The dirty Rain

SOUL MATES

There was an obvious sign of excitement in Chloe's face as she hurriedly washed the remaining dishes in the kitchen washing basing. She set the dishes neatly in the plates rack been carefully not to break any at the same time trying to finish the tasks in time. As she cleaned the water from her hands with the kitchen towel, her mother called out to her from the backyard garden.

"Chloe get me another bowl, this one is already filled up with tomatoes" she said as she continue to pick fresh tomatoes from the plants in the house garden.

"okay mum, I will bring it in a moment" She replied.

As she reached for the the plastic on the kitchen cabinets, her phone which was lying in the dining room across the kitchen rang She was already carrying the bowl in her hand on her way to her mother and she doesn't want to call to ring out. She was confused to either pick the call first or get the bowl across to her mother. Not sure what her mothers reaction might be if she picks up the phone before taken the bowl to her, she made her way towards the backyard door as her phone out and started ringing again.

With the bowl I hand she turned back towards the dinning room to pick her phone, as answered the phone with the phone on her ears, she made her way to the backyard to delivery the bowl killing two birds with one stone. As she reached where her mother was bending plucking tomatoes, she was answering the phone with a barely audible voice been wary of her mother's presence She doesn't want her mother to hear her end of conversations.

As Chloe extended the bowl towards her mother, who was in bending position, she refused to straighten up, pretending not to notice the extended bowl. After some minutes waiting for her mother to collect the bowl from her, Chloe decided to put the bowl down on the ground, as she dropped the bowl and turned her back to her mother to walk back into the house, her mother straighten up and held her hand.

"come back here and put that phone on speaker" She said

"Why now and what is it again!" Chloe replied her mother stamping both feet on the ground in childish protest.

"I said put the damned phone on speaker right now!" her mother shouted at her.

On seeing her mother tough reaction, she obliged and put the phone on speaker. A male voice could be heard from the other side of the call.

"Who is this" Chloe mother said in a harsh voice

"Good evening ma" a male voice answered from the other end.

"I said who is this or you don't have a name name" Nina replied still maintaining her harsh tone.

There was an uneasy silence on other end of the line

" My name is Peter ma" the voice replied

"Okay, just want to know who the caller is. Now listen, anytime you places a call to someone, if the person did not could not pick up after two attempts, then you should know that better been called is busy" she said

"yes ma" he replied

"Now you have to call back because Chloe is busy at the moment" she added

"Yes ma'am" Peter replied as he disconnected the phone.

Nina turned to Chloe with stern look on her face "You still have a lot to learn, it is not mandatory to pick calls when you are busy. When you finished your works, you can just call back the person.

"Okay ma" Chloe said as she bent down gathered the heaps of tomatoes into the bowl and made her way back to the kitchen.

As she arranged the tomatoes neatly in the trays, she smiled to herself at the thoughts that might be going on in Peter mind at the moment. They were both childhood friends, but it took Peter more than twelve years for him to express his love to Chloe.

"He is such a very shy guy, I wonder what he might be thinking of at the moment" she thought to herself as the memories of the day that Peter expressed his love for her flooded her mind

They were both admitted to the University the same year. The day they went to the school to begin the process of registration as a new intake, after going round the campus to get the necessary documents signed to perfect their registration, they were both tired from the stress of the day and decided to rest under a big shady tree.

Despite the fact that they have known each other for long, there was an uneasy silence between them as they both sat down facing each other. It was Chloe that first broke the silence

"Is there something on your mind you wanna tell me" She said looking straight to Peter eyes

He lowered his gaze and looked away from her, his heart beating widely as if trying to break out of the chest. He summoned courage for a moment as he stretched his hand to pick up a flower that felt from the tree. As he held out the flower to Chloe, he was dumbfounded as he could not utter a word due his shyness.

"What should I do with that, Am I a goat that eat flowers?" Chloe said apparently teasing him

Peter found his voice in a moment but with still stammering as he managed to utter few words "I just want to have it" he said making gesture with his hands towards her to collect the flower.

"No am not gonna take it unless you tell me what you want me to do with that" She replied giggling.

"okay am going to tell you now" he said as he took a deep breath

"Okay where should I start hmm, you know you are my best friend right? But I want you to be more than that from now on" he said making some kind of display with his hands.

"Oh! That's great, am gonna be your mum from now on" Chloe replied as she burst into laughter.

"I don't like what you are doing, I know you understand what I am trying to say, but you just choose to play dumb" he said.

"I am not God, so I can't read your mind so you better use your mouth to explain what you meant by that more than friends thing" She replied him smiling

"Action speaks louder than words, you should understand from my actions all these while that I liked you than more than just a friend" Peter replied with attempt to make her understand without using much word.

"not every time, some things are better spoken than act, just voice out what is inside of you" she said to him

"Okay if that's how you want it, I will tell you" he said as he took a deep breath, but him mouth stayed glued together for some minutes still holding the flower in his hand as he tried to find appropriate words to express himself while Chloe was staring at him, she too very eager to hear the words from his mouth.

Finally, he opened his mouth to speak

"You are more beautiful than any flowers I know. Just as this tree produces beautiful flowers, my thoughts any time I am with you, beautiful thoughts of how my life will be if you can always be with me is all that I could ever think of"

As he spoke further, Chloe eye were glowing with happiness as she could not ever imagine that such sweet words could come out of a shy person like Peter.

"every day with you, brings its brightness and beauty to my heart. The joy of been your friend and the imagination of unlimited flows of joy that would come my heart if you could be my love, is more desirable than the most precious jewels that can be found on earth. Chloe, with you by my side I can climb the highest mountain and reach the peak of the tallest hill. Each moment away from you is the longest period of the day. If I can give the whole world to have you as my love I will gladly do. Now that we are in the University together, the fear of loosing you to another friend is the most dreadful thing that can ever happened. Please Chloe I love you so much. Please be more than than my friend now, please be the love of my heart" he said with eye fasted on Chloe 's face.

The bold Chloe was shy for a moment as she looked away from Peter steadfast gaze. Although she has been longing for such words from him, when it finally comes, the overwhelming feelings was more than she expected. Apparently not to appear shy to him. She used her comical skills to break the silence.

"So you have all these locked up in your head all these while hmm? Assuming another guy had asked me out what would have happened to your mind" she said trying to be funny and bold at the same time.

"okay this what I will say in response to your hmm what can I call it expression of interest to move from your best friend to your lover right?" she said as Peter smiled and looked down at the ground with sweat tickling down his arm pit as of he had ran marathon race.

" You will need to put it down in writing and officially hand it to me, so I can go through it and consider it and make sure you signed it" She said as she got adjusted the school bag she was carrying on her back. Peter still sat down fasted to the same point as if too shy to get up.

"Get up and let's go home!" Chloe said as she tried to lift him by his armpit. The amount of sweat that soaked her hand made he shouted in amusement.

"is it because you want to say" I love you "that you sweat so much like this" she said raising her eyebrows in amusement.

"No!" Peter replied defensively not wanting her to tease him further.

"Okay why are you sweating this much hmm?" she asked jokingly

"I guess is the cream I used in the morning" He replied apparently trying to sound bold

"Peter!!! Cream since morning! You liar!. Okay so I made you sweet right? You willow sweat more from now on You bet that" she said teasing him as she dragged him up by the arm and pulled him away from the tree shade. Peter smiled with shyness as they both walk towards the school gate.

Chloe was so much absorbed with the thoughtful memories with smiling expression on her face that she did not noticed that her mother had entered into the kitchen and staring at her with miking smile on her face.

"You must be having lots of beautiful thoughts in your girlish head" Her mother said as her voice jolted Chloe back to reality.

"No! Just thinking of something" she replied with defiance

Apparently caught up with her lies Nina shook her head at her and said

"Don't worry whatsoever it is going on in that your childish head, soonest I will know"

Chloe laughed as she responded "Mummy not this one you can never know it"

"Let me guess" she said as she turned her head sideways as it trying to tune in to the frequency of thoughts flowing through Chloe's mind.

"You thinking about that guy that called you, Peter is that his name. Invite him for dinner, I have not seen him since you both got into University" she said smiling.

"Mummy you better go open a mind reading centre, you will makes a lot of money" Chloe said in veiled response to her mother accurate guess.

"please finish arranging the tomatoes quickly and go pack the rest from the garden I need to move those in the trays to the store, customers are coming for it" Nina said as she lifted up the tomatoes tray and made for the door.

"Okay ma" Chloe said as she watched her mother back walking out of the kitchen she shook her head with amazement and thought in her mind

"Is there anything I can ever cancel in my heart that my mother will not know off? I think not. Sometimes I wonder if she left some parts of her inside me because she seems to be completely inside my head all the time, what a woman she is! "