In the Rain [fin]

1

We met in the rain.

She was by herself without an umbrella. She held something that looked like a sign, with several popsicle sticks adhered to it like it was to be clutched. There she was, just another plain Jane walking in the rain like everyone else-

Then she turned to me and smiled.

Before I could react, she started walking away, now hugging the sign in her chest like she was afraid someone would take it away from her.

Before I knew what I was doing, I opened my umbrella and walked beside her as if I've always known who she was.

She looked up at the sky as if suspecting the rain had stopped. She flinched at the sight of my umbrella over her head, but recovered quickly as she turned to me.

Her smile was angelic, I tell you. Her eyes glowed. It was the first time I saw her crooked teeth. Maybe she didn't mean to let me see it, because ever since then she covered her mouth when she smiled. But I loved it. I loved every little piece of her, from the mole on her cheek to the delicate skin on her arms and feet.

"Hello," she greeted. I said it back. She chuckled. It made my day. "Thank you for this. It's unusual."

I should have said something, but I decided to just nod. Something told me she wasn't the quiet type.

"I'm glad you came. May God bless you with gifts," the words slipped through her lips like honey. It felt like it was natural to her, saying something so deep. "Where are you heading?"

"School."

"Oh." She sounded disappointed. I couldn't understand why my stomach churned at the thought, or how happy I was because that meant she would have wanted me to stay longer.

When I told her I can stay for a little while, we stopped by a bakery shop in an intersection near my college campus. We sat outside and ended up talking until the ground stopped smelling like rain.

She told me about the children across the street: at the daycare, she would visit every Sunday to teach the kids who go there only for her. She would play with them all day, help them with food, and tutor them when they start to lose hope. She would talk about them with a spark in her eye, as if they were all hers and she wishes to care for them everyday. But she couldn't, because she was studying. She wanted to give her family the living they deserve.

I had loved her since.

As I walked to school with a warm feeling I couldn't understand, I realized I didn't know her name yet.

I turned back to ask, but she was gone.

I went back a few hours later in my car that finally worked. Pathetically, I tried to check if she was still there waiting for me to ask her name. The tables and chairs outside the bakery were back in their usual places. They mocked me and teased me that maybe getting to know her was a dream.

My stomach dropped at the thought.

Was I ever going to see the girl in the rain again?