Rain

‘Rain—a part of nature that could either brush past to bring bliss or ravage places to bring destruction.’

Such were the thoughts running through Melissa’s mind as she watched anxiously out the window. A drop of rain fell on her windowsill.

Her nervousness had been growing ever since she got up from the table after lunch. At first, she thought it was just her pregnancy, but then, the feeling only turned to dread, which led her to believe that it could be real. Something bad was going to happen to her husband.

Nonetheless, she sat at the window on an armchair, trying not to worry too much. It was not good for the baby, her mother had always told her. “Stay calm and everything will set aright,” she had always reminded Melissa.

And yet, the young to-be mother could not suppress a thought: ‘What if Louis doesn’t make it home on time? What if something happens to him on the way?’ The more she pushed it to the back of her mind, the more it pushed back to stay put. It was most literally a physical struggle between a human mind and a thought.

An hour passed by – it was by far the longest ever of her life. She fed the baby, still growing inside her, as well as herself, some milk. She, at last, picked up her phone that was lying on the dining table and

checked her messages every two minutes.

There was no call or message from him. A lot of people called to talk to her in that hour – her mother, two of her closest friends, her father-in-law, her mother-in-law, her youngest sister, her oldest sister, her little brother – but, not Louis. She tried to tell herself that he would be safely back, in time to take her to the hospital.

‘He remembered what day is today, didn’t he?’ she wondered, as an afterthought.

It was just as she was trying to distract herself that distraction came in the form of something she had been expecting, but took her by surprise anyway: her water broke.

Melissa panicked before she remembered once again to stay calm. She took in a few deep breaths and picked up her phone. No new messages or missed calls from her husband. She unlocked it and speed-dialed her husband’s number. It rang and rang, but he didn’t pick up. Thinking he must be in some meeting at work, Melissa cut the call, searched for her brother’s number, and dialed it. It rang only twice before Howard’s anxious voice came through:

“Hello, Melissa! What’s wrong?!”

“Howard, it’s time.”

Just those three words were enough for her brother to get the message. He at once cut the call and she knew he was making his way down to the little home that Louis had built for her just before their wedding two years ago.

The doorbell rang and it opened almost immediately, revealing a lanky Howard. He rushed towards his sister at the window, embraced her gently for only a second before he rushed to gather whatever he could to take to the hospital. It was all ready and sitting on the living-room sofa, Melissa knew. He then rushed to put them in the car, before running back to her. He gently wound an arm around her waist, placed his other on her arm that was nearest to him, and lifted her up slowly and steadily. They began to walk together. By the time they hobbled out the door, the rain had grown into a mini-thunderstorm, closing up the sky with dark clouds so it looked as though it was already seven in the night. A shiver ran through Melissa’s body, one that she was quite sure wasn’t only the cold wind that was hitting her body ruthlessly.

‘Rain—a part of nature that could either brush past to bring bliss or ravage places to bring destruction.’

This thought ran through her mind over and over again as her little brother, who was in fact no more little, but definitely some years younger than her, placed her carefully in the shotgun, before he himself sat at the driver’s seat. Within no time, Howard started the engine and the car was off towards the nearest hospital.

It was barely an hour later that the baby came out, which Melissa thought was rather shocking.

Was it okay to happen this way?

The doctor and the nurses who had attended her delivery assured her that this was not a very uncommon phenomenon. Still, she wondered if this was a sign.

When her family and friends were allowed into the room she was in to see the baby that had been placed precariously in her slim arms, all she could think of was, ‘Where’s Louis?’ All around her, people were fawning over the cute little baby boy she had just given birth to. She had also fussed over him the first few seconds, but then, she remembered that she was yet to hear anything from her husband.

Just as she opened her mouth to ask this, she saw her sisters and brother standing at the very back of the gathering, near the door, whispered amongst themselves, with a look of utter despair on their faces.

In that instant that their eyes met hers, Melissa knew that they had news of her husband.

The three of them requested the crowd to move aside; her father took the baby before his face grew sad and he stepped away from the bed. They reached her side and Melissa knew something horrible had happened.

Her older sister was the first to speak: “He was in an accident because of the storm. They tried hard at the hospital a few miles away from here, but he didn’t survive. I’m so sorry, Mel.”

The young mother surveyed the three faces before her, all of whom were wearing similar expressions on their faces.

“I tried reaching him,” Howard spoke up. “I called, messaged… Finally, I got a call back from his phone – a nurse telling me that he just passed away – and that they tried very hard to recover him, but that it was already beyond their control… Mel, I’m so sorry!”

The rest of her family was speaking to her, too, but she couldn’t hear their voices. Instead, all she saw was Louis’s face before her and how handsome he looked just before he left through the front door that very morning – and how happy and calm and relaxed. He had made her promise him that she would call him or her brother, whose workplace was nearest to her home if anything happened at all. Even if she felt scared about the whole thing.

And now… what? A few tears fell out of her eyes and down her cheeks. She looked at the door of the room and knew her husband was never going to walk through it. He was never going to know that he had, only minutes ago, become the father of a beautiful baby boy. He was –

‘No, I mustn’t think like that,’ she told herself in a fierce determination that’s suddenly raged through her soul. ‘I had known this moment was coming all day – that something bad had happened to him. But now that I’m a mother, I need to be strong. I need to show my darling baby that he has only a mother now – but one that can protect him from all harm.

‘And besides,’ she looked around her at all the people who had now become silent, waiting for her to say something, ‘I’m not all alone in the world. I have all these people who will love and care for me and help me when I need it. My baby may not have his father anymore, but he’ll still be loved! Everybody would pitch in and help bring him up! I can do this!’

Even though a few more tears spilled down her face, she forced a small smile on her face. She was ready. She reached her arms out towards her father, beckoning him to give her the baby. Her father obliged and she soon had the small thing in her arms. And his face – oh, it looked just like Louis in his baby photos!

“Hi, Louis! Welcome to the world!”

The little thing smiled and giggled, waving his legs about him. She tickled his throat extremely carefully and that was enough to set him off again.

Melissa turned to look out the window. The storm from earlier had held up and it was only drizzling now. She smiled.

Rain—a part of nature that could either brush past to bring bliss or ravage places to bring destruction. But, it also helps people start their lives afresh.