To catch beady drops of rain and wear them around your neck has always been a great fancy of yours. You sit on the veranda on days when the rains rush to leave the sky and burrow deep into the earth, watching them fall, wishing that it will slow down just enough for you to catch one glittering orb. Today’s downpour had come from nowhere, the clouds didn’t darken, there was no thunder; it began suddenly like the first clang of a large bell. The sun did not retreat into the clouds, it stared out of one eye, as surprised as you were so you sang the rain song as you paused your laundry, entranced by the liquid crystals dropping out of the sky.

A hyena must be eating a lion somewhere for it was only on days when the unthinkable happen that the sun and the rain struggle for dominion. That was Dee Jato’s explanation of the phenomenon when you asked him about it as a boy several years ago.

You saw her walking through the rain, regal. Another anomaly, most adults would make a dash for shelter but she walked slowly through the pouring rain. Ivie, she walked like an apparition and your heart beat in tune with each step she took. Ivie, the face you see often with each slant of falling rain. But this is no mirage, she was walking to you.

“Dozie, can you help me with a rag?”

“Of course!” you said and ran into your room emerging a few seconds later with a towel.

“This isn’t a rag” she commented with raised brows staring at the towel in your hand.

“You deserve better than a rag” you reply tenderly

She smiled. Her radiance shone through at the parting of her lips and you wanted to swim, to race through that opening to her heart. Ivie, she is the shadow that lurks in the deepest recesses of your heart but she belongs to Ude, the one everyone thought an ideal young man. Your mother has on several occasions implored you to be like him. You smile each time she says that, you know the only good thing about Ude is Ivie.

“Why were you walking in the rain?” you asked mildly.

“He slapped me, again” she replied, her face falling, yours darkening. What devil would lay his hands on Ivie?

For a long time you had no words, you stood and stared out into the distant horizon, the sun still smiled at the foolishness of the rain and the rain fell in defiance of the sun, soothing the patched earth with its warmth. You turn and take Ivie in your arms; her legs had guided her to you on a day the universe was speaking out of both sides of her mouth. You pull back and stare for a while at her oval face, then you kiss the cheeks he had slapped, soothing it, before bringing your lips to rest on hers.