It has been raining, hard and steady, since that morning. The sky was a solid grey mass, severe and unyielding. She loved this kind of weather. It didn’t happen very often in hot Israel. The booming of thunder and the crack of lightning made her feel powerful. The howling wind made her feel sexy. She wanted to be in the rain, immersed in it, immersed in him. She picked up the phone and dialed his number. As soon as he answered the phone she asked: “Do you want to go see the rain?”
“How do you see rain?” he asked, “and where?”
“Pick me up in ten minutes,” she said, “and I’ll show you.”
She put on her leggings and boots and a big sweater over her bare skin, and went downstairs. She didn’t have to wait long for him to get there in his little old car. She got in and they exchanged smiles. She knew she was going to make the most of this weather, after all. “Drive!” she said, “I’ll give you directions.”
The little town was a very young one; its final form and importance still a faraway dream. Streets were still being paved, trees planted, houses built. From her bedroom window she could see the orange groves on the other side of the main street, and every spring those trees filled the air with a sweet smell like pure lust. She loved her town, knew every corner of it. The street she took him to wasn’t finished yet, and it dead ended into the mud. The streetlights, however, were in place already, and so she directed him to stop the car at the very end of the street, beneath the last streetlight. There were no other cars to be seen anywhere. “Now what?” he asked, amused. She laughed, got out of her seat and twisted her body so that her back was arched backwards and her head was resting on the dashboard, face up. The light beams illuminated thousands of raindrops, and they seemed like they were falling straight into her eyes. Her brain knew the glass was shielding her, but her eyes blinked anyway, obeying some primal instinct to protect themselves.
Seeing her arched back like this brought other primal instincts to his mind. “You’re crazy.” He said. His voice was hoarse. She laughed again and said: “You have to see this!”
“Ok,” he said, “Move over. I can’t do it in the driver’s seat.” She refolded herself into the seat and tried to move closer to the door so that he could fit in there too. There wasn’t much room in that car. She liked it. He got next to her and tried to arch back as she did. It was so much harder for him than it had been for her, being taller, heavier and not nearly as limber, but he got it in the end. He was quiet for a few moments, and she could see him blinking rapidly. Then he said: “Wow! This IS something.” He could feel her warm body next to him, and suddenly the rain stopped being so interesting.
He half sat down, half fell back into the seat beside her. Outside, thunder roared, but the car was warm. The windows were beginning to fog and her hair smelled like spring. He moved her to sit between his legs and started to massage her shoulders and neck. She gave herself up completely to his fingers and to the moment.
‘This is it’, she thought to herself. ‘This is what you do when it rains!’
