Art by Mori_art_ti

Challenge: Llama

Challenge by @mere_inkslinger

Last words: "I find peace in the rain"

mere_inkslinger

"So, how long have you been at West View?" She asked, speaking loudly to be heard over the pounding storm.

"This is my second year! I'm a junior!" I yelled in response.

"Thanks again for the umbrella ride!" She giggled. I had rushed over and shielded her from the rain with my rather wide set umbrella.

"Well, you know how boarding schools are. We have to look out for each other." I replied.

She smiled at me as we stepped under the eves of the sophomore house.

"Well, I should probably get inside. It's pretty cold out." She reminded me. Then there was an awkward moment where we just stared at each other, not knowing what to say.

"Um, I should go!" I laughed.

"Ok. See you around." she smiled, turning to her door. Suddenly there was a scrambling sound behind the wood, and she stopped.

"Really? Really guys? That's so childish." she yelled through the wall.

"Not as childish as you not kissing her goodnight, douche bag!" A voice sang through the door.

"Maria! I can't believe you! Open the door right now!" She shouted.

I sort of stood there, watching this all play out, simply because it felt wrong to leave her there, locked out, even if she could technically get inside.

"You've got to kiss her, sweetheart." A different voice sang from inside.

"Your friends are so cruel." I told her.

"They're just... excitable. And lonely." She explained. Suddenly, her lips were shaking and she started shivering all over.

"Oh my gosh, your lips are practically blue." I observed.

"Yeah. Cold. Wet. Ignorant roommates."

"Do you... need any help?" I asked.

"Well, you could bust the door down, or you could break my window, or I suppose you could even -"

I snatched the back of her head and bent down at an angle to kiss her.

Her arms instinctively flew up and out to push me away, but it had pretty much already happened, so there was no stopping now.

When I pulled back, I grabbed my umbrella and started walking away quickly, when I heard her call my name.

"Richard! What the hell!"

"I'll call you!" I yelled back as I started running.

The rain was pelting my whole body, and it may actually may have been wet hail, considering the pain it was causing me, but I had to run, because one of her roommates was screaming like she was being attacked by a bear.

When I got back to my room, my roommates wanted to know what had happened, so I told them, and they laughed and patted me on the back and told me I was a dirty player. I had an audience when I called her that night, and I'm sure she did, also, considering all the 'ohmygosh shut up or I swear I will hurt you's that she mumbled off to the side every twenty seconds.

We started dating. We became really close.

After high school, I went to college, and she graduated early. She followed me, because we both wanted to be meteorologists.

After college, I was hired at a local station, and when she found out, she was overjoyed.

Every morning we would wake up and send each other a picture of the sunrise.

I proposed to her with a sky writer.

She said yes.

We got married in a chapel, soon she was pregnant, and we had our first of three beautiful children.

They turned out fine, and soon were living in their own, getting married, and having all kinds of babies.

We grew old together.

We loved each other every day. Even the hardest ones.

We did everything right.

I suppose you could even say we lived the dream.

Forty-five years, seven months, one week, and three days after the first kiss.

"Richard! What the hell, Richard!" She cried over my chest. "Look at you!" She screamed through the pounding rain.

I had hit another driver on the way to Rylee's, our oldest daughter, house.

"Laurel, you're going to be fine. Calm down. You're okay. You're okay."

"No, Richard! I'm not okay! You have a piece of a car in your stomach, Richard! You're not okay!"

"Hey," I whispered, sliding in and out of consciousness. "I said, you will be okay. Don't worry about me. You need to call for help. Do you understand?"

"No, Richard! I won't let you go! You aren't okay! You aren't okay, and I can't live without you! I love you, Richard!" She cried through the sound of each selfish raindrop declaring it's landing on the earth.

"Darling, I might fall asleep. You need to call for help. Call for help." I instructed.

She sobbed. She sobbed so hard it hurt just to look at her.

"Find peace in me going, Laurel. Find peace in loosing. You don't have to win every battle. You just have to try.

"I need you to call out. Someone needs to take care of you. You will find peace, Laurel."

"What- what about you?" She asked me.

"Don't worry about me, Laurel." I whispered before slipping away.

"Ever since I've met you," I stammered. "I find peace in the rain."

minipage

When it rains, people tend to find shelter indoors or underneath umbrellas.

For some reason, we do not enjoy the concept of being wet when nature wants us to be wet. But if it is a pool or a day at the beach, being wet is almost a requirement, and not one that we protest.

It was that general rule of thumb that inspired William Henry Harrison, so purposely named after the tragic president, to sit out in front of the 5th Street Coffee House, just as it began to rain.

People rushed past him, without caring or stopping to see if he needed their umbrella.

William Henry Harrison was an old man, evidenced by his wrinkles and tweed suit that was only worn by those who lived in the 20s and those who wanted to live in the 20s.

But no one stopped by his bench. They just rushed past.

And he was perfectly okay with that.

He hadn't come out there to be interrupted. He hadn't come out there to be offered an umbrella or a ride.

Simply, he had come out there to die peacefully and break a rule or two while doing so.

Society has a lot of rules.

A sociologist would teach you all about those. Along the way he might mention a few terms.

Like norms, for example.

norm (n.)- expectations formed to enforce our values.

But what is a value, you might ask.

value (n.)- standard by which we define what is good or bad, beautiful or ugly, and desirable or undesirable.

It is undesirable to walk into a job interview, soaked in water.

Thus, it becomes a norm to carry an umbrella, if it's raining.

Norms.

And values.

folkway (n.)- a norm that is not strictly enforced.

Someone should have asked William Henry Harrison if he was okay.

Our parents tell us to respect our elders.

But they also teach us not to talk to strangers.

Neither of these are strictly enforced, but there was a young woman named Jane who respected her elders but tended to talk to strangers.

Jane had an umbrella and offered to share it with William Henry Harrison.

He declined, of course, so she kept it close to herself, allowing him to be hit with both the rain from the sky and the rain from her umbrella.

Jane didn't disturb William Henry Harrison, but she did make him curious.

Why was she there?

There was no reason for her to sit on the bench with him.

The bench was just a bench.

It was not a bus bench. It was not a park bench.

It was a bench on the side of a busy road.

Mores, pronouced morays (like the eel), are norms that are strictly enforced.

You don't break those.

And Jane and William Henry Harrison, being upright citizens, weren't breaking any mores by sitting there on that bench on the side of a busy road.

They were just there.

It might have been weird to passerbys.

But to them, it brought about a state of content.

And just when William Henry Harrison was beginning to finally feel the hands of death, the hands of a child, take his, Jane spoke.

"What are you doing out here, sir?"

He wanted to ask her the same questions, but death, such an impatient child, would not wait for their conversation.

So instead, he smiled.

"I find peace in the rain," he said.

He closed his eyes and let the droplets of water hit his face as he smiled up at the unseen sun.

Death, such an impatient child, took his hand, and led him away from the bench.