I look to the sky and see the clouds jostling grumpy for their positions. Their thick black jackets shaking terrible across the sky. I can feel in the air a tickling sense of electricity as my hair tingles up above.

A lonely rain drop falls…

I watch as people look to the sky and with brooding displeasure and unleash umbrellas upon the scene. A hard crack and a ripple of light shoots magically across the heavens and suddenly the rain falls all at once in a thunderous shower. With no umbrella I’m immediately enveloped in its grasp. I scrunch up my shoulders and pull my hands up to cover my eyes. All around the rain is falling and quickly I’m drenched from head to toe. I curse myself for not remembering my umbrella… England is known for a spot of rain from time to time after all. I worry my shoes will be ruined and how silly my hair will look. As vanity gives way to the realisation it’s already too late I look up to see the faces of those bustling past me. We are all cowering under our little plastic roofs. Heads down… watching for puddles… warily eyeing cars as they drive by too close.

And then as if from some ancient black and white film I spot a well travelled old convertible driving by. An elerdly man and woman with swimming googles for masks and with smiles as big as life stretched from ear to ear at the helm. The rain falls all around them, there is nothing to be done to prevent it… and so they drive on…

I drop my hands and let the tension relax from my shoulders. I look up and see the sky isn’t angry after all. Instead the rain is floating down singing as it bungee jumps to earth. I’ve got it all wrong. I had a choice all this time. I never needed my umbrella. I didn’t need to curse. And so I opened my arms wide, leaned back, head high, felt the pitter patter dancing all around me. And as suddenly as it had begun it stopped. I felt the sun on my cheeks and the cool breeze after a summer rain flow by. I stood there a moment longer.

And I smiled…