Pat was busy. Please welcome my new editor Kenjisato. He came to my rescue and did a great and quick job. Thank you!
Anyone who says sunshine brings happiness has never danced in the rain.
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CHAPTER 1: ROLF
I met Rain when she was dancing in the streets of Seattle, unfettered and free, arms flung out wide as she spun around and around, and tossed her head back, giggling as she twirled.
It was pouring down with rain. I remember it well.
She made me smile and forget about everything I was thinking at that moment. I thought I glimpsed a fairy flitting between flowers. She had short pixie-style blonde hair.
People walked by her, hidden under the safety of their umbrellas; some giving her the side-eye, but most avoiding eye contact, so they didn’t get pulled into her craziness.
The girl was least bothered about the fact whether someone was watching her, or not. She was in her own world.
The dancing girl took a long turn and collided with my chest. She giggled and looked at me curiously. I felt that her sparkling eyes were looking inside me, somehow.
She offered me a hand and asked, “Dance with me, kind sir?”
I looked around. “I can’t.”
“Why not?”
“For a start, it’s raining hard, and there is no music,” was the first lame excuse that came to my mind.
She shook her head, as a mother does to a child.
“Rain is a blessing… and not to be rained upon, is not to be blessed,” she said, in a matter-of-factly tone.
“And there is music. You just have to listen,” she whispered, and she opened her arms to include everything around us.
She took my hand and pulled me out of my shelter and into dance position without giving me time to think.
“It’s a waltz,” she said with a wink.
I’m not entirely sure why, but I decided to dance with her in the rain. Perhaps, it was simply that she was beautiful. Perhaps because I had lived my entire life, letting what others might think of me, take control of the way I acted. Maybe her madness was contagious.
So we waltzed around and around, oblivious to anything except each other.
When the music playing in Rain’s head stopped, she kissed me on my cheek and said, “Thank you for the pleasure of your company, fine gentleman.”
And she curtsied.
I shrugged, took a bow and answered, “The pleasure was all mine, my lady. Let me buy you a cup of coffee.”
I was soaking wet, and shivering with cold.
She smiled and took my arm, “I accept your invitation. Lead the way.”
We walked arm in arm to the nearest cafe.
I sat there trying to dry myself off with some paper towels I got from the toilet.
“I must look like a bedraggled mess.”
“Not at all, you look lovely,” she objected.
We looked at each other long enough for it to get awkward.
“Why do you like the rain so much?”
She smiled at me and said, “I’ll give you a hint. My name is Rain.”
Suddenly everything made sense.
“I am Rolf, well, my real name is Rudolf, but everyone calls me Rolf. Nice to meet you.”
“So… tell me, Rolf, do you like rain?”
“That’s a tricky question. Your name is Rain, are you talking about yourself, or the rain, itself?”
She tilted her head to the side, curiosity evident in her expression.
“I suppose I could make it easy on you, and say I like both.”
“I am glad to hear it,” Rain said, wringing the water out of her short hair. “So what do you do for a living, Rolf?”
“I am a digital technology and culture major, which is a fancy way of saying I want to start in web design and eventually tell other web designers what to do. Oh, and I want to be successful enough at it, that I’m not working on porn websites. What about you?”
“I am just living my life one day at a time like the rest of humankind.”
Rain and I talked and talked. She didn’t seem to mind the water running down her forehead, cheeks, and dripping off her chin.
She was into hiking and nature. We spent a lot of time exchanging stories about the outdoors and the places we visited. Rain had been in a lot of places all over the world. Compared to hers, my list was pathetically short. Apparently, she had never gone to college. When I told her I lived in Middletown, she told me she had heard about my hometown, but she had never been there.
“You live in a charming small town, what are you doing here in Seattle?” she asked me.
“Taking a seminar about cybersecurity. Now, I’m heading back to Middletown. You?”
“Me? I don’t have a fixed destination, I am enjoying my journey. Those mountain trails you told me about sound interesting, and I’ve never swum in a lake.”
I didn’t think it was appropriate to mention that I couldn’t swim at all.
“Can I tag along with you?” Rain quickly asked. “I’d love to spend a few days in Middletown. Sounds like a delightful place.”
It took me one nanosecond to make up my mind. “Of course.”
That’s how Rain entered my life.
I have always been quiet and reserved, but not shy. I was happy to observe and listen to my social surroundings because I didn’t know how to say my opinions out loud. The majority of my school reports had the terms ‘quiet’, ‘nice’, ‘well-behaved’, ‘need to take part in the discussion.’
I had a rich, vibrant inner life from a young age, and I did not see anything wrong with it. I never felt the pressure to adopt that cool and aloof attitude that seemed to be pervasive among students. Instead, I was a perfectionist, who would pile green vegetables on my lunch tray, held my hand high when the teacher asked a question, and who would craft two art projects, when I was only required to make one. School became a place for me to use my creativity productively.
I may have been alone, but I was not lonely. I enjoyed my inner life without embarrassment, and to the greatest extent possible. However, others did not see it this way. My mother and I argued constantly over whether I was happy being alone. To a concerned, extroverted mother, there was no way I could have been happy without a bountiful group of friends behind me. As a result, I pushed myself to become louder, more giggly, and more outgoing.
But even when I enjoyed socializing in certain contexts and environments, I still preferred to be alone.
I really tried to date, but girls saw me as a friend material, not as a boyfriend. A new word was added to my description, ‘safe’.
“Do you have a girlfriend? I don’t want a jealous girl chasing me with a knife because I stole her boyfriend.”
I snorted. That idea of a girl chasing another girl with a knife because of me was hilarious. I know I should have said something cool like, “I am just dating and having a lot of fun right now,” with a smirk on my face, but that wasn’t me.
So I just said, “You don’t need to worry about any girlfriend. What about you? Any jealous boyfriend with a lot of muscles I should be worried about?”
Her face clouded for a second. Somehow, I had touched a sensitive spot.
Rain shook her head. “I never had a steady boyfriend. I don’t want to spend my life tied to one guy, living in the same town, surrounded by the same people.”
Her words made my heart sink.
“I intend to live my life to the fullest. I want to travel and visit all the corners of the world. I want a life of adventure. You should try it.”