The Gray-Blue Sky

When it was raining outside, and she sat in the car with her mom and dad, listening to music and leaning her head against the windows. She didn’t feel fully awake, but she knew she wasn’t sleeping. The lines were blurred like the cross coloring of the gray-blue sky. It was peaceful and calm, and Evie almost couldn‘t remember anything bad ever happening to her. The movement of the car and the sound of the rain hitting the window almost lulled her to sleep. The music was also helping in that regard. She almost didn’t feel like she had homework due on Monday. She almost couldn’t remember the fight she had with her friend, Vanya, not even twelve hours ago. She almost couldn’t remember the countless times she had walked into her sister Kathryn’s room, only to remember she was gone away to collage. But she still did. And that was why she couldn’t sleep. She was drowsy, but her thoughts haunted her mind, clouded her vision, to the point where she hadn’t slept in days. She sat there, head still against the window, thinking about all those things and more. She thought about her reading assignment from Mrs. Vaca that she still hasn’t done. She thought about her sister‘s Stanford scholarship, and how her parents had been so proud. She thought about her best friend Evan and how they planned to ride their bikes to that abandoned hospital after school on Friday. And she thought about Mary, the pretty girl at school she wanted to dance with at homecoming. That was another thing she thought about often, especially at times like these, when her perception was blurred. She hadn’t told her parents she liked girls yet. But, as she listened to her music, head on her window, thinking about Mary as raindrops rolled down her window, nothing really mattered to her. She smiled to herself. All those worries were obstacles for another day, another time. But here, right now, all she could do was stare at the rain, a feeling of peace washing over her. She hoped this moment would last forever.