Flood

By Karen Sites

On Monday morning it was raining. The rain had started on Friday evening and it had fallen in steady, relentless sheets all weekend. Mike's golf game had been canceled and Lisa had been stuck inside with the kids for two days and Dan's newly planted garden had washed away, and everyone in the office had been disgusted to wake up that morning and find it was still raining. Everyone except for Julie.

Julie was stunning, and young, and sincere, and she loved the rain. She made this obvious at great length whenever it rained, and after three days' worth of downpour she was so happy as to compensate for everyone else's disgruntlement.

"I love the rain, don't you?" was the first thing she said when she came in.

Dan grunted something noncommittal, and Lisa pretended she hadn't heard, and Mike said, flat-out, "No."

Julie took off her slicker and hung it up. "It makes everything so fresh and new. Just look." She gestured at the windows over Mike's desk that opened onto the sloping parking lot, the creek running fast and muddy at the far end, and the endless, steady rain. "Isn't it beautiful? The rain washes everything clean."

"That's not clean," said Mike. "That's mud."

"And it makes the air smell so fresh."

"It makes people catch cold, and then they can't smell anything."

Julie gazed at him sadly. "You shouldn't be so negative, Mike. You should enjoy life."

"What's there to enjoy?" Mike growled.

"The rain," she said and walked away.

"Well," said Lisa, "I'm glad someone's happy."

"Someone who's not me," said Mike. "Goddamn rain. It's goddamn depressing is what it is, and people being all chirpy about it piss me off."

"Eh, it's spring," said Dan. "It's going to happen."

Mike fixed him with a glare. "Don't you start too."

"Nossir."

"Such a great butt," Mike said. "Shame she doesn't have a brain in her head to go with it. Rain, for Chrissakes."

By Tuesday the creek had risen to alarming levels and most people had parked as far uphill from it as possible. Julie, on the other hand, parked her minivan right down by the water. "I love looking at the creek when it's like this," she said. "The rain makes it so exciting."

"It's going to flood," said Dan, "and we'll all have to park down the street."

"I'm so glad it's raining," said Julie. "I just love the rain, don't you?"

"No," said Mike, but she walked off and did not hear him.

He glared at her retreating back. "If she doesn't shut up about the rain," he said, "I'll throttle her."

The rain continued. It was coming down too hard for anyone to leave the building for lunch. The ceiling in the men's restroom began to leak. People bumped into each other in the halls and snarled. Outside the creek crept to the top of its banks. Every time Julie walked by she stopped by Mike's desk to gaze out the window and talk about the beauty of the rain. Mike became ominously quiet, and broke a stapler.

On Wednesday the creek was in flood. The lower end of the parking lot was under water and Lisa had to park two blocks away. She was drenched by the time she came in. So was Mike, and Lisa and Dan eyed him, judged his mood, and turned away without risking speaking. Julie came in, shed her drenched slicker, and beamed. "It's still raining! Aren't we lucky?"

Mike glowered like an indoor thundercloud and Dan and Lisa, fearing the deluge to come, inched away. "I hate the goddamn rain," he said.

"You need to appreciate it more," she said. "You need to learn."

Lisa said quickly, "Julie, do you have those reports from last week? I need to get some numbers from them again."

"Sure," said Julie. "I'll run you copies, it'll take a few minutes. Take a look at the rain, Mike. It's so lovely." She left.

"That's it," said Mike. "That's the last straw. I am going to kill her."

"We'll visit you in jail," Lisa said.

"I've got it all planned out. Did anyone make coffee?"

"I did," said Dan. "You planned it out?"

"Drown her in the creek," Mike went on, a dreamy look in his eyes, "and let it wash her body downstream. They'd attribute it to the flood."

"Okay," Dan said. "This is getting into creepy territory now. You're starting to sound like you mean it."

Mike looked at Dan for a long moment, then barked a laugh. "Just kidding, man," he said. "Just a joke, you know?"

The rain fell all day. Julie trapped both Lisa and Mike by the water cooler and told them at great length about the beauty of the rain. "I thought Mike was going to pick up the bottle and throw it at her," Lisa told Dan later, "I swear to God." Dan later saw Julie talking with Mike in the hall, but he ducked back into the office to save himself from the inevitable fallout.

On Thursday it was still raining. Mike had arrived early, to secure a place in the parking lot, and he was at his desk when Dan came in. Though the weather still was foul, Mike's mood seemed to have lightened considerably; a smile played around his lips and every now and then he gazed out the window with what almost might have been fondness. Lisa came in late, having parked down the street. Julie didn't come in at all.

"Has anyone seen Julie?" Dan said.

Mike shrugged. "I don't think she'll be coming in today," he said, and something about the casual set of his shoulders chilled the room.

Lisa and Dan exchanged glances. "Did she call?" asked Lisa.

"No." Mike gazed out at the rain. "Let's not talk about Julie, okay?"

Dan was going to say something, but thought better of it and stopped. He saw Lisa looking nervously at the floor. The two of them gathered later at Dan's desk for lunch and sat silently for a few moments, each waiting for the other to start talking. Julie hadn't shown up, and she hadn't called in.

"Which doesn't mean anything," said Lisa. She took a small bite of sandwich then set it down. "You know how spacey Julie gets. She probably just forgot to call in."

"Yes," said Dan. He nibbled a potato chip. "That has to be it."

"Mike--" Lisa looked around for Mike, didn't see him, but dropped her voice to a whisper anyway. "Mike was just talking."

"Yes," said Dan. He picked up another chip and studied it. "He talks a lot."

"About the rain."

"Yes." Dan put the chip down, untasted.

The rain continued to fall all that afternoon, an oddly menacing noise without Julie's running commentary to cover it up. Toward the end of the day Mike was seen whistling in the hall.

On Friday morning the sun was out.

"I can not believe," said Lisa, "that I could actually walk from my car to the door and not have to wear a snorkel. Is the weather supposed to hold?" She said nothing about Julie.

"I'm sure Mike will be happy," Dan said, equally careful to avoid the subject.

And then Julie herself came in. She wore a light jacket, not the raincoat of the past few days, and hung it up slowly. She said, "The rain is over."

"Yes," said Dan, feeling immensely foolish now. "Yes. The rain." He avoided Lisa's eyes.

"All over," agreed Lisa, staring at a blank spot on the wall with great interest.

"It's a shame. I so love the rain."

"Mike doesn't," Dan said, making conversation.

"Mike won't be coming in today," she said. "Horrible man who hated the rain. How could anyone hate rain? I invited him over last night so I could show him how lovely the rain was. I spent all day getting things ready for him, and he laughed at me. Can you believe it? He laughed. I put him in the creek," she said in a dreamy voice. "Down at the flooded end of the parking lot. I wonder if he'll still be there when the waters recede. It doesn't matter now though. The rain is really wonderful." She nodded. "It washes everything clean."