The Rainboy

The Blur

I don't know how, when, or why it happened. The next few days were a complete blur. All I know is that Audrey was mine and that was all that mattered. She taught me a lot more English than I could ever know. I loved time with her. I loved her. My memories have faded ever since. I don't know what could replace them. Although not all memories were vague.

Three things I clearly remember.

A walk on the beach and the park, some rain, and stars.

Those are the three dates we went on in one week.

Audrey planned all but one.

I didn't know how these things went. Well, sort of.

See, I fell for this American girl, and for another girl in Brazil.

The first girl I met when I was twelve. She didn't understand much German, but she basically just dragged me everywhere.

One time she took me to her house and told me everything I should change about myself. She gave me a script and everything. I couldn't understand one bloody word. She gave me a physical makeover before school started and people called me a "wannabe". I still couldn't understand, but I knew it was bad. We left America in a short amount of time.

I met the second girl at a fair. I was thirteen. There happened to be a ferris wheel that Kurt and I were gonna go on. Kurt saw a cute girl, ditched me, and I was almost alone on the Ferris wheel.

The operator yelled, "Any single riders?"

Of course I wasn't aware of that but then a girl came up from the back of the line. She was gorgeous.

We got on the ride without words. Hey, I was young.

There was nothing involved. I never saw her again. I think I forgot about her in a day, so I was fine.

She was simply beautiful.

There was just no love involved. Not one bit.

So this was pretty much the first time I was really in love. I saw him as I was walking in the rain. He was tanning in drops and a big smile without an open mouth. He was mysterious. He was patient. He was kind. I saw him a lot at that time. Sometimes, we'd talk. But he spoke a foreign language, so he was hard to understand. He was a nice man most of the time. But, he could hurt when he wanted to. He would cry and all I could do was cry with him.

Life was how it was supposed to be. Well, not really. Each night I saw Audrey, the moon was blue. The stars were spelling out messages that couldn't be seen by anyone but me. Because I was supposed to.

I held her hand and covered up my entire body with jeans and a heavy jacket. It was hot, but I liked being hidden. It's not like the sun hasn't been my friend. My skin is just really sensitive.

"What are you wearing?" She asked.

She knew I didn't care about fashion, but she asked anyway.

One word. "Protection."

She almost fell off her chair. We were sipping smoothies at a shack by the shore. (See what I did there?)

Her laugh was music to my ears. It would approach me and begin the process of stretching my face out until I was grinning brightly. Her laugh was sunshine. It was stars. It was all that was beautiful. She was beautiful.

We walked on the beach that day. She had a long, blue sundress on and a bathing suit underneath. It was my birthday and she knew it.

"If you're going to live here, you gotta have something to swim in." She told me as we were walking.

Little did she know I was never in one place for too long.

But by now, I was pretty much fluent in English. We had been working through words together.

She reached into her flowery beach bag. I looked at her and was surprised for the first time.

She had an Australian accent. She was Australian.

"Have you ever been surfing?" I asked her.

"Just a minute," She found what she'd been looking for. A pair of Palm tree swimming trunks.

I liked them a lot. They were cool. I just wondered when I'd actually wear them.

"Let's go in the water." She announced, threw off her dress and took off into the North Sea.

What else could I do? I ran and changed, and then went in with her. We splashed, swam, and surfed.

We yelled about my birthday to all of St Osyth and we didn't care. Not one bit.

On the way home, we were covered in towels from swimming. She taught me how to surf and told me a story while we walked.

"Yeah, I'm a Native Australian. I was born there and grew up there until we moved here a year ago. My dad would take me down to the beach and we'd surf together for hours on end. He taught me everything. He's gone now, he died before we moved here, Mum, she thought we could restart our lives together. I guess I kind of did, but every time I look at these waves, I think of him. I miss him a lot. I haven't been surfing in forever and it's about time I was back in the water." This story showed me Audrey's background. And I felt trusted. I was so happy, it rained. And we walked around the town until it stopped. We shared my heavy jacket and I held her close. Night had fallen.

We watched the stars. Aligned perfectly. The moment was perfection. One perfection of a blur was all I can remember.