A Summer Night's Rain

By David Bowlin

The night was unusually dark and quiet. No owls hooted, no distant wolves howled at the moon. A wicked wind moaned and shuffled crisp leaves, scratching and scraping, across the dry grass. The breeze blowing through Rachel's unlit window smelled of distant rain. Dark clouds were gathering in the sky, blocking the feeble light of the stars. A single tear slid down her face as a cloud passed over the moon.

"Where are you?" she asked the darkness of the night. "Someone out there must be as lonely as I am. If only I could find you..."

You'll never find that person sitting in your room, she thought. Before she could change her mind, Rachel climbed out her bedroom window and pressed herself against the side of her house, listening for any sound from within. She heard quiet laughter from the living room television where her brother was watching a rerun of Seinfeld, but nothing more. Satisfied that she wouldn't be missed, she quickly walked to the edge of the woods behind the house. She looked back once, and then she was gone.

After walking for only a few minutes, Rachel imagined she heard someone walking behind her. At first she thought it must be her brother, that he had somehow noticed she was gone and had followed her into the woods to bring her back home. She stopped and turned around. No one was there, nothing but gently swaying trees and the dark shadows beneath them.

Suddenly, lightning crashed nearby and Rachel barely stifled a scream. She was spooked now, and she started to run. Deeper into the woods she went, faster and farther, until she tripped. Her nightgown caught on the root that had tripped her and ripped from her body when she jumped to her feet and started running again.

Rain pelted her body, stinging her bare skin as she ran through the woods, alone and lost and afraid. She'd never been this deep into the woods before, and with no moon to guide her, she had no hope of getting home. As her tears mingled with the cold rain she stepped out of the woods and into a circular clearing. In the middle of the clearing was an old log cabin, and sitting on the porch was a young man.

Rachel and the young man saw each other at the same time, both of them startled to find another person this deep in the woods. She stood, shivering and wet, too surprised to run or scream. After a few seconds, the young man ran into the cabin and emerged again with a warm quilt. He ran into the clearing and wrapped her with the quilt and led her to the porch. She sat down in the hand made chair as the young man went inside again.

The rain was falling harder now, the thunder crashing angrily around the sky. Lightning sizzled the air repeatedly as Rachel shivered from the cold and surprise. When the young man came out again, he was holding a tin cup with steaming coffee out to her. "Thanks," she whispered as she took it, sipping it slowly, feeling it warm her chilled bones.

The young man nodded, but didn't say a word. He sat on the porch a few feet away from her, looking out across his muddy yard to the edge of the trees. Rachel could tell from the light of the flashing lightning that his boots were old and scuffed, and that his clothes were very old fashioned. She didn't know how long he had been out here, and for the first time she wondered if he was dangerous. He didn't appear to be dangerous; in fact he hardly took notice of her at all.

She finished the coffee and sat the cup down beside her chair. She shivered all over, and the young man looked around. He smiled at her, stood up, and walked to the door. He opened the door, and motioned for Rachel to enter. She hesitated, and then walked in. The furniture was old, hand made from wood. A small bed was in one corner of the single room, a table and a single chair in the other. The only light was from the fireplace, the old metal coffeepot sitting off to the side.

"It's beautiful," Rachel whispered. "I had no idea you lived out here, that anyone lived out here."

The young man just smiled at her and went to toss another log onto the fire. Rachel sat on the edge of the bed, and leaned against the wall. Surely someone will come looking for me, she thought. Soon they'll come looking for me... Her eyes closed in sleep before she even realized she was tired.

"Rachel! Rachel, where are you?"

Rachel mumbled in her sleep, and rolled over. "Turn out the lights..." she said.

"Rachel! Where are you, where are you?"

Her mother's panicked voice jerked Rachel from sleep to full wakefulness in an instant. Her eyes opened to the bright light of morning coming through the ruined walls of the cabin. She jumped up and looked around, unable to believe what she was seeing.

She was lying on the floor of a rotten wooden cabin. The holes in the roof and walls were big enough for her to see patches of forest and a clear blue sky. Where the fireplace had been the night before there was now only a small pile of old, burnt blocks. Next to them was a rusty tin pot, full of cobwebs and mud. What could have been the remains of an old table was falling apart at the other end of the room.

She looked around for the young man that had been with her last night, last night when the cabin was strong and sturdy and dry.

"Rachel! Oh, thank heavens, oh thank heavens!" Her mother had looked through the doorway of the cabin and seen her sitting on the floor, looking around with a confused look on her face. "Rachel," she squealed, running to her daughter and hugging her tight, "Rachel, oh honey! How did you get way out here? What happened to you, are you okay?"

Before she could answer, her father and brother rushed into the cabin and stood beside her mother. Both of them were carrying shotguns, and her father had tears in his eyes.

"I'm sorry, Mom," Rachel said, starting to cry. "I'm sorry. I went for a walk last night and got lost. It started to rain, and I panicked. I lost my nightgown in the forest, Mom." I'm so sorry..."

Her father held up the remains of her ripped nightgown. "We found it, Honey," he said, and then he broke down and bawled. "We thought... we thought..." He grabbed his daughter and hugged her, crying against her neck. "Oh honey, are you okay?"

"I'm fine, Daddy," she said, stroking his hair.

"Where did you get that quilt?" her mother asked.

Startled, Rachel and her father both looked at the quilt wrapped around her. It was obviously hand made, and was in perfect condition, other than being damp and a little muddy.

Rachel just smiled and said, "I found it in the corner of this old cabin, Mom. Lucky for me it was here."

"Let's go home," her father said.

At the edge of the woods, Rachel looked back at the old cabin. For just a second she could have sworn she saw a shadowy figure wave at her from the front porch.

"I'll be back soon," she whispered. "On the next rainy summer night, I'll be back..."

She smiled, pulled the quilt tighter around herself, and followed her family home.