Ivey Pierce is an explorer, and thanks to her career as a wildlife biologist, she does not stay stationary for long. But when her parents die in a terrible accident, and her childhood home is left vacant for two years, she returns to the tattered me...
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I USED TO LOVE the rain, especially the smell as it mixed with the earth.
It rolled off the porch roof in heavy beads and pooled in the yard. The house shook as the wind changed directions, slamming sideways into the shingles. It was hard enough that I felt the rattle in my chest. I made a mental note to unclog the gutters since they weren't doing their job, but I watched the monsoon fall for now.
Rain was to the earth as oxygen was to our lungs.
All of the things I studied thrived off the element. Without it, crops wouldn't flourish, animals would die, and rivers would dry up. I wouldn't have a job or anything to write about. Though, sometimes, I thought about what my life would be like if it didn't rain.
Maybe my parents would still be alive.
I looked up from my computer, dampened my skin from the mist blowing through the porch screen, and closed my eyes.
"They're not picking up, Kate."
"Let me try. What are the satellite digits again?"
I repeated my parent's satellite phone number they always took on their research projects as I paced the length of my apartment. The TV glowed through the darkness, and the news castor's voice sounded like the teacher from Charlie Brown. I could not continue listening to how destructive the East Coast storms were.
"Nothing. They are not picking up."
I pressed my palms against my sockets. "Fuck! Kate. Am I going to have to call 911?"
My best friend stared at me from the lone armchair in my living room, her shoulders stiff. "Are you positive they have their phone with them?"
"Yes, they call me every evening."
"And you talked to them yesterday but not today?"
"Yeah."
"Maybe they are trying to find shelter and can't pick up right now."
Except, when their bodies were found, their phone was gone.
Kate tried her best creating false scenarios, so my mind and heart had something hopeful to cling onto. But somewhere deep in the center of my soul, I felt my tether between my parents snap that night. Like someone took sharp sheers to a sturdy ribbon, fracturing my lifeline, and at that moment, I had never felt so alone.
I used to love the rain.
I only liked it now.
Though every time the sky opened up, it felt like a bittersweet hello from my parents, which was why I didn't hate it.
A warm yellow light glimmered across the bay through the downpour, pulling me from my thoughts. Weston house. My lips turned up as I pictured him sitting on his porch with Masie. I walked to my lamp, squinted, and turned the switch on and off twice. Seconds later, his lights flickered—on, off, on, off.
