“Rain again, they said.” “Just when it finally cleared up…” “Summers are nuts lately. It’s always raining.” “Even out on the island, the typhoons were almost constant.” Everyone was complaining. Ducking my head and saying “Excuse me,” I made my way upstream through the crowd in the narrow corridor. When I climbed the last flight of stairs and poked my head out onto the deck terrace, a powerful wind hit me in the face. The wide deck was already deserted, shining in the sunlight. Right in the center, a white-painted pole stood like a signpost pointing at the sky. My anticipation building, I walked across the empty deck and looked up. Gray clouds were closing in, burying the blue. —Plish. A raindrop struck my forehead. “…Here it comes!” I yelled before I could stop myself. All at once, countless raindrops fell from the sky and into my eyes, and right after that, big drops crashed down with a thundering roar. The sunlit world from just a moment ago was rapidly colored over in the monochrome of an india ink painting. “Whooooa!” The rain drowned out my yell so thoroughly even I didn’t hear it. I was enjoying this more every second. My hair and clothes were getting heavy and sodden, and even my lungs were filling up with moisture. I broke into a run and jumped as hard as I could, as if the sky were a soccer ball and I was trying to head it into the net. I spread my arms and spun to create an eddy. I opened my mouth wide and drank the rain. As I ran around like a lunatic, I poured out my soul and shouted out all the words I had bottled up inside. They were all washed away by the rain, unseen and unheard. A hot mass welled up in my chest. Half a day after I’d stealthily slipped away from the island, I was finally experiencing a sense of genuine liberation. I looked up into the rain, panting. What was above my head wasn’t rain so much as a great mass of water. I couldn’t believe my eyes. A whole flood was plummeting from the sky, as if an enormous pool had been flipped upside down. It’s coiling—almost like a dragon, I thought, just as a violent impact threw me to the deck. It felt like I was right under a waterfall as the heavy deluge pummeled my back. The ferry groaned, rolling dramatically. Oh, crap! By the time the thought hit me, I was already sliding toward the water, and the angle of the deck was Page 9 Goldenagato | mp4directs.com