It was mostly a
pretend rain dance, because we were
too old to really believe it would really work, but come on, we both kind of thought it would. I will admit
it was my idea. I will admit I felt pretty dumb bringing it up, but I couldn’t help thinking, What if we can make it happen? And when you got all excited about it, I thought, She wouldn’t be wasting her time if it wasn’t real.
Suddenly you were the rain goddess, and you knew all the rules. You were always in charge of every game but it was all right, you were beautiful and I was there. I didn’t know enough to demand more than that.
Stomp around. Wave your hands up and down. Follow me. I did. We picked the tiny purple weedblossoms and crushed them in our fists, because you said to. I was disappointed when my hands did not stain purple. We flung handfuls of damp wilted flower bits as high as we could; an offering to the clouds, which there weren’t any. Hot dry sky, neither of us mentioned it. There, you said, wiping your palms down your jeans, done being the rain goddess, that’s it. I wanted to wait outside but you wanted hot dogs so we went in.
It was hours and hours later, a zillion circuits of Monopoly, when there was a low thunder. You pretended not to be surprised, and maybe you weren’t. I wasn’t, I knew you were magic.