The Rainstorm

Kevin was on his way to pick up his wife from work. She hated driving when it was storming. It made her nervous to think about it. If she needed to drive through a storm, she would get physically sick.

As he pulled in front of the building he called her on his car phone to alert her that he had arrived. Not receiving an answer he knew that she was already on the way down. He exited the car to open her door. Waiting in the rain, he contemplated in solace. He had always enjoyed the rain. A figure moving in his direction grabbed his attention. It was his wife. Reaching for the door handle, he paused until the very moment she was upon the car. She gave him a kiss before entering the car. Returning to the driver’s seat, something occurred to him, but he didn’t fully invest in it.

“Thank you for picking me up.”

“It’s my pleasure,” smiling at his wife.

The drive home was forty-five minutes on a clear day, so Kevin anticipated about an hour and a half drive. As the rain became more severe Emily rubbed on her collar and stared out her window with a glazed look in her eyes. Kevin knew that she was nervous. She always spaced out when she got that way. It was as if she left her mind. She couldn’t register what was actually going to happen. He wished she wasn’t like that. It made him worry about her. He frequently checked on her, to the point of being obnoxious even though they hadn’t been traveling very long.

As the rain pelted the windshield, a thud caused Kevin to snap back to reality refocusing his attention on the road. Torrential downpours caused him to slow his speed to ten under the speed limit which made it unusually slow for the city. Out of his peripheral vision he noticed his wife began to chew her fingernails. A habit she never managed to break. As they got closer to leaving the city limits, Kevin could feel his wife’s anxiety rise. The slower he drove the more focused on the rain he became. He drove slow enough to notice there was something weird about the rain.

“Honey? Do you see that?”

“It’s pouring.”

“No, not that.”

As Emily blankly stared into the storm, he was met with no reaction.

“There’s something weird about this storm. I just can’t quite figure it out.”

Focusing slightly more, Emily noticed it too.

“What is that?”

Kevin slowed down more trying to figure out whether or not it was safe. Emily straightened to focus better and also noticed something was extremely odd. As the rain pelted the road, she noticed that the drops were bouncing, but also knew that sometimes it had that illusion during a heavy rainfall and dismissed the thought.

“Frogs. They have to be frogs,” said Kevin.

“And we just can’t see them well because it’s pouring?”

“Has to be. There’s no other explanation.”

“You didn’t notice when you got in the car?” said Emily.

“Actually...I didn’t.”

Both watching in disbelief, Kevin and his wife tried to figure out what was so strange. Leaning closer to the dashboard, Emily tried to focus on the individual raindrops, but was unsuccessful.

Not sure what else to do, he continued to drive cautiously home. The idea of it being frogs was now so far-fetched he embarrassed himself thinking about, but didn’t know what else to believe. All he knew was it wasn’t normal. Tuning in to the sound of the rain on the roof of the car, he noticed it sounded weird as well.

“Listen.”

She, too, turned her attention to the sound and noted that it didn’t sound like a normal rainstorm. Glancing at her husband with concern, she shifted uncomfortably in her seat drawing the attention of her husband.

“Are you alright?”

“This is creepy, Kevin.”

“I’ve never seen anything like this before.”

“What’s going on?”

Curiosity began to eat Kevin alive. Being on an isolated road made it easy for Kevin to pull over to the shoulder. He knew there was an advantage to living in a rural community although the drive was wearisome. He tremendously disliked suburbs, because they were so blase. They all look the same to him with very little variance.

Pulling off onto the side of the road, Kevin put the transmission in park then slid out of the car. Expecting to be pelted with heavy rain, he was taken by surprise when they bounced off of him. Laughing hysterically, he called his wife to join him. Waving to her to coerce her out of the car, she watched him hesitantly.

Watching the rain bounce off the road, he tried to get a closer look, but had difficulties. Not believing what he was witnessing, he kneeled beside the car and watched as the raindrops bounced out of control like tiny rubber balls.

Curious of the texture, he tried to catch one. He had to know what they were made of. As he cupped his hands to cover one, he noticed the street was still dry. Then Kevin turned his attention to the car and noticed the car was still dry as well and for further confirmation, he pressed his hands against his clothes which should have been drenched. When he verified that his clothes were dry as a bone, he laughed more hysterically from the disbelief of it all rushing to the passenger side of the car, startling his wife in the process.

“Emily. Emily, look.”

He gestured for her to roll the window down.

“Emily. It’s not water.”

“Then what is it?”

“I have no idea, but look...my shirt is dry.”

Looking at her husband as if he had lost his mind, she had to check for herself. Getting out of the car, she noticed the rain drops bouncing and what she thought were frogs now made her change her mind. Kneeling to get a closer look, she was appalled to learn that her husband was correct. Unsure of how to proceed they looked at each other trying to understand the situation. Too distraught about the incident, they rushed to get back in the car more than anxious to leave.

Kevin pressed the accelerator to the floor and drove surprisingly faster than he anticipated. Ready to put the night behind them, he continued home. He knew he shouldn’t be driving very fast, but for the first time he made an exception. Not sure what to say at that moment, they both remained silent for the remainder of the trip home.