"Raindrops" by AL

Competition 5 Honourable Mention

“Mom, can I go outside?”

“It’s raining, sweetie.” Mom flipped a page of the morning’s newspaper.

“Please?”

“No.”

“Pleeeeeease?”

“No means no, sweetie.”

I pouted and slumped against the back of the couch, watching the raindrops fall, one by one, from the sky. There was nothing to do.

As I continued staring, something strange happened. A raindrop that just hit the window, right in front of my nose, began to take a shape of its own. It twisted this way and that, merged with another raindrop, and became a… person?

I watched, breathless, as it moved through the other raindrops. It seemed to be a tiny boy with no facial features except for a small mouth. He smiled as he jumped here and there, each time barely escaping an oncoming raindrop. As he strolled across the window, the raindrops around him seemed to take different shapes. A small flower bloomed by his side and not long after, a nearby raindrop morphed into a dog.

The small boy and the dog pranced across the window, making their way all the way up until they were right before my eyes. They smiled at me and waved. I smiled back. They beckoned for me to follow and so I did. I watched as trees sprang up around them, a forest growing in their steps. I watched as they ran from the beasts that took shape around them.

I followed them all the way to the next window. There, another raindrop wriggled into the form of a small girl. Her lithe figure jumped over a raindrop and landed in front of them. She curtsied with a shy smile and joined them on their adventure.

Suddenly, a group of raindrops clumped together to form a magnificent monster, complete with teeth as sharp as daggers and a whip-like tail. Miniature swords molded from tiny raindrops fell into the hands of the small raindrop children as they faced off the massive creature. Geysers shot from the monster’s massive mouth, but the trio evaded them with ease.

A streak of lightning just barely struck the boy. He stumbled onto a rock-shaped raindrop and coughed up tiny raindrops. The creature turned upon the boy. The dog sneered and launched itself at the creature, but the beast quickly shook it off, as if it were nothing. The creature thudded closer and closer to the boy. One thud. Two. Three. It was right at the boy’s feet.

The girl charged from behind and slashed her sword across the back of its trunk-like legs. The monster twisted its body to face her and roared. Right as its tail was about to hit the girl, a hand slammed against the window. The beast, the girl, the dog, and the boy collapsed into a giant puddle at the bottom of the window. I looked at the puddle, then at my hand, still firmly placed on the glass. They were gone.

I slumped against the wall beside the window and slid to the tiled floor. As tears fell onto my hands, they began to squirm. One by one, they turned into letters, then words, then a sentence.

“We’ll see you the next rainy day.”

The words shifted and formed three familiar shapes: a boy, a dog, and a girl. I gave them a teary smile and lifted myself off the ground. Outside, the rain clouds had all disappeared. In their place was the sun, shining as brightly as ever.

Mom looked up at me. “You can go play outside now, if you want.”

I shook my head and watched as the puddles began to dry up. “I’m waiting for the next time it rains.”