His Rainbow After the Rain

by Grace Clemens

  “Yes, it is noble,” she said, barely able to contain her disdain. This issue would need to be addressed soon. She couldn’t work so closely with a woman she was beginning to dislike tremendously. And Mrs. Edwards was unkind to the children, something Mary would not be able to tolerate for much longer. It was hard enough to get the parents to let the children come to school, making the little ones want to stay away would make that task impossible. “But I’m not doing it for praise. I want everyone to understand what’s going on in the world. Women like you and me need a voice. We need to be heard. The newspaper is a wonderful way to make that happen. You must agree on that.”

  Mrs. Edwards looked like she really didn’t want to agree at all. She nodded, a look of regret on her face. “If it happens, it will happen. But nothing comes from forcing change on people.”

  Mary couldn’t disagree more. Someone had to stand up and speak. Just thinking and waiting wasn’t going to make a change. Someone had to take charge.

  “Change doesn’t just happen out of the blue, Mrs. Edwards,” she said, moving around her desk and leaning back on it to sit on the edge, her fingers grasping the wooden lip of the surface board. She was doing everything she could to restrain her frustration with the other teacher. “There has to be someone with the courage and strength and resolve to make things happen. Otherwise, things will just continue on as they were. And I think what I’m focusing on for the newspaper is something that should interest you, too.”

  Mrs. Edwards looked at her directly, her eyes narrow with contempt. Mary didn’t understand why. It was a complete mystery to her why the woman couldn’t see the benefits that could come from shedding light on the plight of women all around the nation? Wasn’t she a woman herself? Couldn’t she sympathize? Or did she want men in control of everything forever?

  “I think you are dabbling in matters that are above your head and above your station.” Her words were spoken with such a deep level of disdain that Mary felt like she’d been stabbed. Mrs. Edwards was nearly venomous when she continued, “You are neither smart enough to take on the likes of the mayor, nor courageous enough to speak for all women. You are a schoolteacher, just like me. Never forget this is where you belong.”

  Mary was stunned when the woman spun on her heel and stomped up the stairs without another word. She stared out in front of her at the wall separating her from the exit. She wanted nothing more than to be on the other side, enjoying the sunshine on her face.

  She couldn’t move for a moment, stunned speechless. What could have caused Mrs. Edwards, who had only been grumpy before, to turn suddenly hostile? She’d never seen the woman so upset. It hurt her feelings but she also thought there had to be something going on she didn’t know about.

  Mary moved around the desk again to finish cleaning the blackboard. She did so in a daze, wanting nothing more than to leave the building and clear her mind. She wasn’t going to feel the pain that pushed hard to come to the surface. Mrs. Edwards’ dismissal of something she cared so much about hurt her feelings more than she cared to admit.

  She finished the chalkboard and abandoned cleaning the fireplace for the next day. She wanted to get out of there.

  Mary left the building behind with tears in her eyes, hurrying to her horse, mounting and riding away without a glance behind her. She wondered whether if she went to the beauty shop she might see Sarah. She desperately wanted to see a friendly face.

  So that became her destination and a few minutes later, she was riding along a side-street, the little yellow building in her sights. The white awning was new, something the owner, a petite red-haired waif of a woman named Debbie, was constantly proud to point out. Her new husband, Jared, had erected it himself and Debbie was in the gushing stage over her husband. Everything he did was wonderful.

  Mary didn’t mind it. She might long for a love like that someday but she would never begrudge her friend from having that love now. Jared was a kind man with a lot of intelligence to his credit. He was successful in his home improvement business, which Mary always thought was a fancy way of saying “handyman” anyway.

  But Mary liked both Debbie and Jared and wished them nothing but the best.

  Typically, when Mary couldn’t find Sarah, she could find her in the beauty shop, where women had creams put all over their faces to retain whatever youth they could muster. It wasn’t the most popular shop in Texas. But since Debbie had learned to cut hair, she’d been making more money. It seemed the women in Glenwood just weren’t that interested in her fancy “creams from across the ocean”.

  Mary dismounted in front of the shop, spying her friend’s horse out front. She went up the stairs and into the parlor of the beauty shop, looking from side to side for Sarah. She found her in the corner at a table, looking in a mirror while Debbie’s employee, Annette, ran a comb through her blond hair.

  She crossed to sit in a chair she pulled up from one of the small waiting tables. She sat in the small chair, which was probably meant for a child, her knees pressed against each other and leaning forward with her arms pushed together.

  “What are you doing to your beautiful hair, Sarah?” she asked bluntly, a smile on her face to indicate she was teasing. “Not shaving it off, I hope?”

  Sarah turned her eyes only to Mary and grinned. “No, no. She’s going to style it for me and show me how to do it on my own. I have to be taught these things, you know. I don’t get this fashionable without help.”

  “How nice of you to acknowledge us little people,” Annette said, leaning around her to grin at Sarah.

  “Oh, of course. I wouldn’t be where I am today without you.”

  The three women laughed.

  “So, Mary, I hear you’re trying your hand at writing and publishing some articles in the paper this summer?”

  Mary was stunned to hear the news had spread so fast. Who had Philip told? It would have annoyed her if her sensible mind didn’t immediately come up with several ways the news could have spread. Philip surely had to mention the idea to other people on his staff, who could have in turn told someone else and so on and so forth. Matthew was working there. He may have overheard and inadvertently spread the news to his parents who could have also told their friends.

  Why her life would be so important to these people was beyond her. But Mary was just glad to hear she didn’t have to hide what she was doing when she got information. In fact, in some cases, it might make it harder.

  “I think you better write your first article on that storm we got acomin’,” Annette said.

  Mary’s eyes flipped up to the young woman.

  “What?”

  Annette nodded. “Yessir, we’re gonna get a terrible storm if it keeps comin’ from California like it’s supposed to. It might even trigger some earthquakes or tornados. Really hopin’ that doesn’t happen.”

  Mary dropped her eyes to stare into space, thinking about it. Weather was a topic everyone could get behind. She would make that the topic of her next piece.

  Chapter 24

  Mary didn’t get a chance to publish an article on the upcoming storm. It hit the little town long before anyone expected. They had no real warning. It was all speculation until the clouds rolled over the tops of the mountains in the distance and dropped down to hide the peaks from view. The deep, thick masses were so filled with water, they looked about to break open and pour out water like buckets onto the dry ground below.

  It wasn’t quite as hard at first. The rain was almost like a gentle spring rainfall. But that was the first day.

  Mary holed herself up in a small cottage a friend had asked her to watch while she was out of town. The beginning gave no indication what would happen next. The gentle rainfall turned into a large-drop thunderstorm that turned into a full-on wind-blowing, slap of a rain storm that threatened to wash the little town away.

  On the fourth day, Mary was running out of supplies. Her candles were all burned, she was almost out of oil and the food was about to run out. She hadn’t expec
ted to stay in the house and since her friend was out of town, she hadn’t done a lot of shopping. Mary would be down to bread and butter with boiled water pretty soon.

  She had to risk going to town for supplies. She didn’t really have a choice when she thought about it.

  Mary would have been to the supply store and back in less than an hour. But it only took one step toward the front door, her face buried in her purse, to know she had more worries right now. She lowered her purse and looked down at her foot, which had pushed down into the rain-soaked carpet and make a squishing sound.

  Mary was dismayed. She slumped her shoulders and let her head fall to the side. “Oh no,” she moaned. “Where is that water coming from?”

  She spoke the words aloud, even though there was no one around. She followed the trail of wet carpet to the front door. When she opened the door, she moved her eyes up the porch wood in the dim light, not noticing until that moment how slanted the floor was right there. Because of the way the rain was hitting the porch, it was flooding back toward the doorway.

  Mary had to think quickly. She needed something that would divert the water away from the front door. She spun around and went back in the house, heading straight for the fireplace. There were planks of wood nailed to the outside of the fireplace, and several acting as a mantle.

  She scanned the boards, thinking of a way to get them loose. She grabbed a poker and jammed it in between two of the boards. She used all her might to pry the board loose and then worked on a second one.

  Once she had the two of them off, she ran back out to measure them against the front door. They were wide enough that if she put one board at an angle and the other behind it to keep it propped on its side, the water would slide down the board and move away from the front door. Following that, the water would continue down the side of the house and make a small waterfall on the side of the house.

  Satisfied that the makeshift ramp would deflect the water away from the house, she knew she would have to go to the supply shop and soon. She would need some bags of sand if she could get her hands on some, and maybe some salt as well.

  She wanted more towels and other supplies to help her get through the bad weather. God forbid it start snowing. She didn’t know what she would do if that happened. She hadn’t survived through anything terrible like that while on her own.

  Mary opened the door to leave, having gotten her hooded rain jacket on, along with her boots and gloves, a long cape that she wore over her rain jacket and a large umbrella.

  She opened the door and looked out again. This time her eyes weren’t on the porch floor. They were on the sky in the distance. The mountains were still capped with dark clouds. Every direction she looked made her think of just one word. Wet. Everything was so wet. It made her feel dreary inside. She immediately longed for sunshine.

  She stepped out and was hit on the side of the face by a harsh gust of wind. She closed her eyes and resisted behind pushed in that direction a few steps.

  Dismissing the desire to run back in the house, slam the door and refuse to leave till the weather settled Mary pushed on, going to the edge of the steps and lifting her hand against the cold spray of light mist that made her skin tingle.

  She made it to her horse and pulled herself up in the saddle with only two tries. She hated that she’d had to leave the horse out front with no shelter. And now the leather of her saddle was soaked and so was she. She would want to change as soon as she got to the store.

  Grumbling under her breath, she turned the horse and took off toward the supply shop. She had a sneaking suspicion she was going to be getting too many things to bring back in one trip. And there was no way she was going to make two trips. No way.

  If only she’d had a buggy to help her take supplies back. She hadn’t even thought about it. It didn’t matter if she had thought about it. She didn’t own a buggy and nor did the friend she was house-sitting for.

  So, it was a moot point.

  She squinted out into the pouring rain, knowing full well she could take cold from this and die of pneumonia or some God-awful rain-borne disease. But she didn’t feel like she had a choice.

  Obviously school had been shut down because of the weather. There was no way she would make those children chance coming to school when their very homes were in danger of being swept away by a terrible flood or a mudslide.

  In the past four days, Mary had only seen Philip once. He didn’t appear to be in a good mood, so she hadn’t said much to him. She chose instead to enjoy his company and hope that things would get better between them in the future. She really hoped he would be able to stay calm when the mayor confronted him and pushed for the articles that needed to be published.

  And she also hoped he missed her during their time apart.

  Stupid weather keeping her from the man she longed for, she grumbled as she rode through the nasty weather. It felt like forever before she came up to the general store, where she dismounted in a hurry and ran inside.

  She would have shaken off like a dog but what she saw inside caught her by surprise. There were quite a few people in the store. They must have forgotten to shop for supplies, too. She heard a low murmuring as they discussed among themselves what they needed to get. The shuffling of feet indicated they were taking their time looking around. No one was in a hurry to leave the place.

  The more she thought about it, the more she understood that concept. The only other place to be during weather like this was at home. If you weren’t at home, you had to at least stay indoors. And that’s what Mary and the rest of the townsfolk were doing. Staying inside whenever possible.

  She was amused to think they were probably thinking the same thing she was. She didn’t want to go back out there, even to go on the short trip home.

  She browsed around, not seeing anyone particularly important to her. She smiled and waved at her friends and neighbors, who nodded back. None of them looked interested in holding a conversation, which was fine with her. She moved closer to the counter to see Annette coming around one of the aisles.

  Mary was a little surprised to see the young woman but she didn’t know why. Annette had to eat like everyone else.

  Mary picked up two boxes of candles and cradled them like a baby in her arms. She stepped in front of Annette, grinning from ear to ear.

  “Good afternoon, Annette. How have you been?”

  Annette looked at her strangely and Mary didn’t blame her. The two of them had rarely interacted since the last time they were in the beauty parlor together. Mary made it sound like the two of them were the best of friends and as if she was genuinely interested in getting to know each other. Mary saw no reason not to be overly friendly. She was just curious, because the two women had never gotten along very well.

  “I… guess I’ve been fine,” the girl responded.

  Mary figured if anyone was going to tell on her about working at the newspaper, it would be old gas-mongering Annette, the girl who loved to gossip.

  Chapter 25

  Mary walked around the store with Annette. The girl seemed genuinely interested in the stories Mary wanted to write for the newspaper. Jacob, who owned the general store, had set up a table with coffee and hot tea for free. There were a few chairs spread about so people could sit by the fire if they wanted to and take a rest.

  Mary and Annette took advantage of two free chairs and sat to talk for a few minutes, setting the baskets of supplies they’d collected on the floor next to them.

  “I could really use a cup of coffee,” Mary said under her breath, eyeing the table. She looked at Annette through the side of her eyes. “Would you like a cup?”