A small dart dropped unexpectedly from above. Two, three more darts followed in seemingly harmless attacks. Relaxed, the soldiers took no heed not until swift arrows plunged ceaselessly from above. Some armed but most unarmed, they scattered and took shelter, leaving their posts in alarm by the imposing threat.

No chief. No orders. Spit…spat…sputter. Divine cries were spewed from heaven blanketing the camp in sudden woe, attacked in defenseless condition. An unexpected rival had arrived.



Earth’s scent rose and wafted through the air. It was humid mixed with a grave air of boredom. No wonder some people were in some mysterious spell when it rains. They were tamed in silence. If they did dare notice uniqueness in the spatter, they kept tuned in to the drama (an endless series of weeps and the struggle of poor, crawling protagonists for survival) still in silence. They would not take the courage to indulge in the warfare and face the great rain. But say when an unwanted insect appears from goodness knows whence, threatened people would do self-defense and gladly kill the pests.

Pak! A cockroach was murdered. Many other than the shunned cockroaches became victims of rain, their comfort zones bombarded. Drowning creepy-crawlies swam in murky puddles, of course with a 50/50 chance of survival. And people would just marvel and stare in silence.



Rain could but just be stared at. It is uncontrollable. It is a naturally occurring phenomenon, a precipitation in water cycle. That which falls on earth, is absorbed and is gathered in bodies of water, is the same water that falls as rain from clouds.

Likewise, having a friend is inevitable. They come unexpectedly whether by chance or by our own initiative. Interested, we get to know them first through silent observations. But we cannot judge then classify the person instantly in our own measures. We keep our judgments to ourselves and seek confirmations, instead. We befriend the rain and wait. It is not in our limited power to complicate things as in the case of our conservative rain. But we in our own expertise could see.



Rain is classified into two: shy and aggressive. I believe that there will always be two kinds of rain; not semi-shy semi-aggressive as much as there is no such thing as choosing both good and evil. Seriously, I stress, we should be careful in characterizing rain. There are times when we thought it is a shy rain when it turned out to be aggressive.



A man looked outside and said “It is not raining“ then thought for a moment. He looked for the second time, more intently, only to reverse his comment. Short, delicate slants of the thinnest hair fell daintily on hospitable ground and remained. No laughter was heard, not even a sign of their presence for they tiptoed when they entered and refused to be acknowledged. The shyness pursued and the battle that supposed to be between the earth and the shy rain turned into a friendly visit. As the shy rain did, a harmonious melody of spit-spat-sputter resounded.

Both parties communicated in such a way onlookers did not understand. We humans would not understand. Such elegance portrayed allures curiosity. The rain was excused from the battle having the reason of shyness, innocence. Consequently, the enemy, earth, was tamed in silence. They would have been deceived, but no one knows. The shy rain is very secretive that even people, highly intelligent, could not uncover the reason why there is such a shy rain.



On the contrary, the aggressive rain is more like a nation of Amazons who do not only come with arrows but also spears. The warriors came running swiftly. They thrusted javelins after javelins continuously, each spear weighed by how it is swung. A harmony of a disastrous orchestra boomed all throughout, a battle cry. A-yi-yi-yi! The rain had succeeded in catching its opponent unaware. The enemy was pierced in the bloody war of a life-and-death situation. It was an endless, unbearable battle but the earth pursued. When it was really severe, the enemy decided to surrender. And the earth tasted destruction and defeat from the aggressive rain. She had nearly wiped his tribe in extinction and as a result, the earth would take time to recover…in twenty to thirty minutes under the refreshing sun.



Blot…blot…bolot. The last drops fell one after another, young rain wanting to experience some thrill. So they dropped and dropped…and dropped. People stared in silence. The monotony was deafening. Earth was recovering and the puddles were gradually being sucked up. Then people would marvel at the poor creatures that were miserably counting the fatalities and the missing, and laugh. Alas! They had finally come to their senses.



…



We could associate rain with misery, irritations, and negative feelings of uneasiness. Otherwise we could think of water, flood, clouds and tangible things — nature in particular. We could say they are like problems that come unexpectedly and destroy our pleasant air, but are still wonderful lessons to embrace in joy. We even mention blessings from the sky and other “motherly statements” commonly concluded when pieces are read without putting an effort on a deeper assessment. Or rather, allow one’s self to see in an insensible way to uncover a weighty importance.



It is raining cats and dogs. This cliché we linked with heavy rain could be possibly related with friends, shy and aggressive. There are times when we fail to notice the still and instead consider them not worth talking to. If we will only approach them and know them better, we will see a loyal friend in them. Then the silence and delicacy of these friends will allure us, but we would not be able to predict their thoughts. They keep their emotions to their selves. That is keeping them still shy and unspoken. On the other hand, some people have strong personality. They are fun to be with, but when misunderstandings come they are the hardest to deal with. We find our selves losers and we submit in order to end the war. We know that if we do, everything will come back to normal in twenty to thirty minutes.

We have friends of different character. We could remember some in the past in our remaining droplets of memories. Then laugh. Because we understand that no matter what they are, we accept them unconditionally. Indeed, it is raining shy and aggressive friends.



The sky has finally cleared and light surprised the previously depressed Mother Nature. The earth has fully recovered. But the scene is not yet over. A bright curved band of color reveals it’s self across the sky, shimmering through the misty air. A rainbow has appeared as another rewarding marvel. Then again there would be no rainbow without the rain on whose droplets light rays enter or leave. The young, tiny drops reflect the rays. Reflect the rays…

“The way I see it, if you want the rainbow, you gotta (sic) put up with the rain.” – Dolly Parton.