Raindrops

• Frances Kirsch, Grade 9
• Short Story
• 2008

He stood in silence as glistening raindrops soaked his black coat. The rain was the only thing to disguise the tears dwelling in his vacant brown eyes. He stared down to the small marble plaque at his feet, reading the same engraved phrase over and over again.

“Lost but never forgotten”

She was gone. He let tears of sorrow roll down his cheeks. Letting his eyelids fall he himself collapsed onto his knees and cried harder. He thought that maybe if he vented it would help ease the pain.
“Why Lord?!” he cried out “why did you take her from me?!”
He leant forward and rested his head on the cold grey stone.

As his mind wandered he could see her again, her brilliant smile, her shining eyes. He could almost feel her warmth enveloping him. He could hear her voice in his head as she left the party that night, those last words.
“This year we take a trip around the world; seeing that next year we’ll have to look after the three of us.” She had said in her warm voice.
“Three?” he had asked. As she had smiled he realized what she meant.
“I’m pregnant” she had said before turning and leaving his birthday party. She was going to get more ice. All it took was a drunk driver, a car, the sidewalk and the sinister night sky, to shatter his heart beyond repair.

It was those last words that caused him to cry even harder than he could ever stand.
“Not just one!” he screamed. “You took two from me! Two!”
His salty tears fell onto the marble. He could almost feel his heart ache. Everything was gone. And so may have his life been.

Suddenly he felt a warm hand on his back. Turning his head he looked up at a familiar face. His mother crouched down and opened her arms to him. He immediately threw himself into her arms
“She’s gone, Mother” he sobbed into her chest.
His mother hugged him tightly and cradled him in her arms as she would have done many years ago.
“Oh, no she isn’t. She could never leave your heart” she whispered into his ear.

They sat in the rain as Mother cradled son in her arms. In any amount of pain he finally realized, not everything was gone. Hope and love would always shine over him in the pouring rain.