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Rain opened the People magazine to the cross word puzzle and with pen in hand, she began reading the clues and filling in the boxes. ~Benji or Lassie...Dog, Yin and...Yang, Short swim...dip, The Jetson's dog...Astro, Neither's partner? What on earth could that be?~
"Hey Mark, do you know the answer to this? The clue is 'neither's partner' and it's three letters long." Rain asked.
"Nor." Mark answered. "Neither, nor."
"Oh...well they could have stated the clue better than that." Rain huffed as she wrote down the word.
"Jealous because I figured it out and you couldn't?"
"You were just lucky." Rain smiled as she answered a few more clues.
"Whatever you say." Mark commented as he began looking at the painting on the wall. It was a watercolor picture of a family done by a kid...Jenny it said at the bottom, so the people were stick figures standing underneath a smiling sun in front of a house. He could see Jenny running in the house with the picture saying 'Look at what I made, daddy!' and her dad going 'I have the perfect place for this in my office'.
Today was the day Mark and Rain had been hoping for since the word cancer had become so commonplace in their lives, or at least it had the potential to be. It all depended on what the doctor would say when he walked into the room which he was due to at any moment.
One year and seven months, the total amount of time from when Rain was first diagnosed with ovarian cancer to today where they waited in the doctor's office, this was how long she had been fighting this disease, and during that time she had endured more than most people would ever be able to take, or at least in Mark's opinion, most guys including himself. Rain ahd endured a total of three surgeries and four rounds of chemotherapy, more than even Mark thought she would undertake especially after the condition she was left in following her second surgery and the subsequent third round of chemo. Both had left her very weak and incapable of doing even the simplest of things such as getting out of bed or taking a shower or a bath. She even had to hire a home nurse for a while, being too proud to accept such help from Mark and wanting him to stay as her fiance and the man she turned to for emotional support and not have him turn into her caretaker or nurse. That emotional support was needed by Rain during the lowest point in her treatment, with the exception of what happened between her and Mark following her first treatment, when she realized that her health wouldn't allow the trip to Texas for Samantha's wedding. Rain had felt okay the week leading up to the wedding, not great but well enough in her mind to make the trip, but all of that changed when she sudenly fell very sick three days before their scheduled flight, spiking a fever of 104 degrees. It scared the living shit out of Mark, he couldn't get her to stop shaking and the irony of that was she was sweating profusely, on top of going in and out of consciousness. He rushed her to the emergency room where they told him the one thing he didn't want to hear...she had a bacterial infection, the worst thing you could hear when the person was weakened by cancer AND taking drugs which lowered their ability to fight off infection.
Rain had to stay two days in the hospital to receive antibiotics which helped in lowering her fever and by the third day, she was able to go back home, with only two days left before the wedding. She had one glimmer of hope that they would still be able to go but that fell to the wayside with three simple words from Mark...'please don't go'. Mark had said those words expecting her to protest, but to his surprise (and relief) she had only smiled, wrapped her arms around him, and whispered 'Okay, I'll stay here'...no resentful tone was heard in her voice. Rain knew she could have pushed the issue further but her it wasn't worth it. Her deal with Micheal clearly stated that she had to feel well enough to stand the flight and everything that went with the wedding or she wouldn't go, and her recent ordeal had left her feeling less than stellar. Rain also thought about the possibility of the infecion reoccuring or relapsing while she was in Texas and the chance of her ending up sick just before or during the wedding, something she wouldn't risk because it was suppose to be Sam's day and not 'let's worry if Rain's gonna be okay' day, so she thought it best to stay home. And that's when she found out just how great a person Mark was when he arranged for someone to record the event on a camera which allowed them to watch the wedding on her computer, and not only that, he had also talked Sam and her soon-to-be husband into coming to Nashville after their honeymoon. So what was once a disappointing situation turned out not to be that hopeless in the end.
Mark pryed his eyes away from the painting on the wall and settled them on Rain who was just about through with her puzzle. Most of her clothes, including the black, long-sleeved T-shirt and the grey sweatpants she was presently wearing, hung loosely from her frame now because of the significant amount of weight the chemo had caused her to lose. Even her engagement ring was too big for her and she had to wrap something around the band to make the ring fit tighter on her finger. For how much her appearance had changed, Rain's eyes still had that same sparkle and if anybody asked him who he considered to be the most beautiful and stunning woman in his life, the answer was the same now as it was when he first saw her...Rain (as was his mother).
"Hey! You still in there?" Rain asked and whacked him on the arm with the magazine.
"Yeah I'm still here, just got momentarily lost in my thoughts." Mark said as he put on his best frown (accompanied with puppy dog eyes) and rubbed his arm. "You didn't have to hit me so hard."
"Oh please, I barely tapped you!" she laughed. "You starting to get weak on me?"
"Is that what you think? Well I'll just have to prove you wrong later on tonight."
"Oh? And just how do you plan on doing that?"
"Don't know yet but I'll think of something." Mark slowly said. "I'd rather keep you guessing."
"I just bet you would."
Rain and Mark turned their heads towards the door when it creaked open and the doctor made his way to where they were sitting. He smiled at Rain and looked down at the pile of papers which made up her medical file. ~Is that a good sign, him smiling at me?~, Rain asked herself, ~Well he smiles at me all the time, even when I could no longer stand the sight of him and I let him know that~. Rain stole a glance at Mark out of the corner of her eye, his expression was that classic unreadable mask it usually was when faced with a potentially stressful event. He gave it away though in how he was holding her hand, or should she say in how he was choking the life out of it. Mark had taken her hand when the doctor had walked in and a numbness had already spread thoughout it. Funny thing was her grip was just as tight but he probably didn't even notice. ~Don't be disappointed it it's not good news, don't be upset if today doesn't go your way~.
"Well Rain, I'm sure you're sick of me, this office, everybody in it, the hospital, and everybody there too. You're not too shy about telling people what you think of them or where to go either. So you'll no doubt be very relieved to hear you'll be seeing less of me from now on." the doctor said. "We found no evidence of the cancer in your body with your last surgery and your last round of chemo really seemed to help you after we increased it to once a week instead of once a month. I think everything looks very good as far as your blood work and other tests go, but the one area I want you to work on over the coming months is regaining some of the weight you've lost. Otherwise, you finally did it. I'm proud to say that you, Rain, are now in remission."
Rain's jaw dropped to the floor and she didn't know whether to laugh and scream in delight or cry in relief. She never thought she'd hear that word, the odds being that only eight to fifteen percent of women with ovarian cancer made it to this point. "Did you say...remission? Are, are you sure? You didn't make a mistake did you? I mean if you did, take it back now because it hasn't sunk in yet."
The doctor laughed heartedly. "I'm quite sure of this Rain. You won't be completely rid of me, I'll still need to see you to make sure you stay in remission, but it won't be every week at least."
Rain slumped back into her chair, her mouth still in the shape of an O from what she had heard. ~Please let this be true. Please say I can put the majority of this behind me and focus on other things such as getting my life back~. "I, I don't know what, what to say."
"It's a lot to take in, I know. I've had people break down on me and I can't blame them. You go through so much just for the hope of hearing the word remission, and when you finally do, it's very hard to believe you can associate yourself with remission." the doctor said.
"I didn't think I'd ever make it to this point."
"Well you did." the doctor smiled and stood. "I'll need to see you in three weeks to make sure everything's still okay. Congratulations again, Rain."
Rain shook his outstretched hand and said her thank yous before she walked out of the office with Mark, stopping for a brief moment to schedule another appointment. As they walked through the parking garage towards Mark's truck, Rain looked over at Mark, his face still telling her nothing of what he was thinking. She probably knew him better than anybody else but deciphering what went on in that mind of his even stumped her most of the time.
"Mark, you going to say something to me or did the cat get your tongue?" Rain asked when they reached the truck. "I get that bad feeling in the pit of my stomach when you suddenly go quiet."
Mark kept quiet, opening the door and helping her into the truck. Seconds later he was seated beside her and proceeded to start the vehicle but in the blink of an eye he grabbed Rain in a hug, causing Rain to momentarily freeze but she got her wits about her and slowly eased her arms around him. This made Rain think back to when she first told Mark about her diagnosis of cancer and how he had reacted to it. She hadn't expected tears from him because Mark didn't cry, or at least if he did it was never around her. The look on his face though gave her such pain (as it still did today), especially when he said nothing, not even moving but just staring at her. Finally he walked over to the window and went from staring at her to staring out the window. Rain gave him a few minutes before she walked to where he was, resting her cheek on his back and putting her arms around his waist which caused him to turn around and hold her much like he was holding Rain now.
"You gonna be alright?" she whispered in his ear. She felt Mark nod his head in answer. "Looks like all the fighting, screaming, tears, and doubts ended up being worth it in the end."
Mark straightened up and smiled at her. "Do you want to do anything to celebrate this special occassion or would you rather go home?"
"Like hell I'm just gonna go home and sit around! That's the last thing I want to do now." Rain decisively said. "I want to go out and do something, it doesn't have to be something big. We could just hit the interstate and drive and that would be enough for me."
"You want to call anybody first?"
"They're all at work right now and besides, even though it may sound selfish of me, I just feel like being alone with you for the next few hours without having to worry about anybody else." Rain answered. "My mother's gonna be so pissed that I didn't tell her right away but she'll get over it soon enough."
"That's fine by me. So do you have any idea what you want to do?"
"Actually I do, but I don't know if you'll agree to it."
"Do I even want to ask?" Mark moaned.
"I don't know if you'd even remember it but the offer you gave me that first Christmas we were snowed in...is it still available for me to take?"
"What off-" Mark stopped and smiled when it suddenly dawned on him. "Are you referring to my offer to ride my bike?"
"I know I wouldn't exactly pass for a biker chick at this moment because I wouldn't be caught dead in a halter top or a mid-driff shirt, the only thing I own that's leather is a coat, and nothing I own at this moment is tight on me because of the weight I've lost." Rain joked. "If your idea of a biker chick could be expanded to a woman wearing a wig, boots, jeans, and a long-sleeved T-shirt, then honey, here I am."
"Sounds good to me." Mark said kissing her cheek and starting the truck. "And I'm all for a ride in the country today."
"Why did you pull into this place?" Rain asked when she pulled off her helmet and smoothed down a couple of wild strands of her wig. Mark had stopped in the parking lot of a long since abandoned warehouse, nothing could be seen for miles away bringing new meaning to the phrase 'middle of nowhere'.
"Well, I knew nobody would be able to find us here so I'd be free to do this..." Mark lowered his mouth to hers and began kissing her, very thoroughly leaving her a bit dazed and wondering where that came from...NOT that she minded in the least. "And this is the perfect place for you to receive your first lesson."
"My first lesson in what?" Rain asked when she finally came back down to earth.
"In learning how to drive one of these things." Mark answered as he pointed to his bike.
"Drive a motorcycle?!" Rain said, amused. She turned and fully looked at the bike. "You honestly think I can learn how to drive one of these monsters? If it could, this thing would probably be laughing at the thought of me driving it around. I know I am at this moment."
Mark grinned. "Ahhh, do I detect a case of cold feet? It won't be that bad and intimidating a machine once you get on it, but that's the key, you have to get on it. And once you do, I bet you'll never want to get off."
Rain continued to look at the bike, running a finger along the black leather seats. "I don't think I should do this."
"Why not?"
"Because I've heard stories of people learning to ride these things and being pinned underneath them, of falling off of them, and breaking a bone or hurting myself and ending up YET AGAIN in a hospital is not at the top of my 'to do' list." Rain answered. "And then there's the fact that this motorcycle is probably too big for me to learn on. You're 6'10", three hundred plus pounds and I'm only 5'9", one hundred eighteen pounds due to the weight loss. Big difference there."
"Okay, if you don't want to then.." Mark trailed off and looked away. Rain was bewildered by the look of diappoinment in his eyes, all because she had said no?? ~Well if it means that much to him~. Rain swung her legs over the bike, straddling it and grabbing the handles bars as she looked at the panel before her.
"Okay, so give me the low down on what everything here does and anyhting else you want me to learn." Rain relented. "I'm always willing to try something new."
Mark smiled and straddled the bike behind her, resting his chin on her shoulder. "Alright, first things first..." Taking as much time as was needed, Mark went about explaining the ins and outs of his bike, and he was pleased when Rain started asking questions because that meant she was actually listening to him and not merely humoring him.
Rain thought it was funny how Mark kept quizzing her on different things...'Well what would you do in this or that situation?', 'Remember to always do what?', 'What should you always look for when you're doing this?'. He seemed like a kid at school at show-and-tell day, eager to display his toy and willing to talk all day about it.
"Heaven help us if we would have had children because you and that kid, be it girl or boy, would have been on the bike probably the day after we would have come home and by the time they were a year old, they could probably pick out a bike you named." Rain laughed. "Bet the first words out of their mouths would have been Harley Davidson. I can actually picture you and your son or daughter working on a bike on a lazy Sunday afternoon."
"Hmm." was the only thing Mark offered as he reached down and turned the key, starting the engine. Rain located the keys, immediately turned off the engine, and looked over her shoulder at Mark. "Oh boy, I recognize that tone in your voice. Want to share what's on your mind with me?"
"It's noth-"
"And don't EVEN try that 'it's nothing' act with me. I know you too well to believe that line." Rain interrupted. "You tensed up when I mentioned children, so I'm gonna take a wild guess here and say the subject that has made you as quiet as a church mouse is your desire to have a son or a daughter of your own and the realization that it will never happen, well at least it won't happen while you're still tied down with me."
"That's a rather shitty way of putting it." Mark huffed.
"I was sorta imitating how my mother put it when she shared her take on the subject." Rain felt Mark tense up again. "She told me about your conversation outside the hospital the day of my first surgery and ever since then and that last argument we had, my mother just loves to throw in her two cents about you. 'I'd keep my eye on him if I were you, he's the type who could probably stray on you because you can't give him the one thing he wants. He's liable to always throw that in your face' and blah, blah, blah."
"What does she think? I'm the spawn of Satan or something? That woman really doesn't like me and it looks like she's made it a hobby out of making me look bad or saying bullshit about me."
Rain chuckled and moved off of the bike so she could fully look at Mark whose face was as red as it could get and gripping the handle bars very tightly. "The offspring of Satan? Yeah she doesn't exactly think that much of you now but her opinion isn't that harsh." Shaking her head, Rain brushed Mark's hair over his shoulders. "I never would have thought in a million years that the man I love and my mother would have one of those stereotypical 'I can't stand the sight of you' things going on. You two aren't going to ever get along, are you? I might as well start accepting that fact."
"We won't as long as she treats me like the scum if the earth."
"And you treat her like the wicked witch from the west." Mark started to protest but Rain put an end to that by placing a finger on his lips. "No more of that. Now that I know I'm gonna be around for a while longer, I'll have plenty of opportunities to listen to the two of you bicker back and forth, so let's just save it for another time. The bottom line is you can talk all you want and she can talk all she wants but neither of you will ever convince me to leave the other. Now back to the subject at hand. We've never really talked about it, well we've never talked about it with each other."
"I figured it was one of those forbidden subjects, meant to stay buried and never discussed again. I didn't want to upset you by bringing it up since there really isn't anything for us to talk about...everything's already been said and done." Mark explained. "But if you don't mind my asking, did you ever plan on having children?"
"I don't mind you asking at all, and I never really thought I'd ever have the option of having children." Rain answered. "I figured I would never be a mother because of my belief in being absolutely certain of wanting a child and being married before bringing a child into the world. Well, I couldn't get a man to even look in my direction let alone marry me so I pushed to idea of being a parent into the darkest corner of my mind and then just abandoned it all together. I soon realized I didn't want to raise a child in a world that was so intolerant, judgemental, narrow-minded, and cruel to people who didn't fit into some perfect mold that nobody can possibly fit themselves into."
"You could change that by teaching tolerance and acceptance."
"One person can't change years of hate towards that which is different." Rain commented. "It's probably a good thing I never had a kid because I would just be setting them up for a childhood full of teasing because of how their mother looked and they would probably end up hating me in the end."
"Why do you always have to resort to putting yourself down? I really wish you wouldn't do that to yourself." Mark sighed. "Your child wouldn't have hated you just because of your looks."
"You must not remember that much about going to school. I can recall many a kid in school getting chastized and made fun of just because of what their parents did for a living or how they looked. I know your school couldn't have been any different."
"That's not the p-, oh never mind. I know I don't have a snowball's chance in hell to win this." Mark said, deciding to shift the conversation in another direction. "Were you one to always want a daughter or a son?"
Rain's face immediately lit up. "Ahh, this is where I strayed from the norm. I always wanted a son, not a daughter like most women do. I know most women dream of having a daughter so they can watch them play dress-up, play with their hair, have talks about boys, watch them grow into women, see them fall in love, watch them get married, and finlly watch them become mothers themselves. Well, I was the complete opposite because of my interests...I loved sports, I loved helping my father when he worked on cars, I loved working on cars myself. So I dreamed of afternoons where I played basketball with my son, maybe throwing a football back and forth, having him help me work on a car, and watching him grow into a man and fall in love. How about yourself?"
Mark shrugged his shoulders, giving her a guilty smile. "Well, I was your typical guy, wanting to have a son, but I would have been just as happy with a daughter."
"We may not have any children of our own to pamper and spoil, so I guess we'll just have to wait until Micheal or your sister have children and spoil them." Rain commented. "We'll be the people who let other people's kids stay up late or let them have all the candy they want or give them ice ceam after every meal or give them gifts every time they visit us."
"In other words, we're always gonna get a talking to from their parents after every visit because we're spending too much on their kids?"
"Basically, yeah." Rain smiled and looked down at her watch. "I know you're anxious to teach me how to ride this thing, but could we save the lesson for another day, say when I've had some time to put some weight on and when I feel a little more up to it? Right now, I just feel like riding around some more before we go back home."
"Ha, look at her. One day and you're already hooked."
"And I bet you're just loving it." Rain said. "This is a great way to spend an afternoon, I'll give you that much. Better and more relaxing then the rest of our day will probably be considering all the phone calls we'll have to make. You realize we'll probably end up going to my parent's sometime in the next few days because my mother will more than likely want to throw some kind of celebration party."
"Do I have to go?" Mark whined.
"Yes you do." Rain answered, mocking his tone. "But I know my mother will invite Micheal also, so that means you, Micheal, and my father can safely escape to the garage after dinner and you won't have to worry about being cordial to my mother for the entire evening."
"Well if he comes then I can survive one evening with your mother." Mark replied. "I often wonder why she hates me so much yet your dad has no problem with me."
"She doesn't hate you, hate is such a strong word, she just really, really, really dislikes you. And the reason my father doesn't feel the same way is because he knows how my mother can overreact when it comes to certain things, such as myself, and he's not one of those husbands who follows along with everything his wife says." Rain answered. "He knows how you feel about me, knows you would never intentionally do anything to hurt me, and he knows you're a good man. That's good enough for him." Rain started to put her helmet back on and made her way to the back of the bike. "Now let's get going while we still have some daylight to spare."
"No, wait a minute, I want to tell you something first." Mark said, placing a hand on her arm to stop her and taking her helmet, resting it on the handlebar. He then took both her hands in his and pulled her towards him. "I don't know why I'm even doing this and you'll probably think I'm the dumbest person on earth for even asking and you'll probably say something like 'You already know the answer to that', nut, but..." Mark finally found the courage to look Rain in the eye. "You, you don't think I would leave you because we can't have children? I mean, well, you know now I wanted children, but, but you don't believe what your mother keeps saying, do you? You know I wouldn't do that right? Because you know me inside and out, better than anybody, and understand I could live without having a son or a daughter of my own because you're more important to me?"
Rain gave him a small smile, the smile which always made him catch his breath, and squeezed his hands. Lowering her head down to where her cheek barely touched his, Rain wrapped her arms around his neck and whispered, "You already know the answer to that question." After giving him a quick kiss on the lips, Rain retrieved her helmet. "So come on and get to driving."
Mark chuckled and started the motorcycle.
"How's this spot?" Mark asked, looking at the group.
"It's fine with us." Rain answered for them, noting how he had staked a location which was relatively deserted and unoccupied by any other visitor to the riverside. At least this way they wouldn't bother anybody else with their all but certain laughter, jokes, and loud talking. Rain started to unfold the blanket she had in her arms so that she, Mark, Micheal, and Sahtori, the new lady in Micheal's life, could sit down but Mark dropped what he was carrying and took the blanket from her.
"Allow me." he said in a sickenly sweet tone with an equally sickening sweet smile on his face. "Anything to make you happy, DEAR."
"Why thank you, HONEY." Rain said as she stood beside Sahtori.
"Is he still kissing up to you because of last night?" Sahtori whispered to her.
"You bet he is." Rain answered. "I don't now how long we played pool after you guys left but to the winner of the most games went whatever that person wanted. The loser had to do whatever the winner wanted even if they hated it, and he's been kissing up all day because of what I want him to do."
"So...what do you want him to do?" she asked.
"Take me out for a night of dancing and he doesn't want to do it." Rain answered. "So he's doing everything he can to weasle his way out of it. I was the recipient of a nice massage last night, breakfast in bed this morning, another massage this afternoon, and of course, as you know, he barbecued for all of us and I didn't have to lift one finger to help him."
"Is it working?"
"No, I'm still gonna make him go, but who says I can't enjoy the perks he's providing as he tries to get on my good side. If he gets desperate enough, I may even get a shopping spree out of this, and I'd be willing to forget the whole dancing thing if it came down to that...but it would cost him dearly to take me shopping." Rain commented. "Bet I could get him to throw in a few things for you also."
"Then by all means make the man suffer." Sahtori urged. "There's a velvet dress I've been debating back and forth over buying but my decision would be made for me if you somehow persuaded Mark to buy it."
"I'll take that under advisement." Rain giggled as she watched Mark and Micheal get everything settled for the four of them to enjoy the annual downtown fireworks display celebrating the fourth of July holiday. The big show was about an hour or so away so they were going to pass the time by eating the watermelon they had saved from the ealier grilling out, playing cards, and doing whatever came to mind.
"Nothing good could come from the two of you standing here giggling and whispering to each other while you're looking at Mark and myself. Should the two of us be taking cover from whatever storm you have brewing?" Micheal asked as he walked up to them and eased his arm around Sahtori's waist.
"Why we have no earthly idea what you could be talking about." Rain said, flashing her most innocent smile. "We're just two women enjoying a perfectly innocent conversation and we would NEVER discuss something that would in any way be considered mischievious or wrong. Only BAD girls do things like that."
"Watch it angel, your halo is hanging precariously off of one of your horns there." Micheal sneered.
"I think the horns make a nice addition myself, and what do you know, I happen to have a matching pair also." Sahtori remarked. "What other reason could there be for us getting along so well?"
"The reason why I've been blessed, or perhaps I should say cursed, with two little devils such as yourselves in my life eludes me." Micheal shook his head. "I haven't been THAT bad, I haven't done anything THAT horrible, and I haven't really pissed anybody off in a long time."
"Oh, just enjoy it. Most men would give anything to have two such stunning, humurous, and all around wonderful women such as Rain and myself in their lives." Sahtori said.
"Well then they can have you." Micheal countered.
"You ungrateful little brat!" Sahtori exclaimed as she playfully hit the side of Micheal's head followed closely by Rain. Micheal covered his head from the attack, hoping Mark would come to his rescue. Little did he know, Mark was sitting down on the blanket, thoroughly enjoying the comedic scene before him with no intentions of playing the role of savior.
"What kind of a friend are you? Just sitting here while I'm getting the crap beat out of me by Thelma and Louise?" Micheal accused Mark when he was finally able to get away, sinking down beside his supposed friend. "See if I ever come to your aid when that duo sets their sights on you."
"You're already too late for that buddy. I've seen first hand what those 'angels' of ours can do, and let me warn you, they love to embarrass the heck out of you." Mark replied. He glanced over at Rain and Sahtori who were involved in some converstion he would never have the chance to know about. "Things still on the up and up between you and Sahtori?"
"Three months and counting with no major road blocks thrown in our way." Micheal answered. "We're still in that 'getting to know who you really are' stage, but things are great otherwise. We're just enjoying the other's company and having fun and not worrying about getting serious or contemplating if this is Mr. or Mrs. Right. It's nice not having to get all bogged down about words such as commitment or saying 'I love you' right away and letting things go where they may. This way you'll actually know if you're ready for a relationship with that person. She's something though. I don't think I've ever dated a woman quite as interesting and unique as she is."
"Interesting and unique somehow fall very short of properly describing Sahtori." Mark chuckled. "She's definitely one of a kind."
Micheal nodded his head in agreement, a crooked smile appearing as he looked at Sahtori. He had many unusual, mysterious, and intersting people he referred to as his friends, and those friends had even more unique friends, and that was how he met Sahtori...at a friend's birthday party.
This particular pal of his was known for his knack at throwing wild unpredictable, outlandish parties and this one had been no different. Micheal was sure that most, if not all, of Nashville had rotated in and out of the house that night. People were laughing and dancing, music was blaring from the stereo at a level that insured problems with and future loss of hearing, and it was the latter that drove Micheal to take in the relatively cool evening by sitting on the back steps. He had been sitting there no longer than a minute or two, gently massaging the skin between his eyes with his thumb and fore finger when a feminine voice beside him said. 'You know, some people believe that headaches are caused by an imbalance between positive and negative energy and it's your body's way of saying you need more positive energy in your life. Perhaps you're missing something that's causing this imbalance'.
'I personlly think it's the Limp Bizkit that's coming out of the stereo at an ear-shattering volume that's causing this headache. I don't really buy into that whole negative/postive energy, karma, or aura thing. Just sounds like a binch of bologna to me.' Micheal said, wondering where in the world this woman had come from.
'Too bad, that may explain some of your problems.' she had answered.
Micheal looked at the woman fully, taking note of the variey of crystals and rings she was wearing. Her fiery red hair fell in cascading curls more than halfway down her back and her eyes were the deepest shade of green he had ever seen. That particular night she was wearing a black sleeveless shirt that fit snuggly and fell just below her waist and a slim-fitting, ankle length skirt that sported a slit ending just above her knees. She wasn't thin but she wasn't on the heavy side either...average best described her size, but that was the only average thing about her. She was definitely the type of woman who would have caught his eye if she walked past him on the street or in a store. 'And you are?'
'That depends.'
'Depends on what?'
'On if you have someone waiting for you in this house or waiting for you at home.' she answered.
'And why is that important?'
'Don't want to step on any toes.' she took a seat beside him. 'I saw you walk out here and thought 'Damn, that's a man I wouldn't mind getting to know. Hope the personality's as nice as the body'.'
'Well there aren't any toes standing in your way. Haven't been for some time now.' Micheal answered, blushing from her fowardness.
'Good then. You free next weekend?'
'Why, you asking me out?' Micheal asked. 'Did the stars tell you on this night at this moment to ask me out?'
'Actually they did say I would met someone new tonight.'
'It's a party. You're always bound to met someone new at a party.' Micheal commented. 'You don't need to rely on stars to figure that one out. But let me guess, the stars told you this person needed some balance in their lives.'
'Wow! You're getting better at this, maybe you're a psychic after all.' she said in mock surprise. 'I love skeptics such as yourself. So are you free or not?'
'I'm not anymore. At the least, I know I'll probably have an interesting evening because you probably don't believe in a normal date.'
'Normal's boring. I'd rather do something outlandish and make a memorable first impression than do something predictable.' she replied. 'Maybe I'll take you to a seance.'
'Oh believe me, you've already made quite an impression on this guy.'
'Uh-oh, is that meant to be taken as a good intesting first impression and you want to find out more about me or a 'Oh my God, she's a complete psycho and I should be running in the opposite direction' impression?'
'I think it's a mixture of both. You're definitely...different.'
'Ah, my favorite word.' she said and reached inside her bag to pull out her tarot cards.
'What are you doing now?'
'I'm gonna prove you wrong by reading your fortune.' she answered. 'Why don't we take a look at your love life.'
'What love life?' Micheal muttered. 'I haven't had a love life in close to I'd say seven or eight years.'
'So what was the name of your last lover? Did she end up breaking and that's why you haven't been with anybody else since? A man as nice and nice looking as you should already have been snatched up.'
'That's really none of your business, now is it.' Micheal answered, rather annoyed.
'No it's not, but you're awfully touchy about the subject so there must be a slight truth to it. Now let's see who this lost love of yours is.' she took a minute to view the cards in front of her.
'I don't know why you're doing this unless it's your sick, twisted way of getting your kicks, but I'm warning you. I'm not finding this humurous or amusing in the least.' The charm which originally made this woman fascinating to him was nowhere to be found now. He only wanted to get away from her and get away fast. With that in mind, Micheal stood to leave.
'This mysterious woman in your life, the one who, I bet still owns your heart, has a rather unique name. Not particulary a weird name, but one you wouldn't associate with a person...it's one of the elements. Fire, Snow, Rain, one of those.' she started. Micheal stopped dead in his tracks. 'She's had to endure many things in her life. Tragedy, the loss of loved ones, ridicule, mistrust, so much for one so young. I see that she probably was involved in a terrible accident, one that left her permanently scared, and this has been the main cause of most of her grief, of her being a constant target for cruel words, cruel deeds, for her lack of trust in people, and the source of endless tears. Many who saw her thought she was hideous or repulsive, but not you. You thought her nothing less than beautiful when you first met her, and speaking of firsts, you were the first man to show her love. This was something you thought would only happen in your dreams, but it happened in reality...the woman you loved turned to you for more than friendship, it's what you had always wanted because you had fallen in love with her way before that night.' Sahtori stopped and looked up at Micheal. He was still standing a few feet away from her, looking as if he was afraid to move.
'You should have told her how much she meant to you, and not just as a friend because she already knew that, you should have told her you had fallen in love with her, you should have said something instead of remaining silent. You still regret that decision to this very day and you still love her...so why didn't you tell her? Afraid she didn't share your feelings, that she wouldn't return them? Afraid she would have pulled away from you?'
She was getting too close for comfort, describing feelings and emotions he had never discussed with anybody. This little 'reading' had gone too far, it was way too close to the truth. 'This entire conversation has been a mistake, this entire NIGHT has been a mistake. Have a good night, a good rest of your life, and don't come near me again.' Turning, Micheal escaped into the house and the noise of the party where everything was normal and people couldn't see your most private and intimate thoughts by reading a bunch of cards.
That was the last time Micheal planned on ever seeing Sahtori but that wasn't exactly how things turned out when there was a knock at the door the next day and he discovered Sahtori on the other side. He was surprised at first to see her there but that was quickly replaced with a mixture of annoyance and anger.
'Perhaps I didn't make myself perfectly clear when I said I didn't want to come near me again.'
'No, you made yourself as clear as a bell, but I came anyways because there were some things I needed to say.'
'How did you find out where I lived?'
Sahtori blushed slightly. 'I lied and told the guy who was throwing the party that we were suppose to go out but you forgot to give me your number and address and he was only too happy to provide me with it. I guess the fact that he was three sheets to the wind helped things along even more...'
'Well regardless of how you did it, it was all for nothing. You're not welcomed here so I suggest you turn around and leave.' Micheal started to close the door.
'Now just hold on one minute and hear me out before you toss me to the curve.' Sahtori said, holding up her hand. Feigning boredom, Micheal gestured for her to continue. 'Make it quick.'
'Thank you so much for your obvious desrie to listen to me and the enthusiasm that's just flowing from you.' Sahtori sarcastically said. 'But anyways, I only came here because I wanted to tell you that I knew I was wrong for continuing the reading when you clearly didn't want me to. It's just really gets to me when somebody calls that which I believe so passionately in 'bologna' without even keeping an open mind, just dismissing it, that really gets under my skin. So I set out to prove them wrong, to show them that just because they don't believe in it doesn't make it untrue and that's what I did with you. Sometimes I do go too far, finding out things that I shouldn't or telling that person information they would rather stay buried because giving those memories a voice is more than they can take. It's the major reason why I don't do readings for people I know or family members...I don't want to be the one to deliver tragic news or cause friendships with that person to end.'
'Okay apology accepted. Now you can leave.'
'Well, I...I was hoping we could start things over, on the right foot. I'm still interested in that date next week if you're willing or up to it.'
Micheal cocked up on eyebrow. 'You've got to be kid-'
'Hey Micheal, Mark wants to know if you want a hamburger or a steak bef-, oh I'm sorry, I didn't realize you had company.' Rain apologized. 'Um...is, uh, is everything alright?'
'Why do you ask?' Maicheal asked.
'Oh because of the strained expresions on both your faces, the forced smiles, the tone in your voice...shall I go on?' Rain answered.
'No you don't. This is the woman I told you about from last night at the party.' Micheal informed her.
'Ohhh, well I thought I was the only person who could get the guy as frazzled and riled up as he was when I saw him last night.' Rain said as she smiled at the face she could now put with the woman Micheal described. She held out her hand. 'It's nice to meet you. I'm Rain and your name is...'
'Sahtori.' she answered and shook Rain's hand. 'It's nice to meet you too.'
'We were just getting reading to fire up the grill for some hamburgers and steaks. Care to join us?' Rain asked, ignoring the look from Micheal.
'Um, well...sure. But only if I'm not gonna cause any problems.' she answered, looking at Micheal.
'Don't worry about him, he'll get over it.' Rain replied as she led Sahtori to the back. All Micheal could do was stare after them, wondering how in the world Rain had managed to come in the middle of his conversation, take control of it, and then invite the woman for lunch without him saying a word...and it was HIS HOUSE they were standing in. ~Well this just won't do~, Micheal thought, and set out in search of Rain.
He found her standing by the grill shooting the breeze with Mark and Sahtori. Marching up to her, Micheal hooked his finger towards Rain in a 'follow me' motion. 'A word please.' he said and continued back to the house.
Rain looked at Mark and Sahtori. 'Oookay. If I'm not back in ten minutes, you may want to come and save me from him.'
'Just what the hell do you think you're doing?' Micheal said, barely giving Rain a chance to walk into the kitchen.
'That's a rather general statement. Care to narrow it down to something a little more specific?'
'Now we've gone from inserting ourselves in matters that don't concern you to being cute. You know exactly what I'm talking about.' Micheal moved his head in the direction of Sahtori. 'Inviting that crazy, batty, must-be-from-another-planet woman into MY house for lunch.'
'Oh that.' she innocently replied. 'How long have I known you?'
'Too long.'
'How well do I know you?'
'Too well.' Micheal answered, getting tired of her questions that seemed to have no point. 'Where are you going with this?'
'I'll tell you where I'm going with this. The only reason you would come banging on my door at 11:30 at night, ranting and raving about this woman you met at a party is you like her, plain and simple.'
'Like her? Did you not listen to a word I said last night? Why would you think I liked her?' Micheal asked.
'Because of the fuss you put up last night and the fuss you're putting up now...'
'That's not because I like her.'
'If that's what you think.' Rain replied. 'You said yourself you liked her until she told you this mysterious thing from your past. So she discovered some deep, dark secret. Get over it, get out there, do your little 'Hi, my name is and my interests are' dance, and try to at least be cordial to her for the afternoon.' He ended up being cordial to her for much longer than an afternoon.
"Heads up, Micheal. The two princesses are headed our way." Mark informed him.
"I don't know about the reast of you, but I'm ready to dig into that watermelon." Rain said as she rubbed her hands together.
"Not so fast Rain. There's something the three of us need to do before we devour the watermelon." Sahtori said, a deceitful smile on her face.
"Oh no, I thought it was bad when those two kept secrets from me so it really must be bad when the three of you get together." Rain said.
"I learned the night I proposed to her how she gets if you keep things from her for too long...she'll take all the fun out of it, so don't keep her waiting. Just go ahead and do it." Mark teased.
"I'm not that bad a person when it comes to surprises. I just don't like to be the cen-...why are you handing out champagne glasses?" Rain asked as Mark shoved a glass in her hand.
"Because we're not only celebrating the fourth, we're also celebrating another milestone." Mark answered as he opened a bottle of sparkling grape juice.
"What, you finally putting the seat down on the toilet after how many years of asking?" Rain asked, causing her, Micheal, and Sahtori to break out in a fit of laughter. Mark gave her an 'I'm not amused' look in response.
"No smartass, that's not what we're celebrating." Mark raised his glass and Sahtori and Micheal followed suit. "This, my dear, is a toast to you for reaching ten months of remission.
"Here, here!" they all said as their glasses were tipped towards Rain in acknowledgement.
"I was wondering how long it would take you to say something." Rain chuckled. She turned to Sahtori and Micheal to explain. "Ever since we found out I made it into remission, Mark has given me a bouquet of burgundy tulips or sterling silver roses every month to mark the occassion and you get used to it after a while, so I was curious this morning when I woke up and they weren't sitting next to the bed where they usually are."
"I have to throw you a curve every now and then so you don't become too complacent or use to my ways." Mark snickered.
"As if I ever could!"
"When we get back home, you'll see that your flowers are back where they belong."
"If he does this for you every month, he must really wow you at anniversary time." Sahtori commented.
"Well..." Rain looked at Mark and smiled. "We really don't celebrate an anniversary. We make a big deal when it comes to birthdays and Christmas but when it comes to anniversaries, it's more along the lines of 'Yeah, yeah, yeah...I've been able to put up with you for yet one more year. No use in making a big deal of it'."
"Ahh, how romantic." Micheal said.
"I'm not the type of woman who puts a lot of stock in remembering silly dates such as when we first talked to each other, when we first held hands, when we first started dating, or when we first met." Rain replied. "Who knows, maybe celebrating an anniversary will become more important to me once we get married."
"If you get married, then it will go from just not caring to celebrate it to him just plain forgetting about it." Micheal said.
"Oh believe me, I wouldn't let him forget it." Rain commented. "But in his defense, this man would never forget. Remembering things like that is his forte."
Mark gave Micheal a 'so there' look and a smug smile. "Now that we've settled that subject, let's break open that watermelon."
After throwing away the last of their trash and what remained of the watermelon, Rain made her way back to Mark who was sitting on the blanket facing the river with his arms wrapped around his knees. Moving his arms out of the way, Rain settled herself between Mark's legs, leaning her back against his chest and resting her elbows in his legs. Mark shook his head, moving his arms around her shoulders.
"Why yes you do have my persmission to sit there." he teased.
"Thanks but I already knew that." she teased back. Looking over her shoulder, she spyed Micheal and Sahtori sharing their own private conversation. Sahtori was resting her head on Micheal's shoulder and Micheal had his arm around her waist. "I don't know what took that hard-headed fool so long but I'm glad Sahtori was so insistent on getting him to go out with her. It would have taken forever if it would have been left up to Micheal." ~I have a good idea why it took him so long~, Mark thought but held himself back from saying anything outloud. "I just never imagined him with someone so...eccentric though. She tells fortunes, owns one of those unique, small stores where she sells the most interesting things." Rain continued. "Crystals, candles, incense, spells, karma, aura, fortune telling, destiny, fate...things or ideas I never really believed in but Sahtori on the other hand believes very strongly in them. I must be buying into it some myself because I've worn this bracelet she gave me that's suppose to improve your health everyday, I never forget to put it on." Rain looked again at the couple beside her. "Two complete and total opposites. Guess that old saying rings true for those two."
"Guess so." Mark replied, his mind elsewhere.
"Something bothering you?" she asked
"Huh? Uh, no..well, it's not bothering me but I am curious about something." Mark confessed. "We're you being serious when you talked about-" Right at that moment, the first firework went off and he knew he had lost Rain's attention for at least the next thirty minutes, her eyes already wide with delight and focused solely on the sky above. ~Oh well, guess it can wait until later~.
"Sasha! Sasha, stop barking at the- Sasha! Stop that NOW! SASHA!" Mark watched from the steps of the back porch as Rain tried to reason with the dog but that wasn't exactly going as planned because of what she was holding in her hand. And what was that offending object? A fourth of July sparkler. Sasha had been curious at first when Rain lit it, but one of the sparks got too close for the dog's comfort and it set her off barking a mile a minute. Just when she would stop barking, Rain would light another sparkler and the dog would start up again, limping towards Mark and cowering under his feet. Looking down at the dog, Mark couldn't help but laugh. He often wondered who would win if a contest was held between him and Sasha on who was limping the most. Age had finally caught up with Sasha and in additiong to the limping, there was a multitude of other problems which caused her to be on a variety of pills. He and Rain were gonna have to make a decision regarding Sasha and her health in the coming months if things didn't improve or her quality of life seemed to be decreasing...but he had a feeling he would be the one making the decision because Rain refused to talk about it, as if ignoring it would make everything all better.
"Don't worry girl, I'll protect you from that mean old lady." Mark said as he stroked her neck. Sasha looked at him as if to say 'It's about time!'. Giving a chuckle, Mark continued to stroke her neck and moved his attention back to Rain and her sparkler.
Looking at her now, it was hard to believe she had been so sick and near death less than a year ago with cancer. Most of the weight she had lost she had now gained back and she no longer had to wear the wig or the scarves because her hair was now growing back, reaching just below her ears. In an odd twist of events, however, her hair was growing back straight instead of curly and she wore it layered with bangs in the front, the first time she had ever had them. The look was different for her but he liked it...and she looked healthy which was all that mattered. When the last sparkler had simmered out, Rain threw it in the bottle of water containing the other used fireworks and walked over to Mark. "It's a beautiful clear night, you can see all of the stars, there's a cool breeze. What do you say to a dance, Mark? That is if I can drag you away from Sasha."
"I say look somewhere else because you're not gonna get one out of me."
"Oh come on Mark. It's not going to kill you to dance with me."
"Not gonna change my mind, Rain, so you might as well drop it."
"Okay, there's got to be a story behind this, so out with it. Did someone make fun of the way you danced? Did something tragic happen and you swore you'd never dance with anybody else? What was it?"
"I'm not going to tell you what happened." he pouted.
"This must be good for you to revert back to acting like a five year old. Come on, spill it."
"No." he pouted again. "you'll only laugh at me if I tell you and the story isn't funny at all to me."
"No I won't."
"Yes you will."
"No I won't."
"Yes you will."
"No I won't."
"Okay!" he caved, getting tired of this back and forth game, knowing that Rain was very prepared to play it all night long if necessary to get that part of his past out of him. "But is I tell you, you have to promise not to laugh, not even crack a smile, and if you do, I reserve all rights to stop the story at any time and to hold a grudge against you for as long as I deem fit...oh, and you'll have to gravel and pamper me if you want forgiveness."
"Fine, now on with the story." she urged, sitting down in front of him. Sasha, eveidently over her earlier dislike of Rain, walked the few inches to Rain and placed her head in Rain's lap. "We're anxiously waiting for it."
Rolling his eyes, Mark let out a breath. "I can't believe I'm going to tell you this. The reason I'm so ashamed and embarrassed of how I dance all goes back to when I was in junior high."
"Junior high?" she asked, eyebrow raised.
"Remember, you promised not to laugh."
"I'm not laughing." she said, though she was rolling on the inside. ~This is gonna be better than I thought~.
"Well it was one of those silly dances, you know the kind I'm talking about...in the gym of the school, paper flowers plastered everywhere they could be, chaperones keeping a watchful eye on everybody to immediately extinguish any 'inappropriate behavior', and the ever so predictable segregation of boys on one side and girls on the other, both too scared to do anything else but lean against the wall and listen to the music. I can't even remember why I went to that stupid dance. I wasn't one of those teenagers who was into that type of thing, at that time I wasn't interested in finding a girlfriend, only interested in video games, TV, comics, bikes, boy stuff, so I could have cared less about going to meet girls. I wasn't one to care about my popularity or increasing it, and most importantly I didn't know how nor did I care to dance so why I was there is no longer in my memory. Halfway through the dance, most of us found the courage to ask someone to dance, or should I say, the majority of us were thrown out there against our will by the chaperones...me being one of those unfortunate individuals. I could tell right away the girl I was with was scared half out of her mind at being paired with this giant red-headed boy and I wasn't doing to well myself. I had never danced before in my life and I suddenly found myself thrown into unfamiliar water that was infested with hungry sharks. I was a stupid cliche, a pathetic, no-rhythm-having white boy who kept stepping on her feet. She limped away from me when the song was finished, her feet probably black and blue and as bruised as my pride was at that point, and every time I saw her for the rest of the night, she would point and laugh at me with her friends. When we moved on to high school, she ended up in a few classes of mine and sometimes we were paired together in chemistry lab and such and she would always call me by the nickname she had given me that night...Grace. I got the message that night and I haven't danced since. I didn't even go to my senior prom, even though the girl I was dating kept begging me to take her. I knew she would try and drag me out there because she loved to dance as much as you do, so I took her out for a nice dinner and we did something else that she loved to make up for it."
Rain covered her mouth with her hand as images flashed in her mind of a tall red-headed kid trying to dance and failing miserably at it and how embarrassed he must have felt. She could also see this kid stepping on a scared little girl's foot and repeatedly saying 'I'm sorry'. The need to laugh was becoming too much and she didn't know if she would be able to keep her promise.
"Great...you're laughing at me. I bear my most embarrassing, darkest secret to you and all you can do is laugh in return."
"N-no I'm n-not." she stuttered, he face beet red.
"Maybe not outright, but you're just dying to."
"But Mark, it's so cute. I have this perfect picture of you as a kid in my head right now, embarrassed at stepping all over this girl's feet and being teased because of it."
"You're sympathy and compassion for the pain I felt just blows my mind."
Rain was unable to hold back a giggle which found its way out of her mouth. "Mark, that was twenty or twenty five years ago when you were a kid. You should give it another try now and maybe you just need the right teacher."
Mark snorted in response. "An I guess that 'perfect' teacher is you?"
"Weeellll, I don't like to brag..."
"Yes you do."
Rain shook her head and laughed. "You watch me. I'm gonna get you to dance with me because it's now become a goal of mine."
"Oh great, I know I'm really in trouble now."
Rain gave him an evil laugh. "Oh this is going to be fun...Grace."
Mark moaned. "You're never gonna let me live this down, are you? I'm gonna end up regretting this for a long time."
"The story...no, but telling me the nickname...yes."
"So is there any chance you'll let me back out of this bet I lost last night?" Mark hopefully asked.
"Ohhh noooo, you're not gonna back out of this one. I already know the place I want you to take me, the same place Micheal took me a while back. I had so much fun there."
"So why can't he take you back, I wouldn't mind at all if he did."
"Because, stupid, I want you to take me, not Micheal. If I wanted Micheal to take me I would have asked him instead of you...DUH!" Rain replied. "Besides, he and Sahtori have plans for this Thursday which is when I want to go."
"I can't go this Thursday, you know that." Mark saw the look on Rain's face. "You know I have plans every Tuesday and Thursday night."
"You can't cancel for one day?" she asked, exasperated. "What do you do that's so important that you won't even miss one night?"
"Can't tell you." he answered. Rain rolled her eyes, this game he was playing was just slightly annoying at first but now it was really starting to piss her off. It was probably the one and only thing she really wanted to do with Mark, a night of dancing, but it looked like that wasn't going to happen...because of some girl from junior high school.
"You aren't getting mad at me, are you?"
"Slightly bec-, oh just forget it. Just forget about the whole thing. I guess we can, um, we can do something else."
"You really are mad at me." Mark commented, a small smile on his face.
"And you're just smiling about it." Rain pointed out. "Think I'll just go inside and soak in the tub for a spell. Anything not to have to look at that smug expresion on your face."
"Now, now Rain. There's no need in getting touchy."
After giving him a look which told him it was in his best interest to keep his mouth closed, Rain rubbed Sasha's side. "Come on, Sasha. Let's go inside." The dog slowly rose to her feet and hobbled after Rain.
~She'll change her tune once she see what I have under my sleeve~ Mark thought as he listened to her walk away.
~Okay, so maybe I just ever so slightly overreacted just a while ago. Like it really matters in the end if he takes me dancing or not. I mean he does so many other things for me that are just as nice...oh come off of it, of course it matters to you because you really want to go...with HIM~. Rain reached over and turned off the water which was filling the tub. Removing her robe, Rain gently stepped into the tub amd took a deep breath...cucumber and melon, her newest obsession from Bath and Body Works. That store would probably end up receiving quite a bit of money from her because everytime she went in there she had to buy something.
"So how am I gonna rectify this situation I presently find myself in?" she wondered outloud as she leaned her head back and closed her eyes. The bath was working too well. ~I'll figure it out after this bath~. Rain's eyes fluttered open about forty minutes later when she heard sounds from the bedroom, it sounded like someone was moving around the room, moving stuff, what she didn't know. Seeing as how she was now soaking in ice cold water, Rain reluctantly raised herself up and out of the tub, dried herself off, and slid into her robe. When she opened the door, Rain didn't find a room lit by the customary lamps on either side of the bed an the ceiling fan but a room illuminated by many candles...vanilla and perhaps strawberry she guessed. Her eyes settled on Mark who was standing at the foot of the bed.
"Pray tell sir, just what is this all for?"
"I'm doing the one thing that always gets me back into your good graces...a full body massage."
"It's not gonna work." Rain said defiantly. "You're not gonna warm your way back into my favor by giving me one of your famous massages."
"Oh it's not?" Mark asked as he walked towards her with an all too confident look on his face. In his hand was one of the sterling roses he had bought her that morning. Looking over at the nightstand, Rain saw that only one rose remained in the vase that had held a dozen earlier, but it didn't take that long to figure out where the rest of them had gone...Mark had removed all of the petals and scattered them around and across the bed and floor. Taking the rose in his hand, Mark softly ran it across her forehead, down the bridge of her nose, across her cheek to her chin and down her neck. "Give me one minute and I bet you'll be pudding in my hands." he breathed in her ear.
~Well I think the legs have already turned to jello~ she thought as he brought the rose back to her cheek. The irony of the situation wasn't lost on Rain. She thought she was the type of woman who would never fall for this kind of thing. Yeah, it was enjoyable to watch in a movie or on a TV show and sometimes she shed a tear or two over a sappy romantic ending, but even then she would say 'Oh give me a break, no one could fall for something that mushy'. Well apparantly everybody could fall for it because here she was just eating all the attention up. "Tough luck, buddy. I'm not gonna give you that one minute because I don't feel like it. Sound familiar?" she started to walk away and didn't notice that Mark had grabbed the belt of her robe until she felt a cool breeze on her skin and saw the edges of her robe apart. Shooting him a look, Rain quickly gathered the robe around her. "Now you're resorting to playing games?"
Mark shrug his shoulders and closed the distance between them. Throwing the rose on the bed, Mark grabbed her hands in his and tried to move them but Rain kept a firm grip on the piece of material that gave her some modesty. "You aren't reverting back to your old ways of being ashamed of how you look and feeling like you have to hide yourself from me? Aren't we past that now?"
"Yes, we are past that now, but Mark, many things have changed since you last saw me. I've had three surgeries, gone through chemo, lost a bunch of weight, so can you blame me if my confidence isn't exactly that high right now?"
"Hmm." was all Mark uttered before Rain found herself off her feet and in Mark's arms. Mark slowly lowered her down onto the bed and looked down at her with a satisfied grin on his face. "Looks like I finally have you where I want you."
"You sneaky little devil." she hissed up at him.
"Perhaps, but it worked." he commented. "Now we're gonna have to get rid of this thing so that I can get started." She still wouldn't let up so Mark reached down and started tickling her, catching her offguard and causing her hands to let go of the robe in an attempt to stop him. Taking the advantage, Mark quickly lifted her up and relieved her of her robe. "That's better."
Words failed her at that moment. How was it that he always seemed to get his way even when she held her ground and fought him the entire time. Rain slowly cleared away the cobwebs that had formed and instinctively covered herself with her arms.
"Have we suddenly become shy?" Mark leered.
Rain gave him another one of her 'You're an asshole' looks and tried to move away, but you can guess how well that worked. Mark put an immediate end to that thought very quickly.
"Going somewhere?" he asked.
"Why you obnoxious little-" Mark covered her mouth as she spat a flood of obsenities, insults, and questions about his manhood in his direction that even surprised him for a good minute or two. He continued to hold his hand over her mouth until she finally gave up, stopped yelling, and just laid there.
"Finished?" Rain did nothing but look at him. "Good. Now if you would just roll over on your stomach please."
"Might as well." she conceded and did what he asked. "Looks like I don't have much choice in the matter."
"The way you're talking you'd think I was forcing you to do something horrible like...well I can't come up with an example right now, instead of trying to do something nice." Mark commented as he retrieved the rose he had held earlier. "The two things we need to work on are your insistence on putting yourself and your appearance down and that stubborn, head-strong, unyielding attitude of yours."
"If it ain't broke, don't fix it. And as far as my appearance and putting myself down goes, I haven't done that in a long time, basically since we left Louiseville so I have no problem with you seeing me." Rain said, stretching her arms out at her side. "I just explained my reasons for my reluctance tonight not five minutes ago but evidently you weren't paying attention, being more interested in trying to gey my clothes off so you c-"
"Shh, I'm going to stop you now before you go off on another one of your famous tangents. Now just lay there and relax." For the second time that night, Rain yielded to his will and allowed Mark free reign to do whatever he pleased.
At first Mark did nothing, leaving Rain to wonder just what in the world he was doing...was he just sitting there staring at her? That may flatter many a woman to captivate a man's attention like that, but it was still one of her biggest vices and pet peeves and she was about to get up and tell him to forget the whole thing when she felt something brush ever so lightly down her neck. ~What could that be~ she asked herself and then it hit her...the rose. ~This should be good~.
Mark moved the rose, it's petals just barely touching her skin, down her neck, across her shoulder, down her arm and back up again, down her back, leg, and foot before moving the flower back to her neck just to repeat the process all over again with the other side of her body. Rain giggled everytime he passed the rose over a partiular spot on her foot, a fact which made him linger there a little longer than anywhere else, a sly smile etched on his face. If she tought that was something, nothing could have prepared her when the flower was replaced with light kisses, kisses which followed the same path as the flower.
This was a side of Mark that had surprised Rain at first, the gentle way he treated a woman and how romantic he could be. To look at him, you wouldn't have thought he could be so tender and loving. As a matter of fact, you would probably think the complete opposite, that he was a hard person who only thought of his needs, not caring about the feelings and wants of the other...your basic 'Love 'em and leave 'em' kind of guy who was only out to get his kicks, and if the word love came up, he would run the other way and leave them high and dry. That wasn't Mark, though, not even close. For all the fear and intimidation he could evoke in a woman and even though many women probably found him unattractive and scary, the man was an old fashioned romantic at heart. She saw this day after day when he would buy her flowers, write her love letters, cook her dinner, take her for midnight walks under the stars. She saw this in the way he would hold her hand, as if she was some priceless piece of fine china who should be handled with care and love and treated with respect. And he never failed to tell her each and every day that he loved her and how lucky he felt to have her in his life and to be the man whom she loved. It was no wonder she swooned over everything he showered upon her. When he saw that Rain's initial misgivings and anger at him had disappeared, Mark began what he considered to be one of his specialties, his massage. Being in no hurry, Mark took the next hour to focus solely on Rain and her body, those hands of his doing magic in Rain's mind. Once he was finished, Rain was so relaxed, she was literally seconds away from falling asleep. "You can roll over now." he said in her ear.
"I know I could but I just can't bring myself to do it, I don't think I can move now." she mumbled.
He laughed at her and helped her move onto her back, reaching for the rose again and using it to caress her lips and cheek.
"You aren't, by any chance, trying to seduce me are you?"
"Last thing on my mind." he answered.
"Sure seems like it from my end. Let's see if this works both ways." Rain took the rose away from Mark, placing it on the nightstand. Her hands went to the buttons on his shirt, one of those sleeveless shirts he was so fond of wearing, and she swiftly unfastened each one and removed the garmet from his body. With a small shove to his shoulder, Mark suddenly found himself on his back looking up at Rain in shock as she looked down at him in amusement. "You're not the only one who can be full of surprises."
"So I see." he somehow managed to find his voice. Rain wasn't one to take the initiative, so to speak so, this was totally out of left field for Mark, but a welcomed surprise nonetheless.
~Hope I do this right~ she silently prayed and lowered her head to kiss Mark as her hands went to the zipper of his pants. His soft moan urged her on and Rain broke the kiss to remove the rest of his clothing, throwing the useless material onto the floor below. With that task done, Rain grabbed the rose and began her own little game of pleasure, doing to Mark what he had done to her earlier and when she started placing kisses over his skin, all Mark could do was stare at her, too afraid to move for fear of waking up from this dream he was having. He didn't know what had gotten into her but he hoped this was more than a one night deal. Rain took her time, enjoying how she was making him feel and taking delight in the fact that she was the one responsible for his reaction. After what seemed like forever to Mark, Rain finally kissed her way back up to his mouth where she gave him a long, deep kiss, reversing their usual roles and leaving him breathless this time around.
"So would you think I was seducing you?" Rain asked, her face hovering just above his.
"Oh yeah, and I'd say you're doing a damn good job at it." he answered and rolled her over on her back. ~So how do I go about telling her that I, well that I, uh, I want to love her? You can't even think about it without stuttering over every word so how stupid are you gonna sound if you try saying it outloud. I'll give you a hint, you're not gonna sound like a romantic romeo...and what if it's the last thing she wants? Would it make her uncomfortable? Would that lead to some strain in their relationship?~ Mark knew he and Rain had the kind of relationship where sex, or in their case making love...sex implied only lust, a lack of love, something to fulfill needs at that moment...wasn't necessary or needed. It was usually the first thing that stopped when problems occured between couples, it caused numerous relationships to end, and it was such a small part of a relationship. So why did it matter so much to him? ~Because you love her, because she means everything to you and you've shown her with your words and now you want to show her with your body, with your soul~ a voice in his head answered.
"Penny for your thoughts." Rain said as she lightly ran her fingers across his cheek.
"I don't think they're worth that much."
"Well let's see." Rain placed her hands on either side of Mark's head and closed her eyes, acting like she was going to read his mind. Seconds later, she opened her eyes and brought Mark's ear down to her mouth. "I want the same thing."
Mark was taken aback...~She wants the same thing~? "This was not my intention and I hope you know that. I didn't plan the massage and everything else just in hopes of this."
"I know that."
Mark stopped her hand, placing it over the area of his heart. "Only if it's what you really want, if it's what your heart is telling you is right and not because of me, what I'm doing, or my wants. What you want is most important now, everything else is trivial, and if it doesn't feel right, I can stop right now."
Rain moved her hand from his chest and placed his hand over her heart in answer, knowing what he needed to hear. "I love you very much and this is what I truly want." She then kissed him to let Mark know how sincere her feelings were, and that's all Mark needed.
By the light of numerous candles, two people became partners in a dance that's as old as time.
*"The cops came by to bring Earl in/ They searched the house high and low/ And they tipped their hats and said 'thank you ladies if you hear from him let us know" Rain sang outloud as she played a game of Solitaire.
"Rain!" Micheal yelled, but she didn't hear him.
"Well the weeks went by and spring turned to summer and summer faded into fall/ And it turns out he was a missing person who nobody missed at all" Rain continued on.
"RAIN!" he shouted.
"WHAT?" she shouted back, finally hearing him.
"What in the hell are you listening to?"
"Dixie Chicks."
"Dixie Chicks? You mean that song where the two best friends get together and kill the abusive husband?"
"Uh-huh."
"Can't stand that song. Could you turn it down please?"
Rain huffed and turned the stereo down. "What do you have against it?"
"It probably scares him." Sahtori answered as she walked into the room. "I bet it's why he always calls us Thelma and Louise, doesn't want to think what will happen if he does something to piss us off or hurt us. Good thinking on his part."
"Very good thinking on his part." Rain looked over at Micheal. "You have nothing to worry about as long as you stay the perfect gentleman and remember who's the boss."
"And I guess you two are the bosses?" Micheal remarked.
"Well, well, well, he can be taught after all." Rain taunted.
"Crazy women." Micheal muttered under his breath. "Don't know how I'm able to put up with you two."
"Well I don't even know why I'm here in the first place." Rain said. "One minute I'm sitting on the couch, reading a book and relaxing after a day of work and the next minute I'm told I have to come over here because I can't stay at my house. Can you believe it? Kicked out of my own house."
"He didn't kick you out. It's just last min-OW! What did you do that for?" Sahtori asked, rubbing her shoulder where Micheal had just hit her. Micheal gave her a look and whispered something in her ear. "Oh...well sorry, but I didn't deserve that cheap shot."
"You two know what he's up to, don't you?" Rain asked.
Micheal looked off in one direction and Sahtori looked off in the other, each avoiding her eyes and giving Rain the impression of characters in a cartoon where something has happened, such as something getting broken, and both parties involved feigning ignorance. Micheal finally looked at her and smiled, shaking his head no.
"You never were a good liar Micheal. Come on, what's he doing?"
"I plead the fifth." Micheal answered. "You're my best friend and all but telling you isn't worth facing Mark's wrath. He'd kill us if even one inkling of his plan came out."
"How about you?" Rain asked, looking at Sahtori. "Can you shed any light in my direction on what he's doing?"
"I'm gonna have to side with the enemy on this one and also plead the fifth. I'm not immune from the risk of bodily harm if I say anything." Sahtori explained. "He even threatened to take away my first born if I happened to let anything slip so he's serious about keeping you in the dark until he's ready for you to know about it."
"It's THAT bad?"
"We didn't say that." Micheal replied."
"Well will I at least like it?"
"Has he ever disappointed you in the surprise department before? Of course you're gonna love this." Micheal said. "It's the last thing you'd ever expect from Mark. The guy must really love you to put himself through this."
"If that was suppose to make me feel better, it fell kinda short of the desired effect."
"I'm gonna check on dinner." Micheal smirked and walked out of the room.
"Not only do you tell me something like that, you leave me hanging and just walk away?"
"That's right!" he threw over his shoulder.
Rain glanced over at Sahtori and rolled her eyes. "He can be so irritating sometimes...but I'm actually glad he's gone for a second because there's something I want to ask you, and remember, you don't have to do it if you don't want to."
"Okay, what is it?"
"I want you to read my fortune."
"Rain," Sahtori started. "You know my feelings about reading my friend's and family's fortunes."
"Yes I do, but I was hoping you'd make an exception in my case." Rain looked towards the kitchen and lowered her voice. "Micheal told me what you said the night of that birthday party and that it was true, and even though I'm still a little skeptic, I want to see what the cards say about me."
"He told you what I said?"
"Yeah, everything." Rain answered. "One night we had one of those deep, soul-searching talks about the past and he confessed many things including his true feelings for me. He even told me he talked to you about them which surprises me. Most women wouldn't want to be in the same room with 'the woman from his past', especially after hearing what he said. I'd think you'd want to avoid me like the plague."
"Well first off, I'm not most women, second it's good that he finally got that out in the open, he chould have done it long before because who knows what might have come from it, even though I believe you were destined to be with Mark, but now he can move on, and last, I have no reason to avoid you or be wary of you and Micheal spending time together. You're very close, trust isn't a problem, and you tell each other everything. It's hard to find friends like that and I'd be stupid to be jealous of that." Sahtori expounded. "Besides, all I have to do is look at you and Mark together and I know that neither one of you would do anything to endanger that. And most importantly, I trust you as a friend. So why do you want your fortune read?"
"To see what the stars above say about my dying from cancer."
"Why do you want to know that? You've been doing great for so long...there haven't been any problems have there?"
"No there haven't...It's just that, well, cancer can be tricky and you can be fine for months and then BAM, you're out of remission. That's true for any kind of cancer." Rain explained. "I don't need to know how I die, I just want to know if it's from cancer."
Sahtori looked at her long and hard before she walked over to her bag and retrieved her cards. "Okay, but only this once. I'll answer that question and that question alone."
Rain nodded her head and watched as Sahtori layed out the cards, turned over each one, and studied them. She finally looked at Rain and began to speak. "According to these, no, cancer will not be the reason for your departing this world. Something else will cause you to pass on to that which follows the life you lead now...and you will be called upon before your time."
Rain heard the phone ring, distracting her for a second. "We all have to go some day, I don't want it to be because of cancer."
Sahtori gathered up her tarot cards. "I'd rather not know what will cause my end, it'll just make you analyze every situation, wondering if this is it. Knowing how you'll die will take the fun out of life."
Rain caught movement out of the corner of her eye and saw Micheal walking towards them, a grim expression on his face. "You need to go back home, Rain."
"He's finished whatever he needed to do for this little surprise of his?" she asked, not liking the look on his face.
"That's not it at all." Micheal sighed. "Mark's mother just passed away."
Rain hurried into the house, checking the kitchen and living room for any sign of Mark. When she didn't find him there, Rain turned on her heels and headed up the hallway to the bedroom where she found him sitting on the bed with his head in his hands and his elbows resting on his knees. Mark looked up when a familar perfume filled the room and he felt another's presence. Rain sat down on the bed, running her fingers though his hair once and opening her arms into which Mark gladly fell, his arms going around her waist and his head buried in her chest. Resting her cheek on the top of his head, Rain slowly rocked him back and forth, knowing all too well what it felt like to lose a parent, especially a mother.
"Do you want me to make all the arrangements for getting to Texas?" she asked after some time had passed. Mark only nodded his head. She started to get up but Mark tightened his hold of her.
"Not yet, can you please stay with me a little longer?"
"As you wish." she said. Mark finally fell asleep two hours later, allowing Rain to make their plane reservations, call Mark's friend telling him he needed to take care of the shop until he was told otherwise, and calling Micheal to tell him when they were leaving and promising to call back when the funeral plans had been finalized. With that all taken care of, Rain changed into a T-shirt and shorts and slid into bed, grateful this day was over and dreading the one that were to come because of how hard they would be on Mark. He and his mother had been very close, never having anything but kind words to say about her, always talking about how loving a woman and mother she was. This was going to be very hard. Mark mumbled something in his sleep and moved towards her, draping his arm across her waist and burying his head in the crook of her neck. Rain traced her fingers up and down the biceps of his arm. By now she could almost outline every one of his tattoos with her eyes closed because there were many nights when he fell asleep before she did and that was how she passed the time. The sky was beginning to show the first signs of a new day when Rain was finally able to fall asleep herself.
Rain glanced through the kitchen windiow of Mark's parent's house and saw Mark sitting on the steps of the deck gazing out ahead, lost in his own thoughts. It had been a very somber trip back to Texas with Mark uttering not one word to anybody until he saw his father and sister, and even then it wasn't that much, mostly hugs. Rain looked over her shoulder when she heard the soft patter of feet and saw Sam's three year-old daughter, Alexahndria, coming towards her. Basically everybody in the family called her Alex with the exception of Rain, Sam, and Mark...the latter thought her name too beautiful to shorten it down to a nickname.
"Rainy (what she called her), where's Unkie Marky (what she called him)?" Alexahndria asked.
"He's on the deck, sweetie." Rain answered. She handed her a sandwhich. "Why don't you go join him and use your charm to get him to eat this."
"Okay." she said, and bounded out to the porch. Rain watched as Alexahndria walked up to her uncle and held out her hands containing the plate with the sandwhich. At first Mark shook his head no but the little three year-old put on a pout that would have made any child who wasn't getting what they wanted proud, causing Mark to pick her up and place her in his lap. Rain smiled as she watched Alexahndria swat Mark's hand away and instead started feeding him the samdwhich herself. ~Never understimate the power of a three year-old girl~.
"You didn't happen to see a little bundle of energy run through here?" Sam asked as she came into the kitchen.
"Yes I did, and I'm using that secret weapon to get Mark to eat for the first time on over twenty-four hours." Rain answered.
Sam walked up beside her and laughed. "They took to each other like a duck to water the first day they saw each other. After he comes for a visit or calls on the phone, Mark is all she'll talk about for days after. One thing's for sure, she really does love her unkie.
"Well he loves her like she were his own. I think seeing and talking to her takes some of the pain away from not being able to have kids of his own." Rain said. "She's the only person I know who can get away with calling him Marky."
"That's what she's always called him ever since she could talk, Unkie Marky. I don't know where she got that from, we've always called him Mark, but she won't let it go even if we correct her. At least Mark thinks it's cute." Sam stopped and watched as Alexahndria placed the last bite of sandwhich in Mark's mouth and began clapping when he finished, thrilled that SHE had been the one to get him to eat. Alexahndria gave him a big hug and a kiss on the cheek.
"How's your father?" Rain asked.
"Not too good. He's up in his room lying down, doesn't want to talk to anybody, closing himself off to everybody." Sam answered. "He and my brother are so much alike when it comes to dealing with grief."
"Rainy! Did you see? Did you see? I got him to eat! Did you see?" Alexahndria exclaimed as she burst back into the kitchen.
"I did indeed see you getting him to eat and I thank you for that." Rain said as she hugged her. "I do believe I see an ice cream cone in your future because of this.
Alexahndria's eyes became wide. "Really? Can I even make it a double scoop?"
"Why I do believe that can be arranged...if your mom says it's okay."
"Is it okay, mom, is it okay?"
"It's fine by me." Sam answered and picked up her daughter. "Now it's off to bed with you. Say goodnight to Rain."
"Goodnight, Rainy." she said as she was carried away.
"Night honey." Rain grabbed her can of coke, finishing off what was left and deciding to join her fiance on the deck. Mark heard the sliding door open but didn't bother to turn around because he already knew it was Rain. "If you want to be left alone, tell me now and I'll go back inside."
"No, it's okay." Mark replied and moved over so that Rain could join him. "So I see you brought out the big guns by bringing Alexahndria out here with a sandwhich."
"Well you needed to eat something because you haven't eaten anything all day and I was worried about you because you've been out here for quite a while." Rain commented.
"I was just thinking about something."
"And what was that?"
"The look on my father's face...he's already dead on the inside. My mother hasn't been gone more than two days and he already looks dead to the world. That's how much she was to him. I know that look too, I remember glancing at myself in the mirror several times during your chemotherapy and having that same look in my eyes when you had several close calls." Mark answered. "I think he's lost his reason to live."
"Maybe time will help him, maybe watching his granddaughter grow up will be reason enough to look forward to a new day."
"I think it just translates into more time for you to think about what life used to be like and how much you miss that person and want them back. Rain, they were together for almost forty years. I don't think time will help him." Mark said. "Time wouldn't help me if anything happened to you and we've only know each other for about six years."
"It appears that you won't have to worry about me disappearing on you for some time now."
"God I hope you're right." he said, taking her hand. "I have something for you." Rain looked at him curiously. "You didn't think I had forgotten your birthday, did you?"
"I wouldn't have held it against you if you did because there are more important things for you to be thinking about."
"Probably not how you pictured yourself celebrating your birthday, huh? I had this big surprise planned for you too, I was going to blow you away with this one." Mark commented. "The night was suppose to start with a candle-lit dinner featuring all of your favorite foods prepared by a chef I knew. And for the big finale...we were going to spend the night dancing. I had recorded all this music for us to dance to so we could have danced to our heart's content for as long as you wanted to in the living room. That's what I've been doing every Tuesday and Thursday night. I told Micheal what I wanted to do and he got me in touch with a woman who taught dancing and wouldn't make me attend a class where there were a lot of people around watching me. I wanted to be the one you went to every time you wanted to go out dancing and not Micheal, and I knew how much you enjoyed it and wanted me to be a part of it. This birthday was special because you were actually healthy and not sick and you were feeling good...the first birthday we could say that for a while and I wanted to do something special to mark the occassion."
"Um...WOW! I, I don't even know what to say." Rain said, at a complete loss as to how to express what she was feeling.
"Would you like to see what I learned?"
"Sure." she answered and started to stand.
"No, I want to do this right." Mark rolled his head around and stood in front of her. "May I have this dance M'lady?"
Rain smiled and bowed her head to him. "But of course, I would be honored."
Mark led her a little ways away from the steps and positioned her arms where they needed to be for the waltz. Rain noticed the nervous look on his face and gave an encouraging smile which relaxed Mark some and he counted to three, beginning the dance. She was impresses right away with his dancing...~Eat your heart out Miss Junior High~ she thought, ~And to think he did this all for me~. It didn't turn out like he had originally planned...there were no candles, no formal wear, no classical music, no four course meal, but Rain couldn't have thought of a better birthday present, even though they were in T-shirts and jeans. She had asked him for a night of dancing and he granted her wish, going through all the trouble of taking dance lessons (which must have been a humbling experience) just for her and that really touched Rain.
"Well, was the time and money I spent on those lessons worth it?" Mark asked when they finally sat back down on the deck.
"I would definitely say it was worth every penny. See, all you had to do was give it one more try."
"There's one more thing left for me to do."
"What could you possibly have left?"
"This." Mark pulled out a black box and handed in to Rain. She opened the box and discovered two rings inside, one for her and one for him. "Read the outside of the ring then read the inside."
"Through whatever may come." Rain read on the outside and then angled the ring so she could see the inside. "I will always love thee."
"Those were to be our wedding rings because I thought the saying was very appropriate for us and our relationship. We've shown each other time and time again just how true those words are and I wanted them to be a part of the rings we would show to the world declaring our union." Mark explained. "I know we don't have to get married and I'm not sure if you still want to, the fourth was the first time I had even heard you talk about the wedding in close to two years. I decided to give you your wedding ring anyways because if this is as close as I get to being married to you, it's more than enough to me. If we do get married, we can still exchange these in the ceremony...a few scratches won't hurt."
"Okay, well so much for not crying." Rain said as she wiped a few tears away. Taking his ring, Rain slipped it on his finger and Mark did the same with her ring. "I don't knowhow you'll EVER top this." Rain raised his hand to her lips and lightly kissed it. "Now as far as the wedding is concerned...how do I explain this. Well at first I didn't say anything about it because my emotions were all over the place because of the cancer and the chemotherapy and now, well now I haven't thought about it I guess because, and this is gonna sound weird and stupid to you, but it felt like we were already married in a way."
"I can understand why you said that." Mark replied. "So, do you still want to get married?"
"Yes of course I still do." Rain answered. "But I no longer want anything big, just something small and intimate with family and close friends. You know, we live four hours away from Gatlinburgh where many people go for their honeymoon and where you can find several wedding chapels tucked away in the mountains. Some of those chapels are quite beautiful and I wouldn't mind in the least getting married in one of them. We could have a small reception afterwards."
"We could get married by the justice of the peace at he courthouse and it would be fine by me."
"But right now, I want to help you get through this." Rain pressed his hand against her face. "We have the rest of our lives to get married."
"So what did the doctor say?" Mark asked.
"Everything looks fine to him and he's happy with how I've been doing. I'll know if my bloodwork is okay in a few days." Rain answered. "Are you sure you don't want me to come back there?"
"I'm fine Rain and I'll be home in two days." Mark said, shifting the phone to his other ear.
"I still feel bad because I left you there during a time when you need me the most." Rain sighed. It had been two weeks since Mark's mother had passed away and a week and a half since she was layed to rest. "We already talked about this. You needed to go back because it's very important for you to keep up with your doctor's appointments." Mark assured her. "My father was more than understanding and he said he would have dragged you there himself if you would have tried to stay, so stop beating yourself up over this."
"Well you do sound better, like the life is back in your voice." Rain noticed.
"That's because Alexahndria's been taking care of me. She wouldn't give me one moment's peace or any time to sit down and feel sorry for myself."
"Turning to another woman are we?" Rain teased.
"You know I could never resist a beautiful face like yours and hers." Mark teased back. "Besides, she's enjoying taking care of me."
"At least I know you're eating." Rain said. "And your father? Is he doing any better?"
"He's started talking to people more, talking to his friends and some family."
"That's a good place to start."
"Yeah, maybe you were right. Maybe he just needed time." Mark heard muffled voices in the background. "You have company over?"
"Micheal and Sahtori are here. We're going out to get something to eat and we'll probably catch a movie."
"I won't keep you then. Sam and my father give you their love."
"Do the same for me and I'll see you in two days." Rain said. "And tell Alexahndria she needs to keep taking care of you for me while I'm not there."
Mark laughed. "Okay...and I love you. Just had a feeling I needed to make sure to say that."
Rain smiled, looking down at her rings. "I love you too...Grace." Mark hung up the phone, grinning from ear to ear at the nickname as her rich laughter continued to ring in his ears.
I do believe, without a shadow of a doubt, that was the WORSE service I have EVER had at that restaurant and it will be a cold day in hell before I EVER give them my business again!" Rain fumed in the car to both Micheal and Sahtori.
"So you've been telling us for the past two hours, so you told the entire restaurant, the waitress, and the manager." Micheal sighed.
"Well they shouldn't have pissed me off." Rain continued. "First when we get seated, it takes thirty minutes for the waitress to come to the table then another fifteen minutes for us to get our drinks and when she finally takes our order, we learn thirty f**king minutes later that they lost our order. I've never seen such incompetent, unprofessional, inept, rude service in my life. She didn't even apologize, didn't say anything until the manager came over to our table and forced her to apologize."
"But at least the manager did apologize and he did give us our meal for free." Sahtori offered.
"Oh wooptee-do! After waiting for that long they think a FREE meal will make everything better? That I'm gonna smile and say everything's forgiven?" Rain retorted. "I would have taken my business elsewhere but we would have had to wait even longer and I wasn't about to let them off that easily. I wanted to make them look like complete idiots."
"Well that you did. It could have been worse Rain, he could have refused to pay for our meal, he could have thrown us out because you were making such a scene."
"I would have liked to see him try! What he saw was only a tip of the iceberg of how much of a bitch I can become."
"Man, I'll be happy when Mark comes back."
"What does Mark have to do with this?"
"You two get very edgy and short-tempered when you're away from each other, and I think you're picking up some of Mark's habits. That scene you just pulled back there is something Mark would have done." Micheal answered.
"He has nothing to do with this, sh*tty service has everything to do with this and I don't get moody when he's gone."
"If that's what you think." Micheal said.
"It's not what I think, it's what I know." Rain corrected. ~So what if I'm lying to him, like I'm gonna tell Micheal that I'm ready for Mark to come home even though it sounds selfish because he should be in Texas with his father and sister~. "And it's not like it would be a big news flash if I said I missed him." Rain looked out the window, wanting to change the subject. "I just hope this fiasco tonight doesn't keep us from making it to the drive in. I think they're getting ready to close it."
"It would be a shame if they did. There aren't too many drive-ins left in America and I think the experience is better than just going to the movie theater." Sahtori said. "You can't beat the price either, just five bucks for two brand new releases and you can even bring you're own snacks if you want."
"Sure is better than the \\$7.50 or $8.00 you pay for one movie these days." Micheal added. "My parents used to always go to the drive-in near their house, at least two or three times a month, until it was closed down. The owner no longer had the money he needed to keep the place going."
"Speaking of your parents, when's the big day when you're gonna meet them, Sahtori?" Rain asked. She started to look over her shoulder but a pair of headlights weaving in and out of the traffic going in the opposite direction held her attention for a second. ~If they keep that up, they're gonna hurt somebody~.
"I go before the firing squad in two weeks." Sahtori answered.
Rain looked over her shoulder and laughed. "You sound like I did when I was getting ready to meet Mark's parents. Trust me, Sahtori, it won't be that bad. His parents are very nice people."
"Well I hope they like people who are different and I hope they aren't expecting the girl next door to show up with their son."
"Of course they like different, just look at Micheal." Rain joked.
"Haha, not funny." Micheal commented.
"I thought it was funny myself." Sahtori said, letting out a giggle.
"You would." Micheal grumbled.
Rain started to add her two cents when that car caught her attention again, driving more erratic and getting closer to them. She was about to say something to Micheal when, in a split second, the car jumped across the median into their lane going the wrong direction. Micheal was helpless to do anything with an eighteen wheeler to his right and one also behind him...all he could do was watch as the car barrelled down on them.
It took less than three seconds for the car to jump the median and to hit them and less than five seconds for the crumbled cars to come to a rest, both slammed back into the median by the eighteen wheeler where they were consumed by flames, but that eight seconds took an eternity for the three friends in the vehicle...especially for Rain. In that eight seconds, she flashed back to that night twenty-two years ago when she was sixteen and she, Cassandra, and her other two friends were piled in Cassandra's beat-up Chevy. They had been talking about their plans after high school and where they would be attentending, and the possibility of going to different schools:
~My parents keep asking me how I'll survive without my 'twin' being right beside me since we're usually joined at the hip~ Cassandra had said.
~That's what breaks and letters are for, and it isn't like we can't visit each other at school~ Rain said.
~Yeah, and with any luck we'll end up at the same vet school~ Cassandra commented.
~Feel sorry for that school if they have to deal with the two of you at the same time~ Rob retorted.
~ROB!~ Cassandra and Rain yelled at the same time.
~What?~ he asked, ~Anyway, enough about school. Can you get us there any faster, Cass? I'm starving here.~
~You're always hungry~ Jenny observed, ~You shouldn't be hungry though, you've been eating all night, right up until we left the house as a matter of fact.~
~Well I'm still growing~ Rob said, causing everybody to laugh. It wasn't too long after that comment that an oncoming truck caused Cassandra to scream.
~No, cancer will not be the reason for your departing this world~
Rain's mind snapped back to the present when she heard screaming, this time it was hers, Micheal's, and Sahtori's. Blinded by the glare of the headlights, Rain felt the impact of the crash...and then there was darkness.
~Something else will cause you to pass onto that which follows the life you lead now...and you will be called upon before your time~