Back in the Rain

by Elen Chase

  "I want to shoot too," screamed a girl with a ponytail.

  "No, you can't do it right!" said a boy covered in scratches, who reminded me of myself when I was his age.

  "But it's boring!"

  "I brought the ball and I decide who shoots," replied the boy. Then he put the ball on the ground and was about to kick it, when the girl stole it from him and sent it our way, hitting a half asleep Dan right in the head. Dan grabbed the ball as the kids were coming our way making guilty faces.

  "Whose ball is this?" asked Dan.

  "It's mine," said the boy.

  "So since it's yours, you have to apologize," he said.

  "Eh? That's not fair..." weakly argued the boy. Both Sara and I were confused by what Dan said. I would have just given it back asking them to be more careful.

  "He's right, it was my fault," said the girl, "I'm sorry."

  Dan smiled and patted her head, then gave them back the ball. "See? She's not so bad. I’d let her shoot, I think she's got talent," he said to the boy with an understanding smile.

  He nodded and said, "Come Liza, I'm gonna teach you my secret kick!" then grabbed her hand and they went back to play. He was trying to make them get along. That was cute of him.

  I kept watching the kids for a while; the boy was now trying to understand why the girl's shot was unstable. "Hey," I screamed at them, "You have to kick it with the inside of your shoes!" I jumped up to go to them.

  "Andrew, what are you doing?" asked Sara.

  "You know what?" I said, "I want to play too." I ran to the kids and showed them how to kick the ball correctly.

  "Let's have a match," said the boy at some point.

  "Good idea!" I replied, "Hey Dan, we need another player here!"

  Dan smirked, "I can't believe you're making me do this," he complained, but he came to us. "Sara, you keep the score," he said.

  "I want to team up with you," the girl told him.

  "Lady Killer," I whispered in his ear.

  "Fuck you, Drew," he answered, careful not to let the kids hear that. We moved some stones to make the goals, getting ready to start the match.

  "So the teams are Jack and Andrew versus Liza and Dan... Start!" said Sara.

  We played all evening, until the kids had to go back home. In the end my team lost, but I hadn't had so much fun in years.

  "You’re nothing special for an ex player," said Dan on our way back home.

  "I haven't played in years! And weren't you supposed to be the indoor type?"

  "With a proper strategy anyone can beat a stronger team," he smirked.

  "You put a lot of effort in it, ah?"

  "I wanted the girl to win."

  "Just say you hate to lose."

  "You have a point there."

  "Hey Sara, how come you're so quiet?" I asked.

  "I've completely lost," she sighed.

  "You weren't even playing," I said.

  "I mean that little girl in a couple of hours got way ahead of me with Dan!" she said out loud, even though she was probably having a monologue, since she didn't even care Dan was listening to her. Unexpectedly, this time Dan found it funny too, and laughed with me at what Sara said. Then he turned to her and said, "That's not true," and patted her head as he had done with Liza before. Sara turned to stone and we almost had to drag her back. When we arrived home I was exhausted, but it was still too early to go to bed, so I got a glass of milk from the kitchen. Dan was clearly tired too, and he sat on my bed. I brought him another glass and sat next to him.

  "Sorry I took your couch from you," I told him.

  "No, this way is actually more comfortable," he said.

  "You know, Shallie loved sports. When we went to a park, we often ended up playing with kids. Even the first time I met her, she hit me in the head with a baseball. God it hurt!"

  "Was it at school?"

  "Yes, first year of high school. She was in the baseball club. At the time I was in a pretty dark period, and meeting her was like waking up from a bad dream. After you left, even though I had tons of friends, I understood I wasn't really tied to anyone. I realized how life can be precarious, and how it can steal everything from you in a moment. I turned out to be afraid of death. I couldn't sleep at night, I was frightened, I thought my heart would stop beating any time. Soon I became a hypochondriac; in six months I went to see something like thirty doctors, my parents didn't know what to do with me. Then bang, she hit me in the head and sent me to the nurse’s office, just to show up ten minutes later saying ‘look, you're perfectly fine. I get hit all the time!’ She shocked me, but that was what I needed the most. She showed me I was still alive, and that I wasn't going to die so easily even if death had been so close to me in the past."

  "I see. That sounds like something An would say."

  "You're probably right. But in fact they were absolutely different. An was a storm. She used to force her way into people's lives and shake it with a rush of emotions. Shallie was like a spring rain; it would surprise you when you're outside without an umbrella, but after a while it would become so comfortable, you’d end up wishing it would last forever. I miss her. I miss them both. I often wondered what it would have been like if the two of them met each other."

  "An wouldn't have allowed you to have a girlfriend," said Dan, making a nostalgic smile. That's right. We were too obsessed with each other to be able to see anyone else, the three of us. "But I'm sure," he added, "that if she saw you truly happy with someone else, in the end she would have accepted it."

  "How do you know?"

  "I know because that's how I feel."

  I didn't know how to react to that, so I tried to divert our attention to another thing. "An would've totally hated Chloe," I said, smiling. He smiled back at me.

  "She would have killed her."

  "What was it like to date Chloe?"

  "I don't really know how to answer that."

  "How can you not know?"

  "I told you, I'm not used to normal relationships, so I don't really understand what was normal or not."

  "You've dated for two years, what have you been doing all the time?"

  A long pause. "A lot of sex, I guess." I had made that Dan, always so stoic and cool, uncomfortable. I had to hold in a chuckle.

  "All the time?" I asked.

  "Well, most of the time."

  "Okay, anything but that?"

  "Let me think… when we first started dating I often went to pick her up at school. She's two years younger than us, so I had already graduated at the time."

  "See? That's normal."

  "I was almost killed by her father when he found us making out in her room."

  "Ha-ha-ha, you know, this is definitely normal."

  "I seriously risked my life there. He wasn't supposed to come home that night, thankfully we were just on first base. Is it really that funny?"

  I was laughing so hard I had tears in my eyes. "Sorry Dan, really, it's hilarious thinking of you in that situation. You were always so perfect when you were a kid."

  "That job ruined me."

  "About that, was Chloe alright with you doing that job?"

  "Yes, we had a sort of open relationship, we were free to see other people if we wanted. Also, the brothel is the place we first met."

  "Was it?"

  "Yeah, she’d come there to apply to work with us. Good thing she found me at the reception that day."

  "Seriously? Why would she do that?"

  "I wondered that too. Most people do this job because they need money or are forced to. That's why I wanted to talk to her before taking her application. When I found out her reasons, I refused to let her in and asked her to be my girlfriend instead. She said yes, and that's how it begun."

  "And what were her reasons?"

  "She’s always been a free spirit, and she used to go out with a lot of guys. Her school was an all-girls institute, and some of her classmates were jealous of her, so they used her lifestyle to spread rumors about her being
a prostitute. She was heavily bullied and reached a sort of breaking point. She told me ‘If I really become one, at least nobody would be lying about me anymore’. I liked how she seemed so proud, even though she was making the dumbest decision of her life. Like I told you before, I often went to pick her up at school, and apparently always seeing her with the same guy helped stop the rumors and the bullying. Finally we found out that the leader of the bullies was trying to get revenge on her because her boyfriend had dumped her, saying he had fallen for Chloe."

  "Girls are scary."

  "They really are."

  Chapter 12

  That night, talking with him, I finally felt I had found my friend again. He had certainly changed, but I felt that deep down he was still the same person I knew. I told him about Shallie and the time we spent together, high school, and my dream of entering the police academy. And I asked about him. He answered my questions, but I could tell he was keeping from me all the major details about his job and the people he met. I decided not to insist on that and simply accepted what he was telling me.

  The next morning I was woken by my watchpad ringing. It was Marshall. I took the call immediately.

  "Hello? It's John Marshall. How are you, Andrew?"

  "Dr. Marshall, what a pleasure to hear from you. I have recovered completely."

  "I'm really glad to hear that. Listen, would it be alright for you to have lunch together today? I want to thank you in person for your kindness of the other day. If it wasn't for you, who knows what could have happened to me. Besides, I have another matter I would like to discuss with you, if you don't mind."

  Something to discuss with me? I hope we didn't make a wrong move.

  "Yes, of course. Feel free to send me the address here on my watchpad."

  "I'll do so, thank you Andrew. See you soon."

  My watchpad rang again after a few seconds, signaling an incoming mail. I opened the map of our meeting spot, an expensive Uptown restaurant. I was just a little disappointed; it would have been perfect if we could have met at his house, even better if the daughter was there. Nevertheless, I still had a chance to talk with him about Robinson, so it was fine.

  I went to Dan's room to tell him the news, and found him sleeping on top of his bed with his clothes still on. On the bedside table, a glass of water and a bottle of pills.

  "Hey Dan, wake up," I gently shook him, and as soon as I touched his shoulder he grabbed my wrist and jumped up, breathing heavily. His hand was cold and sweaty, and it seemed to take him a couple of seconds to recognize me. He looked scared.

  "Drew," he cleared his throat and let go of me.

  "Are you alright?" I asked him.

  "Yeah, I think... I was having a nightmare." My eyes focused on the pills on the table, which were different from the ones I had seen before. I was about to ask him more about it, but he spoke first, "What did you want to tell me?"

  "Marshall called me; I'm having lunch with him today. He said he has something to discuss with me."

  "I see," he massaged his forehead, as if he was in pain.

  "Are you sure everything’s fine?"

  "Yes, it's good that you can meet him. Let me know how it goes."

  "Sure..." Before I could say anything else, he got up and went to the bathroom. I picked up the pills bottle, but the lack of a label on it prevented me from understanding what kind of medicine they were.

  Later that morning I went back to my parents' house to get dressed properly for the lunch, and since I was going there, I planned to get more clothes too. It felt strange to be back. It was almost a month that I hadn’t seen my house, since that rainy night I ran away and met Dan. My mother was working from home, and came to meet me at the door. We drank a cup of tea together, she asked me how I had been doing over the past week, and told me about her new architectural project. Then I went to get changed in my room, and for a moment, oppressed by memories, I felt the urge to run away again. I forced myself to take a breath and pulled myself together. I prepared my clothes and several other things to bring back to Downtown, and went back downstairs.

  "You look so handsome!" said Mum when she saw me.

  "Mum, it's a jacket on a shirt."

  "And it suits you well! You've grown up so much!" Her cheerful smile slowly faded, looking at the bag full of stuff that I was bringing with me. It hurt to see her sad, and I had to fight the temptation to tell her everything about Shallie, Dan and my investigation; I didn’t want to involve my parents in what I was doing.

  "What is it like to live in Downtown?" she asked.

  "It's not as bad as everyone says. Maybe it’s less comfortable, but people are just people, no matter where they live."

  "Is Dan alright? We didn't have the chance to talk much the other day."

  I remembered his reaction from that morning, and the pills. "He's fine, I think. But I can never understand what he's thinking."

  "It must have been hard for him. It broke my heart seven years ago when he came to apologize to us for the help we were giving his family. It was just before he left Uptown; he offered to repay us for everything, but we categorically refused. Poor boy, so young and already so many responsibilities on his back. Did he tell you?"

  "Yes, he told me he found out you were paying his school fees after An's death. I never knew any of that."

  "After that time we went to Downtown with you, we searched so long for him… Talking to the high school principal, we found out that his mother had run away, and he had moved somewhere else. He wasn't even attending school regularly; he had requested a special permission to skip class for work. He never communicated to the teachers his new address, nor did he give them a valid ID number to get in touch with him. That’s when we had to face the truth; he didn't want to be found. Yet on An's birthday and anniversary we would always find a wonderful bouquet of different flowers on her grave. We were sure it was him, and we understood that he must have had his own reasons to avoid us. We didn't tell you for your own good, but maybe if we had told you, things might have been different."

  "It doesn't matter now. We can't change the past anyway. Thank you for telling me now."

  Mum hugged me, and then I left for the restaurant. I arrived five minutes earlier than our appointment time, and Marshall was already waiting for me at a table for two. We had a full course: pasta and fish served with the best white wine, two fish seconds, fruits and dessert, and finally coffee. During the lunch, he asked me about my studies and we talked about sports. When we were drinking our coffee, he finally got to the point.

  "Andrew, you see, I wish to talk to you about a very delicate matter."

  "Of course, if there is anything that I could do for you."

  "Speaking with your father, after the accident, I became aware of the terrible loss you suffered recently. I give you my condolences."

  Was that it? "Thank you, sir. I appreciate it."

  "I don't know if you heard of it in some way, but my daughter is facing a similar situation. She was engaged to Mr. Robinson Jr., have you ever heard of him?"

  "Yes, I saw his case on the news."

  "Since her fiancé’s death, my daughter has locked herself in our house and refuses to go out. She cannot accept what happened, and is unable to believe what the police told us. I know I would be asking too much of you, but could you try to talk to her?"

  "Me, sir?"

  "I thought that perhaps meeting someone around her age who recently suffered a loss, like her, could help her move forward. I understand this is a sudden request and since you saw the news you probably have your opinion on the matter, but I can guarantee that my daughter is an innocent young woman in shock because of what her own husband-to-be has done. Too many of her friends have abandoned her, afraid to ruin their reputations. My poor girl has been left alone with the ghost of that man, and I can't do anything for her." That was it. I was to comfort the woman engaged to the guy who potentially killed my own girlfriend. However, that was my only chance to know more about him.


  "I understand. I’ll talk to her. I need to move forward too."

  "Thank you, Andrew. You really are a good boy."

  "Don't mention it!"

  "I will arrange a meeting soon then," he said while standing up. We left the restaurant and shook hands again.

  "Oh, by the way," he said lastly, "how is your friend doing?"

  "My friend?"

  "The one that was hospitalized." Right. That was the excuse Dan made up to justify our presence at the hospital.

  "He's better. He was actually discharged soon after that."

  "That's good to hear. I'll see you soon, Andrew."

  "Goodbye, Dr. Marshall." It was done. I was finally about to find out if that guy really was involved in Shallie's death.

  Chapter 13

  The day An died, I was out of town for a soccer match with my team. It wasn't an important game so I told both her and Dan they could just go to school normally instead of coming to see me. But An called me right before the match.

  "Annie, you're not gonna lose just because we're not there, are you?"

  "No way! Otherwise I wouldn’t be the coolest brother on Earth."

  "Enough with the sass, brother!" she said, and then remained silent for a while. "Annie," she said at last, "I'm cheering for you, always. And even if you lose, you are the coolest brother anyway."

  "What's that about? That’s gross!" I said, hoping my teammates didn't see me blushing like an idiot.

  "Ha-ha, don't get too emotional over it, okay?"

  "Shut up and go back to class!"