After the rain – Family Short Story
After the rain – Family Short Story
“Lucy, where are you going?”
Sister Margaret asked worriedly as she approached the little girl standing in front of the big gate. Lucy Heartfilia turned back and greeted the nun with a sweet smile.
“Miss Heartfilia, you sure look different today,” Sister Margaret spoke with a hint of surprise in her tone, examining the girl from head to toe.
Lucy, the notorious troublemaker, has finally decided to take in the Sisters’ perpetual preaching on proper etiquette and self-presentation. The girl was dolled up in her most delicate white gown with long silk sleeves, adorned with small pearls wrapping around her waist and a silver rose brooch. Her chestnut hair was neatly braided and tied with a white bow.
“Now, Lucy, don’t tell me you are going to make more trouble than…,” Suspicious of this unreality, Sister Margaret was just about to give the girl a lengthy lecture; when she paused as she noticed a silver pendant gripped tightly in Lucy’s hand.
Sister Margaret sighed as she recognized the pendant. “Just make sure you come back in time for dinner,” she said softly, bending over and giving the girl a slight kiss on her left cheek. The color rose to Lucy’s cheeks as she nodded mildly and kissed the nun on her tiptoe. Then she opened the gate and swiftly disappeared behind the iron bars.
It started to rain as soon as Lucy left. Small drops of fresh water danced on the earth, seeping into the soil and forming a medley of pleasant earthly smells. The downpour set Sister Margaret in a maudlin mood, as she rested her back against the gate and inhaled the soothing scent, looking at the alabaster rain thoughtfully.
Meanwhile, Lucy was standing under the eaves of a department store’s roof on the roadside, holding out her hands to catch the raindrops. The pendant in her hand shimmered in the rain, reflected light back into the limpid raindrops and her deep green eyes. The recollection of fragmented memories started to process in her mind, as her gaze held fix on the flickers of the silver chains in the screen of raindrops.
“We couldn’t help her.” That one sentence had never failed to give her a painful stab in the heart every time she recalled it. Even now, she could feel the doctor’ sad voice echoing behind her ears, as she opened the gates to the cemetery.
“Check her heartbeat! Prepare the defibrillator!” Doctors and nurses rushed back and forth in the operation room, carrying all kinds of equipment and machines. Outside, it was raining.
“She is losing her consciousness! Quick, the oxygen mask!” shadows of white coats dashed in front of Lucy, making her dizzy. The little girl stood alone in a corner of the room, looking at the mayhem with her childlike innocence. She did not understand what was going on.
Lucy was busy marveling at the whiteness of the room. The ceiling, the walls and the bed sheets; all were white. Nurses and doctors dressed in white blouses. The only thing that was out of the whiteness was her mother, with bloody patches smearing her slender body, lying motionlessly on the hospital bed.
One of the doctors realized Lucy’s presence, and was suddenly horrified. “Why is she in here? Somebody gets the girl out!” said a doctor, panicky. Almost immediately, a nurse grabbed her arm and dragged her out of the room.
Lucy, in her fright, bit the nurse’s arm. The nurse uttered a small cry and let go of her. Lucy rushed to her mother’s side forthwith, cautious of all the widening eyes set on her. She hugged her mother tightly, seeking for protection from her dear mother.
“Mom, they want to…,” Lucy spoke fervently, then stopped halfway. She noticed the color slowly drew away from her mother’s cheeks, and her eyes turned glassy. Blood oozed out from her mother’s torso, staining the bed sheet and dribbling on the floor.
However, the sight of her mother looking paler did not horrify her as much as the silence did. Silence had never been the way between her and her mother. It only came in when things turned bad.
A sense of fear and loss seized her. Lucy burst into tears while holding on tightly to her mother’s body. She cried her heart out while begging God to save her mother. Her weeping caused the people in the room to fall into an even worse turmoil. Nurses and doctors were bewildered; they tried everything to make her stop crying. However, Lucy continued weeping no matter what they did.
“Lucy…,” her mother murmured softly. Lucy lifted her watery eyes headlong and looked at her dearest mother. Her brushed her cheeks gently, and looked out of the window with a satisfied look upon her face; as if she was in no pain at all. Lucy followed her mother’s eyes, only to find herself agape at the breathtaking view of the pristine world after the rain.
Lucy’s mother turned back and looked at her daughter gently, slightly squeezed Lucy’s little hands before taking a long deep breath and closing her eyes. Elaine Heartfilia died in a car accident, trying to protect her daughter, Lucy Heartfilia, from a car sliding on the road in a heavy rain on the night of her eight-year-old birthday. The only thing left of her after cremation was the pendant she bought the same day as a present to her daughter, which were to by inherited by the girl.
“Mom, I’m here.” Lucy whispered softly as she bent down in front of her mother’s grave. Caressing the cool, smooth surface of the gravestone, Lucy imagined her mother squeezing her hands in the warm, soft palms and brushing her cheeks slightly. How she had longed for these loving gestures and the sensation of having her mother close to her for seven years now! She had missed her mother, yes; but she had also learnt how to stand up and live cheerfully, just like how the world blossomed after the rain. She knew her mother would have wished for her happiness too.
“I am happy, Mom,” Lucy murmured, feigning a smile behind her bitter tears; as if she did not want her invisible mother to be worried about her. An illustrious sensation could not replace the real one, just like how the warmth of all the people having passed by her life in the past ten years could never replace the motherly warmth she had been yearning for.
The sky wept sympathetically, until the gentle rain turned into a torrent that swept away the world before Lucy’s eyes.
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