The Long Awaited Rain

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Last week’s heatwave was finally gone. For a while, one almost felt everything was heated up and radiating intense warmth. Just looking at those trees outside, one could feel the high temperature sucking liquid from them, making the leaves dusty green as if half dead. There was a general expectation for rain, which didn’t come on Thursday even if the forecast had said it would probably come.

The disappointment generated an even greater desire for rain. Friday came and went, bringing a cloudy sky but few rain drops. I felt like those people described in books of centuries ago, who prayed for rain in all the means available to them–going to temples, consulting monks or wise men, engaging in fasting or other forms of self-torture to appease an angry sky. All these old practices are gone now, replaced by science and meteorologists, who help us deal with the unknown and the anxiety.

Then the rain finally came on Saturday. Not only it poured, it actually hailed for several minutes straight. The noise was terrific. At first I thought the windows were going to break, then I thought my car could be smashed. So I was getting ready to go out, but decided against it since the hail could smash me before I reached the car. And then this morning, it rained so hard for so long that it was almost a miracle that the sky didn’t fall and there was no flood.

The weather is a tyrant right now. An unstable, temperamental, mischievous, bloodthirsty despot who takes pleasure in damaging us and our properties. You are too hot? I will make it hotter. You want rain? I will throw rain at you at a rate that pleases me–ten years’ rain in ten minutes. Don’t you ever think rain is the cure for heat or drought since the cure can be worse than the disease.

Now it is all quiet, but somehow it is probably a short respite from another round of craziness. I know it is going to get worse before it will get better. But how worse? So much rain this year. I hope this winter will not be too snowy.

Sometimes I wonder how I will survive if a big storm hits this region. I don’t know.