There was once a girl that lived in a shiny shiny house. Down by the water and up in the mountains. She could be found roosting on a rock in the backyard. Swingingly lazily from a tire swing. Laying in the itchy grass and watching the clouds. The days filled themselves and never asked her for anything. Day melted smoothly into afternoon and the sun set slowly, minute by minute, as she skipped hop skotch and polished the spokes of her bicycle until they brightly beamed. She pressed her face up against the window, scribbled a face in the fog, and watched her big black dog pace up and down his outdoor cage. Her house glowed.

One day she played in the rain. Huge sheets of it fell and pounded on her tiny shoulder blades. She squealed as her skinny braids dripped water and she threw back her head and laughed, seeing how many rain drops she could catch in her mouth.

She caught a cold and learned not to play in the rain.

It would be years before she saw rain like that again.

It was a lazy Saturday afternoon at her boyfriend's parent's house. The parents were gone and the day had been spent engrossed in scrabble, an afternoon feature presentation, and the daily crossword. The thunder rolled and the rain began to fall. Eyes wide she bolted for the door, laughing giddily as she ran outside, feeling the rain pounding against her head, soaking her hair and hands, rolling down her cheeks and into her t-shirt.

She smiled and looked back towards the front door but her boyfriend was not amused. "You're getting all wet. What are you doing? We have to leave soon."

And she learned for the second time not to play in the rain.

A few years later sitting outside on a covered porch outside a student bar in Germany the rain began to fall. She glanced sideways over her shoulder and watched the rain drops fall under a street lamp. A boy next to her grabbed her arm and dragged her to her feet. A hoard of students ran to the center of the courtyard and laughed jumping up and down. The ran to a small inflatable pool and stripped off their clothes and jumped, in roaring in laughter and wrestling in the water. And then they were dancing and spinning and soaking wet and for a minute time slowed down to let them be children.

And she learned to always play in the rain.