Fly the Rain Read Online Free PDF

married.”
    “ Ed, I sent you a wedding
invitation.”
    “ Oh, yeah. I guess that’s
where I heard it.”
    “ I hated that you couldn’t
make it. I would love for you to have been there.”
    “ I was planning to
come…”
    But you forgot, thought Greg. “It’s okay.
Well, I’ll see you soon. Now walk across the street and have a talk
with Angie. She does still work at the restaurant?”
    “ Of course.”
    “ Then, go.
Tonight.”
    **********
    Sondra strapped her guitar on, and adjusted
her mike stand. “Ready?” Her voice echoed.
    Cindy Banya nodded from her place at the
drums.
    E. Z. Bender grabbed the guitar pick from
her between her lips and said, “Let’s do it.”
    “ Okay, let’s try ‘Crash and
Burn,’” said Sondra.
    Cindy knew of several songs by that name,
but took a guess that Sondra wanted the one by The Bangles. A song
about deliberately killing yourself in a car crash seemed like
something Sondra might like to sing.
    E. Z. Bender made the same guess.
    Craig Buttard watched from
across the huge hall. He could hardly wait to see Billy-Eye’s filled
with excited, money-squandering teenagers. The free cokes and
popcorn would help lure them in. And then they would spend loads of
money on hot dogs, pizza, and candy.
    When they had finished the song, and the
reverberation had died down, he yelled, “Alright! Sounded great!”
He walked toward the stage.
    “ Not too bad,” admitted
Sondra. “But we’ve got a ton of work to do before Friday
night.”
    “ What about your friend, the
bass player?” said E. Z.
    “ I talked to her this
afternoon,” said Sondra. “She’ll be here tomorrow.”
    “ Cool,” said
Cindy.
    Craig winked at Cindy. She smiled at
him.
    He had succeeded in getting her into a band.
Now he would work at getting her into his bed.
    **********
    Val lit up another joint. She had such
amazing thoughts while she was high. But the next day she would
realize that she must have forgotten most of the details, since
none of it made any sense.
    She loved to sit in the wooden swing on her
back porch and watch the sun go down. Sometimes the clouds were so
colorful. And it was fun to look for shapes. Like the girl walking
her dog.
    When Sondra was five years old, she brought
a puppy home and begged to keep it. Muttly never got very big—even
when he was a full grown pooch. But Sondra’s father, Buster, made
her start keeping him on a leash after that night he came home
drunk and tripped over him.
    Buster always came home drunk on Friday
and Saturday nights. Not on Sunday nights, though. Sunday
was the Lord’s
day , he’d say. This was ironic, since
Buster never had much use for church or the Lord.
    Sometimes Sondra would get busy with her
friends and forget to feed Muttly. By the end of the day, he’d be
alternately crying and growling, and wouldn’t stop until somebody
fed him.
    One particular Friday night, while Sondra
was attending an out-of-town football game, Buster came home drunk
and heard Muttly whining. He was determined to teach Sondra a
lesson, and to fix the problem once and for all. So, he staggered
into the back yard and took care of it.
    When Sondra finally made it home, at around
midnight, she went to the back yard to feed Muttly. She opened the
big plastic container that was next to his little doghouse, scooped
out a serving and poured it into the bowl while calling his name
softly. There was no response.
    Sondra knelt down and looked inside the
doghouse. By the light of the moon, she could see that he was gone.
She noticed his leash, latched to the doghouse, as always. But it
was pulled tight. She began calling his name again, as she felt
along the leash, which led her upward. Her stomach began to knot.
The leash was pulled taut, over the five-foot fence.
    She peeked over the top, and to her horror,
saw her beloved pet hanging by his collar. She pulled him up
quickly and took his lifeless little body in her arms, and cried
for twenty minutes.
    How could this