The Rain

5.

5.

To celebrate the discovery of animal life besides us three, we decided to take a break and have some Kool-Aid that I had made the day before to go with our fruit. The Magical Concoction, as I called it, consisted of at least five different types of Kool-Aid powder and a generous helping of orange juice. It's one of those foods that looks nasty, but is absolutely delicious.

River had transitioned seamlessly from Captain Underwood back to River Underwood, but he was still extremely quiet and anti-social, even when he got his Magical Concoction, which he usually loves. It was he who gave me the idea. We sat next to each other in awkward silence, while Raider was panting at River's feet, occasionally lapping up water from the dish I had brought out for him.

"Mmm... Nasty looking Kool-Aid..." I said in an effort to break the silence. I only got a little smile out of him. "Ok, in all seriousness, what're you thinking about?" I asked River, trying to scoot closer to him, but Raider was in my way. "I know you're thinking about something."

"My wife and daughter, I guess," he said quietly. “You got me thinking about them when you were talking about your fiancé. They're all that's been occupying my brain since last night.”

Wife and daughter?!, my mind screamed. This guy's younger than me! How could he have a wife and daughter?!

"Elaborate, please."

"When I first moved here, I was a very bitter man. Still am, I suppose, but more so then. All I really did was work my shifts, drink, and sleep. In that order. One day, though, this red haired girl with the bluest eyes you've ever seen gets into my line and starts being funny. 'Someone's Mr. Grumpy-face today, isn't he?' she said to me, and I couldn't help but burst out laughing. 'Yes,' I replied. 'My name's Mr. Grumpy-face. What's yours?' Her name was Iris-I'd never met anyone called Iris before. I asked her out, and we were attached by the hip before long. Iris was the only person in a long time that I had considered my intellectual equal. Not long after, we were married, and not too much longer after that, we had a daughter called Alexandra. It was one of those whirlwind romances that are in the chick flicks; I was quite happy for a while. But nothing ever lasts, does it?"

"What happened to them?" I asked. It sounded like he had been started off on the path to a And They All Lived Happily Ever After. I was almost frightened now to find out what had marred that, but curiosity was getting the best of me.

"They were both killed in the same grocery store shooting that your fiancé was. They were so mutilated that the only way Iris was identified was by her driver's license in her purse," River said bitterly. His voice was angry, but at the same time, he was choking up.

"I had to go down to the store and look at all of those dead bodies with their vacant eyes staring at me, because I was the only one who would recognize him," I recalled, the familiar sadness returning, and the sweet pain filling my throat as I choked up. "I had to look at his dead body, his eyes as vacant as the others. Like it was a different person. All the horror movies I had ever watched and laughed at were becoming a reality. I was frightened of something again."

River tentatively extended his arm over Raider's body to grab my hand, but as soon as we touched he retracted his hand back to his lap.

"Back to rowing?" The vulnerable side of River instantly turned back into Captain Underwood as he shut down. For once, I was glad.

"Yeah."

I got up and returned to my post, my mind reeling. Two days ago, River Underwood was some lighthearted funny guy who I would have a laugh or nerd-off with. Now he was a bitter young man with a really dark past. My definition of him had completely changed. It's interesting how someone can change so rapidly before your eyes, isn't it?

It took a lot to get the house moving again. Once you get your momentum up, it's easy, but starting is very strenuous and physically demanding. Our yells occupied the infinite silence in the Storm Ocean.

Once things got easy again, I took a second to glance at the Captain. River caught my gaze instead, and we shared a smile before going back to work. I felt my face heat up, spreading from my cheeks to my ears in a matter of seconds, and I realized then that I had a thing for River Underwood. I didn't know how or why, but the thing was there.

The sound of silence was still there, and eventually, I couldn't take it anymore.

"When the raaaain comes, they run and hide their heads," I sang. "They might as well be dead. If the raaaaaainnnn comes..."

River laughed and finished the other half, "If the raaaaaaaainnn comes... When the sun shines, they slip into the shade and sip their lemonade. When the suuuuuunnn shines..."

When we forgot the lyrics to "Rain", we started another song, and another, and another, and suddenly, the doomed, innocent little "movie night" had winded towards its end the way it had started. Two friends having a load of fun together.