Walking In The Rain

And there he was, standing in the rain, shaking his head.  Apparently he forgot his jacket but, then, so did she.  She dared not breathe, she dared not move.  She didn't care that the rain was soaking...and cold. She didn't care that she was shivering.  She hadn't seen him in so long.  She knew early that morning when she woke up to the sound of rain on her window, that today was going to be the day.  She couldn't make her heart wait anymore.  So she got out of bed and paced, back and forth turning it over and over in her mind.  She needed to wait until he would be leaving for the day if she was to have any real chance of seeing him.  So she paced some more and found a million little things to pick up and put down again.  She waited and time very nearly stood still or at least to her, it seemed to.  Finally, the time came so she got herself as ready as she could for this moment, the moment she would see his face again.  She took her time, listening to 1959 on her stereo as she drove to town.  The tears fell as steadily as the rain on her windshield.  She parked across the street, opened the door to her minivan, stepped out and waited.  She waited til she saw the opening of the door and the men file out one by one.  At first, she didn't see him, and thought with great dismay that maybe she would miss him, maybe he hadn't gone to work that day, maybe he didn't even work there anymore.  Still she stood, her silent vigil, holding her breath, refusing to give up until she was sure.  He was the last one out.  She watched as he locked the door behind him and sighed a great deep sigh that resonated somewhere inside her soul.  She couldn't help but smile as she watched him shake his head as the raindrops began to coat his skin, by now it was raining harder.  She stayed still, not wanting him to notice she was there.  But as in all their time together, even though years had passed, he was somehow attuned to every thing about her.  He always sensed somehow that she was near.  He stopped and looked puzzled at the sky ahead of him and then, smiling,  he turned his head and saw her standing in the rain...waiting, watching.  They stood like that, eyes locked, hearts pounding for an eternity it seemed.  She broke the silence by shouting...I told you we walked together in the rain.  He closed his eyes at that, and turning away from her, he beckoned her to follow.  Every step he took, she stayed just one step behind.  The tears fell freely down their faces but they smiled.  Soaked to the skin, neither of them felt the cold or the sting of the raindrops beating mercilessly upon their skin...all they knew was that for this moment, they walked together.  TOGETHER!  It was a feeling that warmed and radiated deep inside where nothing could dwell but the love they shared.  Nearing his home, he stopped.  This would be the end of their walk together.  He held his hand up to her and trembling but sure, she reached for it, grasped it with all her heart.  They stood that way for a moment as the world rushed by around them, neither hearing or seeing anything but that moment, those hands, that love.  For them both and for that moment it was enough.  They said no words, none needed to be said.  They knew already.  Letting go of his hand she turned and he turned and they continued the rest of the journey...each knowing they would never walk alone again...love walked with them in the rain.
©Ruth Langford, September 13, 2010