{"id":1702,"date":"2012-10-15T01:32:06","date_gmt":"2012-10-15T01:32:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.everywritersresource.com\/shortstories\/?p=1702"},"modified":"2014-01-04T05:19:22","modified_gmt":"2014-01-04T05:19:22","slug":"spinach-and-rain-by-diane-payne","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.everywritersresource.com\/shortstories\/spinach-and-rain-by-diane-payne\/","title":{"rendered":"Spinach and Rain by Diane Payne"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"
ee cummings by Dana Loberg<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Spinach and Rain<\/h1>\n

by Diane Payne<\/p>\n

\u201cQuit staring at her, Lou. Just say something.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not staring, Rob.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rob rolls his eyes.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s that obvious?\u201d Lou knows the answer, knows he\u2019s been staring.<\/p>\n

\u201cJust speak, man. You can do it. Look at her. She\u2019s half plastered already. She won\u2019t care what you say. \u201c<\/p>\n

\u201cWhy do I come to these parties?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cNot this again. Grab another beer. Cheer up. Get back in the game, man. Rachel\u2019s waiting for me outside. We\u2019re taking off to another party. Speak to her. It\u2019s simple. Open mouth. Speak. I want to hear about everything tomorrow. Full report.\u201d<\/p>\n

What the hell? Get back in the game. Lou inches closer and notices her lips are stained by wine, her teeth a purplish blue. He fixates on the discoloration.<\/p>\n

She smiles encouraging. Something green is stuck in her front teeth. Probably spinach. Lou remembers watching her dipping crackers into the spinach dip, one after another after another until the entire dip disappeared. Then the wine.<\/p>\n

Refill after refill. Initially, he thought, Wow, there\u2019s a girl with gusto. Gusto. Weird word.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat a change in the weather,\u201d he says to no one in particular. It seems as if Lou is talking to himself.<\/p>\n

She hears him and laughs.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s as if she is laughing at a private joke. Or at Lou.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo one thought we\u2019d ever get rain. Ever.\u201d Lou is determined.<\/p>\n

She looks at him and nods her head. \u201cMaybe not ever. But it was feeling like an eternity.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cRight. Exactly.\u201d She understands him.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo El Ni\u00f1o. No La Ni\u00f1a. Nada. No logical explanation for the rain. That\u2019s what makes this rain so incredible. It came despite the odds.\u201d<\/p>\n

Her lips look creased in purple. There are nuts wedged between her teeth. Lou
\nwonders how he missed the nuts earlier.<\/p>\n

She notices him staring and wipes her tongue over her teeth. Food always sticks in her teeth. He watches her free a nut. She swallows it.<\/p>\n

Gusto.
\n\u201cEverything seems to be returning to life,\u201d she says. \u201cI was getting so depressed looking at the wilted plants. The dogs and I could hardly stand walking in this oppressive heat. But now. Now, everything has changed. We walked in the rain for an hour this morning. It was invigorating.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lou thinks about how he watched the rain sitting on his front porch. Dry. Coffee mug in his hand. But not this woman. She probably ran outside, dogs eagerly following. Lips stained by coffee, bagel sticking from teeth. No time for brushing teeth.<\/p>\n

A burst of strong lightening flashes through the house, knocking out the power. Then the thunder. Another round of rain.<\/p>\n

Just when everyone thought the unexpected rain had ended, the rain returns.<\/p>\n

She grabs Lou\u2019s hand. \u201cI like spinach in my teeth. Unexpected rain. Simplicity.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI understand.\u201d<\/p>\n

And for once, he does understand.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cQuit staring at her, Lou. Just say something.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not staring, Rob.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rob rolls his eyes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_bbp_topic_count":0,"_bbp_reply_count":0,"_bbp_total_topic_count":0,"_bbp_total_reply_count":0,"_bbp_voice_count":0,"_bbp_anonymous_reply_count":0,"_bbp_topic_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_reply_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_forum_subforum_count":0,"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[86],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1702","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-featured"],"aioseo_notices":[],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.everywritersresource.com\/shortstories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1702","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.everywritersresource.com\/shortstories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.everywritersresource.com\/shortstories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.everywritersresource.com\/shortstories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.everywritersresource.com\/shortstories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1702"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.everywritersresource.com\/shortstories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1702\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2418,"href":"https:\/\/www.everywritersresource.com\/shortstories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1702\/revisions\/2418"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.everywritersresource.com\/shortstories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1702"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.everywritersresource.com\/shortstories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1702"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.everywritersresource.com\/shortstories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1702"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}