BEFORE YOU READ:
Rain Today
There was a man standing on the edge of a sidewalk calling for a taxi. Standing next to him, another, similar in presentation. Shaking his head, Cole continued down the busy street. The glimpse of a red umbrella up ahead caught his eye amongst the dull gray underline of the city. As he drew closer, Cole was able to make out a couple standing vertical to its handle. Holding up the umbrella, the male figure seemed almost too happy for the type of day it was. The female, significantly shorter than her counterpart, stood on his shoes, kissed him, and jumped into a waiting taxi with him following not too far behind. He knew that she loved him and perhaps, Cole thought, the reason that he appeared almost too happy was because he was in fact, happy.
Cole, now passed the taxi the two got inside, he heard a knock from its interior. The window began to roll down and the woman began to slide the umbrella through. “Here, take it. You need it,” she said. Not wanting to waste any of their time and more importantly, not wanting to break her heart, Cole took her up on her offer.
“Thank you,” Cole said, this time losing the cigarette from his mouth. The woman simply just smiled and the taxi finally drove off.
Cole opened the umbrella and stood in place underneath it and couldn’t help but think about the woman in the taxi, too short to kiss her lover on the lips. Her wide eyes. Her smile. Looking upward through the umbrella he became lost in thought. The umbrella was hardly transparent, but see through none the less. The sky, a bloody red, brought him back to his gray reality. Guilt slowly began to overcome him. He closed the umbrella, clutching it in his hand and continued through the populous rush of beating hearts.
Standing at an intersection Cole could see a cemetery; his destination. He was lost in thought again when he heard a man talking in his general direction. “I’m sorry, what?” Cole asked.
“May I ask why you’re not using your umbrella? It’s raining pretty hard,” The man asked Cole in return. The man bothered Cole. Maybe it wasn’t so much the man, but the question. This was none of the man’s business yet he still insisted on asking just to make small talk while he waited impatiently. Cole knew that the man didn’t particularly care as to why he wasn’t using the umbrella and shrugged the man off.
“It was a gift.”As soon as he spoke, Cole realized his mistake. Now the man was going to ask a string of questions unimportant to his own existence and that he would forget later that evening, if not the following.
“A gift?”
“Mhm.”
With that, the man stopped talking and together they waited. Time seemed to blanket the two men as they stood there; one soaking wet, the other in his Hugo Boss tuxedo, dry. The light changed and they walked. At the end of the crosswalk the man said something to Cole and disappeared to the left, leaving Cole to walk alone.
The cemetery was one of the newer ones, recently built with a few cherry blossoms planted here and there. On this particular day their petals were pressed downward; heavy from the falling rain. Cole was positioned next to a small headstone concealed by pink petals from the cherry blossom which it was under. He brushed away the petals with the tip of the umbrella and sat, motionless.
He opened his mouth as if to say something, but stopped and stood up. “I’m sorry,” He whispered, “For everything.” Turning away from both the tree and the headstone, he looked onward towards the gate that he entered. He lit up another cigarette, this time having no problems getting the lighter to start. Nearing his exit, he stopped, removed the cigarette from his mouth, and turned toward the cherry blossom tree upon the hill. “I really am.” He turned back towards the gate, placing the cigarette back between his lips. It was unlit, wet from the rain.
A smirk appeared on Cole’s distraught face. It was the first time since the accident anything resembling a smile found its way to its surface. The rain was beginning to settle as Cole departed the cemetery. He was standing at yet another cross-section, with wandering eyes from those around to him transfixed on his dripping silhouette. Putting his head down, he glanced at the red umbrella still in his possession.
“Sir…” a woman began, only to be cut off by Cole before she could speak another syllable. Her striped dress confused Cole which almost caused him to stumble.
“A gift,” he said, catching himself, as he held it out in front of him, opened it, and perched himself under its red sky. “Better?”
“No, umm,” she reluctantly began again afraid to get cut off for a second time, “you can walk now.”
She, along with the others, were in front of Cole as he stared blankly in their direction. He looked up at the sky through the umbrella and looked back at them; the woman vanished in the crowd. When he crossed the street a realization dawned on him and he tried to catch up to the group to speak with the woman once more. His clothes, drenched, only slowed him down and the group had gone their separate ways; he lost them and more importantly, the woman.
Cole found himself standing right in front of his apartment building. Giving the doorman the nod, Cole rushed towards the elevator, pushed his floor number, and paced around in front its door as he waited. As the door opened, Cole quickly gathered himself up and made his way in. He, being the only one in the spacious elevator at the time, felt small and backed himself into a corner.
The door opened once more, this time on his floor. Cole sprinted towards his room number, fumbled for his keys, and unlocked the door. Inside he rushed to the only desk in his room brushing his way through newspaper clippings when he saw it: MOTOR ACCIDENT - THREE DEAD. He continued to pace through the worn pages underneath. Taking out three very familiar looking photos Cole took a step back. A cherry blossom petal lapsed from the red umbrella only to be crushed by it as Cole’s loosened fingers could no longer hold on.
“No.”
In one hand, he held a man in a tuxedo and a woman in a striped dress. In the other, he held his wife.
“Not again,” he whispered.
Lost in the picture of his wife, he fell backwards onto the ground. “For everything,” he said catching glimpse of the petal resting underneath the umbrella as the world faded.
