruined by rain. Only enhanced.
The first drop caught her high on her unsleeved arm, a fat splatter laden with potential. Then it was like someone unzipped the sky. There was a single dry moment when she could hear the applause of the rain clapping against the leaves high above but none of it had yet reached the ground.
Then she was off, legs pumping, the fastest thing that had ever lived. She raced past trees, jumped a log, a rock, swished past brush and low branches. She dodged between the raindrops, darting here, there. One step ahead of nature. Untouchable.
She burst out into a clearing. The sunlight was still bright and golden, magnified rather than obscured by the clouds. She came to an abrupt halt, stuck out her hands, opened her mouth and turned her face skyward. Her tongue wiggled impulsively about, almost of its own accord. The water tasted sweet in that way that only the sky can do. She was drenched.
She remembered an old Sunday School lesson. They told her God had made the Earth and everything on it from water. She believed it. She was in a cathedral with no ceiling, telling her this was its water, that she could make anything from it.
And she decided she would. She leapt about, plucking certain drops from the air. The heaviest ones. The most pregnant ones. She cupped them in her hands and told the water what to be. And it was.
It was the most wondrous thing she had ever seen, this beautiful, intricate, breathing wonder. Delicate in her palms. Miraculous.
Then she heard her mom calling. She knew her creation would be gone as soon as she looked away, but she was at peace with it. That which was made could never be unmade.
She opened her hands and gave them a shake, then headed home.
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Yayyy!!! You make me see pictures in my head!
And I vow not to rest until I have you seeing pictures OUTSIDE your head.
I love stories from kid’s perspectives, they are always closer to reality, to what’s important. Nice one.
[...] Originally posted 8/31/07 [...]