I Love The Rain

• Lily Bambrick, Grade 8
• Short Story
• 2020

They had warned us. We had been given every opportunity to unpack our bags, not journey on the long road trip. Dad had said that the news was lying, that cyclones are just propaganda. I did not have the power to disagree. And here I am. Hours later, in the middle of nowhere, unable to move.
I watch the horizon, fear seeping into my bones and holding me in place. A cloud, unbelievably massive, stretching high into the sky, billowing around the edges. Lightning flashes within, fear close behind, telling me to hop out of the car and run. Words reach my ears. My mum, whispering something to Dad. “Keep driving.”
I can’t say anything. My brother leans over from his seat, laughing, and rolls down my window. I try to stop him, but I am frozen in place. My lip curls, as I look out at the storm ahead. But it is more than a storm. It is a cyclone.
Wind lashes my face, and I shrink back, but I cannot escape the cold. We reach the border of the cloud, and that’s when the rain starts. Dad yells at me to close the window, and with shaking hands, I follow his instruction. But still, the earthy smell of rain reaches my nose, making me shake down to my core. This is the scariest moment of my life.
I put my hand on the glass and stare out into the rain. I know that this is where I die. The last thing I will see, my reflection in the window. I look terrified, like I have stared death in the face. I know that soon it will be true.
I look up at the clouds and whisper something under my breath. “I don’t want to die.”
For a moment, no response. But then, more lightning, striking too close to the car. I know that I have to do this. I fumble for my seatbelt and stand up out of my chair. I reach up and pull back the sunroof. Water streams into the car and my family’s hands claw at my ankles, trying to pull me down. Their words are lost to the storm, and I turn my head to the clouds.
I face the sky and breathe a slight sigh. I have to save myself, save all of us. “I don’t want to die,” I say into the void.
The words are lost to the noise, taken away by the wind and the rain.
“I don’t want to die!!” I scream into the storm.
In that instant, I think the rain did not hear me. But then I feel another gust of wind blow past me, chilling me to the bone. The storm heard me. I feel the rain start to stop. One last rumble and the lightning clears. The rain thins, light shining through the clouds.
But the storm is not the only thing that is gone.
My fear has left me.
I love the rain.