~~~The Anonymous Rendezvous~~~
“Right through the red light. Good job.” Hannah said to her boyfriend. The car sped by with a Woosh! under the rainy sky.
“Hey, don’t say it like it’s a good thing,” said Jake from the back seat.
“Don’t be such a sissy. Just feel lucky that we agreed to drop you off at the train station,” Hannah said as she turned her head to face Jake from the passenger seat. All he did was roll his eyes and face the windows. The raindrops pelted against the glass and blurred the image.
The car had halted to a stop and Jake got off. He boarded his train and grabbed onto the bar in the busy subway cart. Jake swayed with the train as people and soaked umbrellas came in contact with his body. He could feel the chill breeze of the air conditioner against his face. When the train stopped with a screech, Jake made his way out with the crowd of people. Like always, on rainy mornings, Jake would exit the gates instead of transferring trains.
Garden of Words. He was here. Jake walked up the the many short stairs as he walked into what seemed like a paradise. Lush green trees and flowers of many vibrant colors dotted everywhere. There was a bench with an overhead on it. That was the place Jake would always sit at. Every rainy morning. But today, it was different.
Jake stopped in his tracks as he saw a woman. She looked around her mid twenties. Gripped in her left hand was a beer. She lifted her head and smiled. “Sorry,” she said as she scooted over.
“Oh, it’s okay,” Jake replied. He took a seat beside her and brought out his canvas and palette. It was the same every rainy morning. Instead of going to school, he would skip first period and come to this garden to paint. He couldn’t help but give a glance at the woman. She sat there casually with her right leg crossed over her left and a can of beer in her hand. She just stared at the once crystal blue pond. Suddenly, she turned her head. Jake let out a tiny “oh” and turned back to his canvas. The woman looked at Jake’s uniform. She raised her eyebrow.
“No school today?” she asked innocently. Jake looked kind of surprised. He stared at the ground. The woman let out a sigh and said “Sorry for asking. It’s none of my business.” Jake just gave a slight nod and went back to painting. “Maybe it’s fitting,” Jake’s head shot up and looked at her with bewilderment evident on his face. “A faint clap of thunder, clouded skies, perhaps rain comes, if so will you stay here with me,” she recited. She grabbed her umbrella and stood up. Jake’s gaze followed her as she opened her red umbrella and walked down the stairs in her black flats. Jake was speechless. ‘What was that all about’ he thought.
The next day, the news declared the beginning of the rainy season earlier than average. It rained again. And, again, Jake ditched first period and went to the garden. Like yesterday, he climbed up the short steps. Like yesterday, he stopped. There she was again. That woman. She was there again with the same umbrella and a beer in her hand. She sat with her right leg crossed over her left again. Jake just took a seat and painted in silence. This time they didn’t talk. But, she recited that unusual line again. ‘What is it suppose to be’ Jake wondered.
The day after that, Jake repeated the same routine. She still repeated that same weird sentence. They did the same the next day and the next day after that. By the end of the week, Jake had actually started to talk to her.
“Do you always drink beer in the morning?” Jake asked looking at the can in her hand.
“Yeah, and I eat snacks,” she said. She brought out a whole bunch of chocolate and candy bars from her convenience bag. Jake scrunched his nose in disgust. “What?” the woman asked confused.
“Shouldn’t you eat something more… healthy?” Jake asked. The woman just shrugged. ‘She really is an oddball’ Jake thought. Then an idea popped into his mind. He took out his lunchbox from his bag. “Here. I ate too much for breakfast anyway so I’ll probably won’t eat this,” he lied and handed her a fork. The woman hesitantly took it. She stabbed the fork into a piece of tomato and let the sweet cold sensation into her mouth. Her eyes lit up with joy. ‘Seriously? She’s that happy about a piece of tomato?’ Jake thought.
On Monday, it was sunny and Jake went to school like he was supposed to. “Rain,” Jake said as he woke up Tuesday morning. He smiled to himself. Before he goes to sleep in the evening and the moment he wakes up in the morning, Jake would find himself actually praying for rain. He would even make extra lunches to bring to the garden. He would paint and she would drink and eat but, they would talk. They would talk about the world. And life.
Jake had even told her about his problems. How he would work everyday non-stop to make enough money for college tuition. How he would take care of his single mom that liked to party all the time and never work. He told her all his problems. Like she was his own 3-D diary.
But, something seemed off. She seemed to walk slower than usual and she would limp a lot. Whenever Jake asked if she was okay, she would just reply with a simple nod. But, Jake obviously wasn’t convinced.
A few weeks have gone by and it started to rain less and less. Whenever Jake woke up to a beaming sun, he would automatically feel a frown coming. He had gone once when it wasn’t raining. However, he just turned back when she wasn’t there. But, one day, it finally came. Rain.
When he got off the station, Jake ran. He ran up the stairs and there she was. He stopped. She was sitting there like she always did. But, something seemed off. She wouldn’t make eye contact with him and she seemed a little pale. She didn’t have a beer with her. Or any snacks. “Hey,” Jake said lightly as if she was something fragile. She still didn’t look at him. “Is something wrong?” He asked. She didn’t say anything. It was silent. Then… BOOM! Thunder and lightning interrupted the silent atmosphere. Both Jake and the woman looked startled. Rain splattered harsher than before. Jake then realized that he still hadn’t taken shelter yet. His clothes started to cling to his skin as he got soaked to the bone. The woman finally looked at him.
“My apartment is nearby. You can change your clothes there,” she said in a low voice. Jake seemed surprised at her request but, agreed anyway.
The moment Jake got out of the shower in his recently flat ironed clothes, he saw the woman sitting on a chair. He took a seat on the couch. They sat in silence. All they could hear was the sound of the hard pouring rain. The one to break the silence was the woman. “I’m not okay at all,” the woman said. Jake was confused. He looked at her as if telling her to clarify. The woman caught the hint. “I was born with a weak body. My legs are weak. That’s why I limp sometimes. And it’s getting worse and worse each day. I only drink beer and eat all those snacks because it seems to take my mind off of it. It was a distraction. But then, you started to be the what distracted me from all my misery.” The woman smiled. Jake’s eyes were wide open. He stared in disbelief.
The woman started to tear up. She looked like she was about to cry. “By next month, I’ll probably be in a wheelchair.” Jake’s mouth opened a little bit but nothing came out. “That’s why I’m always at that garden. It reminds me how beautiful the world is even if it’s cruel to me. I don’t have a job anyway. The hospital won’t let me stress my body too much.”
“So, is that why you’re so down?” Jake asked.
“It’s more than that,” the woman continued. “I’m being transferred to another hospital.” Jake’s eyes widened even more, if that was possible. “In Europe.” That was it. The last string that held Jake back.
Jack got up from the couch and slammed his hand onto the beige coffee table. “You… You… Tell me this now?” Jake’s voice started to waver. The woman didn’t say anything. She just covered her face as tears flowed down her face. Jake couldn’t help but grit his teeth.
“A faint clap of thunder,” the woman raised her head up, “even if rain comes not, I will stay here together with you. That’s the correct answer right?” Jake asked. The woman nodded. “Aren’t you gonna say anything?” Jake asked, frustration obvious in his voice. The woman just looked away. Jake could feel something inside him burn.
Jake swiftly turned around and bolted to the door. The woman seemed surprised. When the door shut closed, the woman knew she was never going to see him again. ‘Maybe this is for the best’ the woman thought. Then, she looked up. She noticed a black bag. ‘Jake Notch’ it read. She realized what it was. She carefully unzipped it. She couldn’t believe what she was seeing. The painting he was always working on all the time. She thought he was only painting the garden. But, in front of her was a painting of her sitting on that bench with her beer can and her right leg crossed over her left. ‘Wow’ she thought.
The woman jolted out of her chair and ran as fast as she could to the door. By the time she got to her welcome mat, she could feel her legs wobble. She felt like they were jelly. She was about to collapse but she slammed her hand on the wall. She ran again and each time she would have to stop to find the wall for support. She was almost down her first flight of stairs when her knees started to shake rapidly. She gripped onto the rails for dear life. She continued down her second flight while trying to hold on for support. Then, she saw him. He had his back turned to her and he was staring at the other buildings shrouded in mist and fog. She was panting like crazy.
Jake turned around to see the woman on her knees at the bottom of the stairs. He let out a small gasp. But then, the past events played back to him and he furrowed his eyebrows. “Ever since we met,” Jake turned his head to the right, “you struck me as a person I should avoid. But for some reason I would always wished for a rainy morning. Even though I never knew your name. I realized that on sunny days, I was in a terrible childish place, feeling nothing but impatience. You live in a world so far away from me.”
The woman set her palms on the rail and pushed herself to her feet. Jack continued, “You probably thought of me, a 16 year old high schooler, as a mere child. But, I felt like painting there on that bench with you sitting next to me and talking was the only way that I could get out of my small world. I honestly thought that. So why didn’t you tell me any of this earlier.” A single tear had escaped Jake’s watery eyes. “I thought talking about our problems was how we connected. After all, you probably think I’ll never amount to anything!” Jake clenched his fists and took a step closer to her.
“You acted like a close friend to me. So why didn’t you say anything?! Did you think you could humor this little kid’s fantasies for a while? Tell me I’ll never live up to my expectations?! Tell me I’ll never measure up to my dreams?!” His voice started to shake. “You knew from the very beginning. So tell me I’m in your way. Tell me that little kids should just run off to school. Tell me that you hate me!” The woman started to shake her head. “You-”
“Stop! It’s because you act like that. Thinking that everything is your problem and living on all alone.” the woman screamed. The woman forced her legs to work and jumped to hug Jake. She cried onto his shoulder. Unable to support her weight anymore, the woman fell to her knees bringing Jake down with her. “You always think you should be the one to help your family. You have so much stress for a high school boy. Don’t you see? I didn’t need you to worry about something more. That’s why. That’s why I didn’t tell you. Every morning I would wake up and take my medicine. My mom would always nag me about going to the hospital more often. But, I’m scared. I just can’t go,” more tears flowed down her face, “I couldn’t go to that place. You,” she started to hug him tighter, “saved me.”
Jake started to let all the tears flow out. He put his hand on the small of her neck. They just stayed there. On their knees and crying on each other’s shoulder.
With the rain.
Even though…
she was an anonymous person.