Raining Memories

• Breanne Johnson, Grade 9
• Short Story
• 2010

The old man breathed heavily as he woke from his nightmare. The same nightmare he’d been having for over 20 years. It plays as if a thriller movie was stuck on replay. Yes, he remembered the night of his wife’s death very well. He remembered everything from his thoughts of panic and feeling of desolation, to the touch of her cold lifeless skin and smell of burning wood, to the very last beat of her loving heart. A single beat that thumped through his hands to the core of his soul. The beat that signalled the end of something he loved and cherished more than life itself.
However, the beginning could play even more vividly than the ending. He could still recall the crowds, a thick mass of heat and noise. The music blaring out of the speakers. The band strutting their stuff up on stage. His long, wild hair. Moreover, he remembered when his hair blew out of his eyes, the music dimmed and the crowds parted to reveal Elizabeth. The soft pure light that seemed to seep through her skin put him in a trance. He floated towards her closing the space between them as slow as time would allow. He noticed her light brown hair swaying with her slight, thin body as she danced. He noticed her skin, not pale and pasty like most girls he knew, but it was slightly tanned, making it gold like the coat of a proud lioness. Suddenly they were face to face and his vision was filled with her deep, dark intoxicating eyes. His heart was jumping; his toes and fingers were tingling. Since that moment on all he has ever wanted to do was to jump into her eyes and get lost in their depths. That was the day his life really started because he could no longer think of life without her.
The aged man shook himself from the flashback and stood up on legs that trembled with emotion. He shuffled over to the window to let the morning air in. The rusty hinges screeched with protest. In the sky, he saw a herd of dark, promising clouds quickly rolling in. This revived another memory from the depths of the elderly man’s mind. He recalled Elizabeth complaining about the lack of rain in the area as she attempted to bring their front garden to life. The man stared at the dry dusty ground were he could still see the ghost of the event right in front of his weary eyes. A loud crack coming from the sky brought him back to the present. His head shot up as he saw the black clouds right above him. Another flash of lighting with the following thunder came from the clouds. “Hold on Bethy, we’ll be together again soon,” he said quietly as the clouds let their tears rain down on the world below.