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April Showers
By Lynn Burton

The dream I'd been having was a pleasant one. Not one I particularly cared to wake from but as soon as I opened my tired eyes and smelled bacon cooking, I immediately sat up in bed. I stretched my arms above my head and then pulled the covers away from me. I grabbed my robe that lay on the floor and wrapped it around me, tying it loosely in the front.

As I entered the kitchen, I found my roommate, April, busily preparing breakfast. She also wore only a robe. The color was a bright red that matched her shoulder length hair. When she spotted me, she smiled and stopped humming to the song on the radio long enough to ask, "How did you sleep?"

"Good, thanks. And you?"

"Like a baby," she replied in her usual cheerful tone and then went back to humming.

Even though we hadn't lived together very long, I knew April was the best roommate a girl could ask for. We worked for the same company and were both in need of help financially so I considered myself lucky to have found her. Besides her cooking talents, her natural zest for life seemed to rub off on anyone she came in contact with.

"Need help with anything?" I asked, leaning against the counter.

"You can get us something to drink," April said over her shoulder while juggling the tasks of making sure the bacon didn't burn, scrambling the eggs, and making toast.

I quickly gathered two glasses from the cabinets and then looked in the refrigerator to see what we had to drink. "Is orange juice all right with you?"

"Fine with me," April replied.

I poured our glasses and drank half of my juice while waiting on the food. There is something about a good glass of orange juice in the morning.

When the food was ready, I filled my plate with some of the scrambled eggs, two pieces of bacon, and a piece of toast. My stomach grumbled at the sight.

"Bon appetit!" April said.

While we ate, thunder rolled across the sky. I looked out the window above the back door to see the gray clouds that threatened rain. Good lazy day weather, I thought to myself. Just as I imagined myself vegging out on the couch with a good movie, April interrupted my thoughts by saying, "Isn't it a beautiful day?"

I stared at her for a moment and then back up at the window where tiny drops of rain were now collecting on the glass. April amazed me at how she could always see the beauty in everything.

For lack of something better to say, I replied, "It's raining."

April laughed as if I were a child who'd just said something silly and then she said, "Yes, it is." Thunder followed.

"Do you remember playing in the rain as a kid?" April asked.

I thought about her question while I finished chewing the piece of toast I'd just put in my mouth. As hard as I tried, I couldn't honestly remember a time that I'd played in the rain. "No," I answered.

"Never?" Surprise shown on April's face.

I shook my head. "Nope. Never."

"Well, we're going to have to change that."

"We are?"

April laughed again. "Yes, we are."

The smile on her face made me smile too.

As we finished our breakfast and cleaned up the kitchen, the rain came down harder. I was looking out the living room window when I heard April walk up behind me. I was stunned, but in a most pleasant way, that she stood there with no clothes on.

"Are you ready?" she asked.

"Ready?" Without so much as another word, she came closer and pulled me by my hand to the front door. Being the free spirit that she was, April darted from the doorway out onto our sidewalk with her hands high above her head. She tilted her face to the sky, letting the steady sheets shower her body. I just watched for a moment. When her eyes met mine, she smiled. And because her enthusiasm was contagious, I smiled back and couldn't help but to succumb to the urge to join her. Quickly, I slipped out of my robe, leaving it inside the doorway and ran out into the rain as if it was the most natural thing to do.

April splashed in a puddle by the curb. I was more interested in the way the rain felt hitting my body. I wondered why I hadn't ever played in the rain before. What a sheltered life I'd led.

"Isn't this great?" she asked, pulling some dark soggy hair out of her face.

"It's a beautiful day," I replied.

She laughed with her face to the sky again. "Yes, it is."

Vika

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