Untitled

Aubrianna hated the rain. Her mom made her read whenever it rained. Everyone was forced to read whenever it rained.

“I don’t have any more books to read,” Aubrianna said. “Can I draw?”

“They didn’t assign you any reading to do in class?”

“I already finished the reading assignment.”

It happened to be a lie. But Aubrianna really did not wish to read anymore since it would ruin a day already ruined by the rain.



In college Aubrianna started dating an English major by the name of Hugh. Despite his lack of a social personality, Hugh enjoyed joking around with Aubrianna whenever they were alone, and they quickly developed their own inside jokes. One in particular that Hugh found especially clever was referring to sex as reading and to condoms as books.

So, during a day in which it rained one weekend and ruined any prospects of hanging out in the quad with friends, Hugh proposed that they read together. He started rubbing her shoulders and kissing her neck, cheek, and lips, which didn’t really do much for Aubrianna, but it seemed to make Hugh believe he was being passionate so she didn’t say anything.

Before he attempted to awkwardly unstrap her bra, she asked, “Do you have any books?”

Hugh once joked that he had a Ulysses-sized book in his pocket, though Aubrianna knew that he only needed a Notes-from-the-Underground-sized book. Either way, Hugh always played up his cleverness.

Their relationship lasted only five months and several more listless reading sessions.

“We’re looking at another rainy week with highs in the sixties and lows getting into the twenties at night,” the weatherman at Channel 2, Don Yates, said. 

Aubrianna once met Don Yates at a party that she was invited to because her friend worked as a production assistant at the local news station. Being in her twenties and attractive, and he being lecherous and creepy, made it all the more inevitable for Don to strike up a conversation with Aubrianna.

“I read your book,” Aubrianna said. She was referring to Don Yates’ recent memoir he published called The Weather in Blue.

“What’d you think?”

“It might be best to stick to the news.”

“That bad, huh?”

They shared a laugh, but Don secretly hated her for pointing out his flaws. He resented any indication that he could be a failure at anything, which stemmed from a childhood of maternal tauntings that amounted to a record low in confidence that Don had been trying to pick back up nearly his entire life. 

Aubrianna felt a droplet hit her bare shoulder. She looked up, and Don promptly followed suit. Neither of them saw anything in the black sky, though she thought she saw a glimmer of a light floating through the clouds that probably was a plane flying over their city, though Aubrianna liked to pretend that because she could not definitively declare it a plane that it could possibly be a UFO.

“I think it’s raining,” she said.

“Huh?”

“I don’t think your forecast said anything about rain.”

They ended up sleeping together that night while it torrented outside. They both were slightly intoxicated, though Aubrianna merely wanted to sleep with Don Yates so she could one day lord it over her friend that she slept with the weather guy, which she colloquially referred to him for so long that she rarely even remembered his name.

“Why can’t I go play out in the rain?” Hailey asked. She was Aubrianna’s six year old daughter.

“Because you’ll get sick.”

Unlike her mother, though, Aubrianna didn’t make Hailey read, since growing older did nothing to inspire Aubrianna into reading more. In fact, since she had left school, become a mother, a graphic designer at a labeling firm, and an off-and-on blogger, Aubrianna rarely read more than a book per year. Yet she was constantly reminded by mom blogs about how she needed to ensure her child didn’t fall behind the curve, and always felt like a deficient mother because of her lack of motivation to read.

“Don’t you have homework you could finish up?”

“It’s July, mom. There’s no school work during the summer.”

“Yeah, but I know those teachers of yours assign summer reading lists.”

“I have all summer to read them.”

“Hailey.”

“Mom.”

They stared each other down, their expressions getting more intense by the second. The longer Aubrianna scrunched her brows the more it hurt, but she couldn’t let up and be beaten by a six year old less she be taken as soft.

“I’m going to go ask dad.”

“All right, I’ll make you a bet. If you read today and get your summer reading done, or at least mostly done, then tomorrow when the rain lets up you can go out and play for as long as you want. But if you go running to your daddy and he has to tell you the same thing I just told you, then I’ll make you read the extra credit reading on your reading list too, and you won’t be able to go play outside until you finish it all.”

Aubrianna knew Hailey would go running to her dad. Ian and Aubrianna had just discussed the issue of their daughter running to him whenever she felt her mom was being too mean and dad would always let his little princess get away with whatever she wanted. In order to come across as a unified front in parental guidance to their daughter, Aubrianna threatened to never sleep with Ian again if he ever unjustifiably retracted what she said to Hailey when it came to asks, wants, and questions about whether they could buy a pony for the backyard.

Hailey ended up spending the rest of the rainy day reading, and then the proceeding rest of summer, no matter the weather, reading. She intentionally made sure to avoid Aubrianna for the rest of the summer, and even went a couple of nights without eating just so she wouldn’t have to talk to either of her parents. But Hailey did end up learning to love reading.