FFM 22 - Rain

Rain is one of those things that children inherently love, until they’re taught not to.  In the beginning, it’s all magic: water falling from nowhere, light and sound cracking the heavens.  That’s before you can’t go outside for recess because it’s raining, and the family trip is cancelled because it’s raining, and your favorite book is ruined because it’s raining.  And no one really likes to be cold and soaking wet, down to their socks.  

No one except Maddy.   From the day she was born, she has enjoyed nothing more than rain, while her peers scatter like cockroaches.  It’s not the first way in which she’s different, and she already knows it won’t be the last.  

“Maddy!”  Jenny Hartsman, the new girl next door, calls out her window.  “Come play Let’s Dance with us!”  But Maddy can see Sabrina Werner over her shoulder, with her usual sneer, and Maddy knows that invitation is only made out of ignorance.  Jenny will figure out the middle school caste system soon enough, and these invitations won’t happen anymore.  

Maddy laughs and waves them off, spinning in the middle of the cul-de-sac.  Meteorologists are already calling it the most precipitation they’ve seen in years, and her yellow rain boots are sloshing and overflowing with the proof.  Dancing to the thunderous drums and howling winds, she laughs harder and fuller than she can remember.  She spins and twirls and comes to a full stop with a jerk, trying to make sense of what she’s seeing.

Inches in front of her face, the rain pours in streams around the edges of door that is not there, directly in the center of the side walk.  Mister Morton’s house is clearly visible on the other side of it, though the rivulets of water trace around the edges of molding, a round door knob that seems a little lower than usual, and the tiny ripples of a wood grain texture.  

She does what any sensible person would have to do, and when she closes her fingers around the knob, she feels a smooth, cold surface.  It gives when she turns it, and she goes beyond what a sensible person would do.

The door opens under her touch, and Maddy steps into the bottom of the ocean.  Breathing the vaguely violet-tinted water comes naturally, and she strolls along the sandy floor as easily as if she were on land.  Above, she can see no sign of the surface or sunlight, yet everything is visible.  A tiny fish swims by, snapped up by a larger fish.  An ichthyosaurus glides by and easily devours the larger fish.  Maddy sees it all, though she realizes that this is miles away, somewhere else in the ocean.  

Somewhere between, a star crashes down from the ocean above into the floor below, trailing streaks of white steam and black smoke.  The impact rocks her, and the ichthyosaur is devoured by an aquatic unicorn the size of a nuclear sub.  Things start to break down.  A school of multi-colored fish swim by, singing a tuneless song.  The stars start to come out, blinking into existence in familiar constellations  above her.

The impact site is suddenly very close, and she approaches with caution.  Thick clouds of steam continue to billow around it like squid-ink, but she inches forward get a better look.  It’s something more like a jet or spaceship than the meteor she had originally expected, and she can make out a rectangular seam, almost like a hatch.  Reaching forward, she leans out into the harmless plumes of boiling water, extending her fingertips towards its surface…

… And doesn’t see the samurai shark coming until it’s too late.  Its feudal helmet slides back, opening up a mouthful of jagged, triangular teeth.  She dives away, but its mouth is already around her.

She blinks, and she’s back on the sidewalk, staring ahead at the space where the door had been when last she checked.  The rain has stopped, and the invisible door is invisible again.  She reaches forward, feels nothing, and drops her hand back to her side.

The clouds are breaking up, and rays of sunshine are streaking down to the quaint little cul-de-sac.  A rainbow streaks across the horizon, and the children of the block return to their busy schedule of play, but Maddy goes back to her room and draws pictures upon pictures of doors within doors.