The Rain

The rain falls heavily onto the pink blossoms of a sakura tree....as if there is nothing in the way. Pummeling the branches as the tree sways under the weight of the torrential downpour. It goes on for what feels like an eternity. Over and over, as though in a constant loop. Until suddenly it stops. Time seems to pause, like the moment of shock when an old friend comes to visit after being apart for years. I am the rain, and this is my story. My name is Haru Sasaki. My mother died six months ago. She fell into a coma after being in an accident with a drunk driver on Suzaku Avenue. I still remember the horrific sight of when the driver hit the car my mom and I were in. It happened so quickly I could not process it at the time. All I could see is my mother on the hard cement laying there outside of the car. Just moments before it happened, she and I were talking about what should be the first thing we do when summer starts. Now all I could see was my mother laying there and the glass, glinting bits of light, all over her. I could see her hair, partially covering her face, like a raven flying in front of the moon in the darkness of the night. Her green eyes were wide and blank, those eyes that I always thought if you looked too deep, you would think you are in the amazon rainforest and could never escape. Then suddenly my vision went dark.

I saw my mother again. She was standing in the kitchen facing the stove. At that moment, I thought it was all going to be okay. I closed my eyes with relief and reopened them. My mother appeared behind me. Startled, I jumped, "sorry" she whispered, it was all she said to me before I woke. I shot up out of a dead sleep. When I opened my eyes, I felt a sharp pain in my head. "I can't remember anything, what was that dream?" I saw an unfamiliar woman that looked like a nurse. I thought to myself, "why is there a nurse here? Wait...where am I?" As soon as the nurse noticed I was awake, she started screaming. "Doctor he's awake!" Moments later I saw the door slam open. A man in your typical lab coat, doctor's uniform, and a medical mask came up to me. He looked concerned but thrilled at the same time. His eyes sparkled in the bright lights of the white hospital room. "Do you know your name?"

I swallowed. My throat felt dry and scratchy. I tried to answer. "Yes, Sasaki". It came out in a raspy whisper. "Do you remember your first name?" He questioned as he shined a light into each of my eyes. "Haru, Haru Sasaki is my full name. Who are you and why am I in a hospital bed?" I replied. When I spoke, his eyes widened and then he blinked quickly as if he was blinking a thought away. "Do you remember what happened to you? Or driving with your mother?" When he said that, all of my memories came flooding back like a tsunami. I saw flashes of my mother on the ground. The glass shimmering on her broken lifeless body. I remembered what I was thinking at that moment, and even when I must have passed out. "Hey, mister Sasaki, are you okay?" The doctor's words sounded far away. "I know what happened is a lot to process, but what is your dad's cellphone number?" His voice faded in and out. I could not think. All I wanted to know is where my mother was. "Doctor, is my mother all right?" My voice trembled as I looked to the doctor for answers. His face fell, eyes darted to the ground, avoiding me and finally locking on something off in the corner of the room. He put his head down and bowed. With a sigh, he finally said, "I am sorry, your mother was put into a medically induced coma. We have put her on medication so she isn't in any pain, that was all we could do."

I heard what he had said, but it didn't make sense. I felt nothing. I was not sad or mad. I was just in shock. No way this could be happening. I started feeling confused, this couldn't be right. She has not done anything wrong! What did she do to deserve this? Suddenly, all these thoughts came running through my mind. Like a mouse getting chased by a cat, running in a circle over and over again. "Sasaki!" A voice rumbled breaking my train of thought. That's when I snapped out of it. The doctor looked at me, just inches from my face, and asked "do you have anyone to take care of you?" I searched his face as if the answers may appear on his forehead somehow. "By law, you are not old enough to live on your own, and unfortunately, since your mother will not be taking care of you, we need to know what family members you have that we can contact?" I took a shallow breath and slowly replied. "I have no one", I said, "my father ran off years ago and my grandparents died of old age when I was little." As I said that, I noticed the nurse again, had she been here the whole time? Well, it doesn't matter anyway. After a pause, the nurse broke the silence. "We have some time to think about it, we don't have to rush this, this kind of stuff takes time." "Yeah," the Doctor said in agreement, "we will see what we can figure out".

Eventually, they left my room. I looked around me. I took note of the bright almost blinding white walls. The hum of electricity. Occasionally the light flickered, sending shadows bouncing off the thin ratted blue hospital blanket that covered me. Off in the distance, I could hear a constant beeping. All that was in my room was the bed I was in and a small television mounted on the wall. A stiff, not so gently used, visitor's chair sat empty off in the far corner. It was plain like the Greek yogurt I had today, plain and bitter. I looked down at my hands and huffed a strangled sigh. I did not want to do anything. I just wanted to go home. "But what will home be like without my mother?" The wrenched thought crept up my throat and an intense pain welled inside me. Before I noticed it, I was balling like a newborn. Tears poured from my eyes like a waterfall, and I couldn't stop it. "I just want to go home!" I cried to myself.