3 Call in the Rain

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I pulled my car up below a tree and killed the engine. I scanned my surroundings and immediately recognized the place, it was one of those state park nature preserves, Hoosier Prairie, located just down the east of Indiana several miles away from home.

We used to go here all the time when I was younger, but the visits gradually stopped. I still come here in some days when I need some time to myself or to simply just escape. I felt relieved by subconsciously droving myself here because I'll probably need this time to myself, to think and contemplate, to use this brief moment to clear my mind.

No one actually knew that I was still constantly visiting this park not even Liam, and the place was pretty empty too. No sign of anyone in the area which is most likely, considering it's a Tuesday morning at 9:30am, dark clouds hovering down from the sky, threatening to release a wave of rain any minute, discernibly surprising because it's officially summer. Who would decide to do some outdoor activities at a weather like this?

Taking my keys out of the ignition, I leaned my head back, closed my eyes, and thought about the unexpected turn of events that just occurred several minutes ago.

'𝘎𝘰𝘥 𝘸𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘥𝘪𝘥 𝘐 𝘫𝘶𝘴𝘵 𝘥𝘰? 𝘞𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘪𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘸𝘰𝘳𝘭𝘥 𝘥𝘪𝘥 𝘐 𝘫𝘶𝘴𝘵 𝘥𝘰?'

Running my fingers through my hair and fixing my composure as best as I could, I stepped out of the car. The grass tickled my exposed feet feeling the slight moist of the ground, probably from the fog. I never had a chance to change my footwear when I barged out of the house earlier. So I was just wearing some pair of slippers, in shorts and a plain navy blue shirt.

I sighed as I shut the door close and scanned the horizon, gazing upon the field, shadows darkening the view.

Bringing my eyes skyward, I gazed upon the dark cumulus clouds, white and caramel mixed together, slowly taking over the bright rays of the sun.

As I was lost in a trance, I felt a drop of wet liquid touched my left cheek, and then another one on my forehead, and then one came after the other simultaneously. It took me a second to register that it was now raining.

Snapping out of whatever daze I was in, I made sure that I locked the car before dashing across the park to one of the small sheds they provided for visitors. Wild flowers, bushes, and sharp branches grazed my legs as I ran across the field, the rain finally pouring out.

By the time I reached the shed, I was already dripping wet from the rain, my hair darkening in color and my clothes mostly soaked. Groaning, I did my best to dry myself up before I let my body plopped down at one of the benches the shed had. Each one was parallel to each other except for the one that was facing the entrance.

Fishing out my phone from my pocket, and wiping the drips of water on the screen. I scanned through my contacts and dialed Liam's number.

I was startled when I was met with a voice of a female operator informing me that the number no longer existed.

Confused, I called again and was met with the same voice and information, and then after a momentary of befuddled silence, I realized that he handed me his new number yesterday because he bought a new phone.

I sighed and rolled my eyes in no one in particular and took the piece of paper from my phone case. Opening the folded paper, I dialed the number on my phone, not even bothering to save it as contact first. I placed the phone on my ear, hearing the dial-ring indicating me it was now calling the other line.

After several rings, the ringing was halted.

Upon hearing the click from the other line, I heard a groggy 'hello' from the other line.

'𝘛𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘪𝘥𝘪𝘰𝘵, 𝘸𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘵𝘪𝘮𝘦 𝘸𝘢𝘴 𝘩𝘦 𝘱𝘭𝘢𝘯𝘯𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘰 𝘸𝘢𝘬𝘦 𝘶𝘱? 𝘏𝘦 𝘸𝘢𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘰𝘯𝘦 𝘸𝘩𝘰 𝘧𝘰𝘳𝘤𝘦𝘥 𝘮𝘦 𝘵𝘰 𝘨𝘰 𝘨𝘦𝘵 𝘤𝘰𝘧𝘧𝘦𝘦 𝘵𝘰𝘥𝘢𝘺 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘯𝘰𝘸 𝘩𝘦 𝘸𝘢𝘴 𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘴𝘭𝘦𝘦𝘱𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘴𝘭𝘦𝘦𝘱𝘺 𝘣𝘶𝘵𝘵?'

"Did you just woke up?" I asked, irritated.

"Hm, yeah why? Uh—"

"What time were you planning to wake up then, idiot? It's almost 10am! Were you planning on bailing on me?" The rain was loud enough to suppress my yelling, but I'm sure that wasn't the case on the other line of the call.

"Is it raining? What are you—"

"Forget it. You're lucky I'm canceling it. I can't go now, something came up."

I heard some shuffling of sheets from the other line.

Liam was saying something, but I couldn't comprehend what words he was saying because his yawn and disoriented speech muffled it.

"Shut up. I can't understand anything, and also-- stay in line okay? I just need to rant something."

Shifting on my seat, I brought my legs up on the bench to turn to my left and laid my body down on my side facing the entrance of the shed, droplets of water evident and loud in the view.

"Hey, you see—"

"I said shut up, and listen okay? I really need this right now, just this once. Don't— don't hang up."

I was met with a moment of silence and then was followed by a sigh. My lips curved up in a slight smile for having this idiot in my life. He may be a pain most of the time, but I'm lucky to have him.

I closed my eyes and let the raindrops drown everything out as I prepare myself to let it all out.

"I fought with my parents this morning. Remember the writing career I was planning on taking? I finally told my dad, and he wasn't happy about it. I tried to explain further and convince him at some point but I didn't have a chance to."

More shuffling of sheets was heard with a faint sound of creaking wood.

"Why is that?" He sounded a bit odd, but I didn't put much thought to it, thinking it was most likely because he just woke up and his vocal chords were a bit off at the moment, so I just brushed it off.

"You know how much I love writing, right? I love doing it and it makes me happy. I make time when I write, doing my best to squeeze it in on my ridiculously busy schedule, risking it to be a distraction. That's how much I love writing."

I heard some wood scraping on wood seeming to sound like a chair being dragged out on the floor to sit on, I also heard some momentary tuds probably cupboards he was opening and closing. He hummed in response, urging me to continue, and so I did.

"I never told them I had a specific career in my mind, and all those times they thought, especially my dad, that I was pursuing law. I was scared of telling him. I didn't even tell them about the Journal and Writing club I joined in at school, and I never had the courage to. But this morning I told them. I sat down with him at breakfast and I straight up told him I wanted to pursue writing, and it didn't go quite well."

More taps of wood on marble noises were heard from the other line and the next thing I knew, there was a ridiculously quick sound of tapping of knife and wood together. My eyebrows furrowed.

'𝘐𝘴 𝘩𝘦 𝘴𝘦𝘳𝘪𝘰𝘶𝘴𝘭𝘺 𝘥𝘰𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘸𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘐 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘬 𝘩𝘦'𝘴 𝘥𝘰𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘳𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘵 𝘯𝘰𝘸?'

"What are you doing?"

"Cooking."

"You don't know how to cook."

"Yes, I do."

I snorted at his blunt confidence but just ignored it just this time and let him have this rare opportunity of not being teased.

"Yeah right. But anyway, just try your best not to burn your house down."

A soft light-hearted chuckle echoed from the other line, reaching through my ears mixing with the sound of raindrops from the background. The weather was pouring and it looks like it isn't stopping anytime soon.

His laugh startled me, it was different in a way and I never heard him laugh so carefree before. His laughs always sounded like a gargling pig that immediately started choking.

"Yeah, sure I will, so what happened next?" Recovering from my entranced state, I cleared my throat and readjusted my position on the bench, no longer facing the rain from the opening of the shed, instead I brought my attention sky wards laying down on my back.

"Uh yeah, so I told him about me pursuing writing, but he refused to listen and insisted that I should take law, that whatever childish role— it's what he calls it —I was doing he told me to stop it and just listen to him."

"Pretty cold."

"Yeah, I know you always say that. Anyway, I tried reasoning with him but then he cut me off. He—"

My voice wobbled at the end and I tried my best not to recall the moments of the events that happened earlier. Regaining my composure I cleared my throat and continue what I was about to say.

"He— he slapped me. He slapped me out of nowhere and it hurt. I didn't know what to do at that moment. I was so startled by what he just did. He never hurt me before, and never have I imagine he would have but he did, my dad—"

My voice finally cracked, and before I knew it, tears were running down my cheeks once again. Silence loomed from the other line. Liam was probably shock from the news I just gave him, all the things he was doing halting to a momentary cease. Sniffing, I willed myself to stop and closed my eyes shut.

'𝘎𝘰𝘥, 𝘸𝘩𝘺 𝘢𝘮 𝘐 𝘴𝘶𝘤𝘩 𝘢 𝘤𝘳𝘺𝘣𝘢𝘣𝘺? 𝘐'𝘮 𝘯𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘳 𝘭𝘪𝘬𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴.'

I took a few sharp breaths to control my almost sobbing state. Swallowing hard, I opened my eyes only to be met with stinging, blurry tears on my vision.

"Hey it's okay if—"

"No, I need to let it all out." Releasing an exasperated breath, I continued.

"After he slapped me, he told me to quit whatever tantrum I was portraying, and it got me riled up. My mom was there trying to break the fight or lessen the tension that was occurring but it didn't do anything. My dad was too angry and I was too surprised and hurt. I— I even talked back to him. I don't know how to feel about that though, whether if I should be terrified or glad, I don't know."

A chuckle from the other line.

"And yeah, I told him my true feelings, that for once I'm doing something I want, and I want to pursue it. That for once I had a goal that wasn't given to me but instead was discovered and constructed by myself."

Sound of crackling oil coming in contact with something was heard on the other line, together with all sorts of what I assume were cooking activities.

'𝘏𝘶𝘩, 𝘩𝘦 𝘸𝘢𝘴 𝘴𝘦𝘳𝘪𝘰𝘶𝘴 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘤𝘰𝘰𝘬𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨.'

"But of course, it didn't actually drill anything to him, it just got bigger, and he told me that—"

I breathed hard and deep.

"He told me he won't support me, won't provide for my financial needs for school, that if I would do what I want, I should do it on my own."

"He said what?" I heard him say, a tinge of anger slipping from his tone. His voice was muffled and judging from the stifled speech and utensils tapping on ceramic, I assumed he was now eating.

"So you manage to cook up something edible and now you're eating. Literally, while I'm ranting my head out, you're eating."

"Just go on, don't mind me. But what he did was an ass move by the way." He said, in a muzzled voice and in between chews. Rolling my eyes, I decided to just continue.

"What he said surprised me. Never have I imagined that he'd actually do that. I mean he's my literal Dad for crying out loud, and you know damn well that I'm not adopted, his brown hair and face features is a spitting image of me in female version, and the only thing that I got from my mom was her eyes, and her attitude mixed with my dad, which I'm grateful for. I can't imagine being stoic and cold 24/7."

A light-hearted chuckle echoed again.

"And after that, I retorted a reply, again, fear draining out of me. I didn't think I'd still had the strength to spit back a reply, but I did eventually. I told him I'll take the scholarship exam, which was not in my plan at all. But hey, life is indeed full of surprises."

"That's a one hell of a rollercoaster ride for a Tuesday morning."

"Indeed, it is. You done eating?"

"Yeah I'm almost done, I'm off to work in the library. It's probably too early but I want to read a few books before my shift starts."

"Oh, I didn't know you worked at a…"

The words died and faded out in silence on my lips. I got up from my laying position and sat crisscrossed on the bench facing the entrance again, rain still pouring hard from the sky.

I jumbled my memories, thinking long and hard about the past, on when did he ever got a job from the library. Liam was never the type to work, but he had tried a few in the past, and it all ended in the most horrible and unthinkable way.

"Did you just got a summer job? That quickly?"

"No, I've been working here for years now." Clinks of glass, ceramic wear, and metal utensils were being heard from the other line, followed by a noise of running water showing that he was now presently washing the dishes.

My head buffered. Loading the information I have just received, confusion and utter speechlessness probably plastered on my face right now as I stared off in the distance, gazing intensely at a random bush. And then it dawned at me, hitting me like a ten-foot wheeler truck.

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