Look What the Rain Brought!

Look What the Rain Brought!

This is a true story.

I'd heard it last night, the light pitter patter of water tapping on my roof, a sound I hadn't heard for over one hundred days. Yes, rain finally came to Phoenix, AZ. This summer had been a scorcher, enough to decimate the queen palm trees in my yard and hundreds more all over metro Phoenix. The sound pleased me so much, it didn't take long for me to drift off to sleep.

I awoke some time after three-thirty in the morning, and the rain still came down. I'm not sure what woke me, but I felt energetic enough to rise out of bed and cross the room to switch on my computer to see how much rain would fall in the future. The weather system seemed larger since the last time I had checked before going to bed, and that was good. I returned to bed and switched on the television for a while, but it didn't take long before my eyes grew heavy. I switched it off, rolled over, and drifted back off to dreamland.

My day started a little after eight in the morning, and I performed my normal routine. Today was going to be mostly data recovery of a personal disk drive that went bad, totally time-consuming, but necessary. I still felt fortunate enough that I hadn't lost any data. Thank God for backups!

The morning eased into the afternoon, then eased into night, which came much earlier now that the start of winter is not too far away. All the blinds were closed both upstairs and down, and I sat at my desk monitoring the data recovery effort. A small twinge in my stomach made me realize I hadn't thought about what I would prepare for dinner. I sat there for a while wondering what I hungered for, but I knew whatever it was, it had to be some type of meat. My teeth ached to rip the flesh of some dead animal. I bypassed pork and chicken and set my sights on a nice steak, then I rose from my desk and headed downstairs.

The light from my bedroom diminishes swiftly once I turn the corner and gaze out my bedroom doors. The corridor running toward the other bedrooms upstairs is virtually black, with the only hints of light coming from a low-wattage bulb I leave turned on above my kitchen table downstairs. I look over the banister, as I always do, to ensure everything is in order, then I proceed down the staircase.

That's when I think I saw it.

A faint grayish figure, almost like a child, ascended the staircase in my direction. I stopped briefly because there was no sound. I continued down, ensuring to stay on the right side of the staircase as the figure did the same. Before we met in the middle, it disappeared!

As I passed the point where we would have met, goosebumps rose. I think it was my imagination (I hope). As I reached the bottom of the staircase, that event gave me the idea for this story. I've heard it before, and I know many of you have also, but sometimes truth is stranger than fiction!

I think I've just planted another seed for a longer story.