What Memory Remains

Chapter 15

“Can’t catch me!” A young girl shouted as she ran from her younger brother. The two laughed as they ran through the yard, tagging and re-tagging each other. Their mother stood at the edge of the porch railing, beaming as she sipped her cup of coffee. The sound of a door slamming ushered in her husband, who came up behind her and put his arms around her waist and gently kissed her neck.

“Well good afternoon to you, too,” she said mirthfully.

“It can be an even better one,” her husband replied and nibbled at her ear.

“Oh, stop!” She batted him away playfully. “It’s midday, they’re not even close to running out of steam yet. Look at them….”

They stood there in blissful awe, watching their young play.

“So ignorant to the sinful ways of the world. I envy them,” the husband thought aloud in commentary.

“Yeah, they are. You always have such a way with words.”

“I’ll stop immediately, then.”

“No, I like it.”

“Oh come now. Marrying a romantic…you have no idea what you’ve gotten yourself into.”

“Of course I do, and I like it. You should have become a poet.”

“Hey now, just because I don’t do it as a profession doesn’t mean I’m not one. It’s hard….besides, a good conspiracy story can be just as fun.”

“Yeah, it’s fun. It’s just…kinda crazy about what happened to that guy that gave you information. What happened to him again?”

“He drowned in his own tub. Really weird circumstances too.”

“That makes me nervous. I mean, wasn’t it information about NOS-“

“Let’s not talk about that.”

“Okay, fine. Besides, I just really like your poetry, or deep stuff that you write about.”

“Swimming into the depths of one’s soul…you’re not too good at that. Better bring a life vest.” Playfully, she elbowed at him. “Alright alright. You’re a decent writer...”

She shot him an “I win” look, to which he finished his statement with“…at best.” Just as she started to push at him, she stopped when his eyes narrowed as if focusing hard on something. She turned to investigate the source. A large, dark rain cloud was looming beyond the horizon.

“Aw, c’mon. It was supposed to be sunny all day,” he huffed at the sight. “Although….that’s weird.”

“What?”

            “It doesn’t look like a group of clouds, like a system. It’s almost like…this one single cloud by itself. See? Look.”

            “Huh….that is weird.”

            Even more strange was how quickly the cloud had begun moving towards them. In less than a minute, they could hear the sound of rain pelting the earth.

            “Kids, get inside!” The mother called, and she shooed them in against their moans and groans of protest.

            As the kids got onto the porch, still resisting their mother’s request, the rain cloud was now over their house….and completely stopped.

            “Whoa! Look, Dad!” The son pointed out the apparent weirdness of the situation. The cloud hovered directly over their house, pouring down rain hard and unyielding, but only on their house.