Rain, Rain, Come Again

Chapter 4

The rain spirit's eyes followed me as I descended upstairs. He was silently sitting on the chair I left him with. The food on the table remained untouched.

I cleared my throat and sat on the vacant chair in front of him. My plate was already clean since I just finished eating my dinner, so I set it aside and placed my small notebook on the table.

I glanced back at his plate again. Furrowing my brows, I lifted my gaze to meet his. He also looked at me, his eyes shining brightly.

I avoided his gaze again and looked down at his attire. The huge sleeves of my late grandfather's shirt hung loosely on his body, slipping away and exposing his shoulders. I shook my head.

"Why aren't you eating?" I asked, eyeing his plate.

"I don't eat..." he replied.

"Are you saying you're picky with food? Because I like vegetables, I rarely eat meat," I said seriously.

He only gave me a gentle smile and shook his head slowly. "I don't eat your kind of food. Water is enough for me," he gestured towards the pitcher.

My jaw dropped. I didn't realize that the pitcher was already empty. I blinked, closed my mouth, and looked at him again. "That's good! It's better so we won't add to the expenses!" I clapped my hands lightly in joy.

"Okay, listen..." I inhaled sharply and picked up my notebook.

I flipped it open and uncapped my pen. I glanced at him, who was curiously looking at my notebook with his lips slightly pursed.

"I'll write here everything that you can and cannot do in this house while you're staying with me, got it?" I raised an eyebrow, and he nodded.

"Great!" I started writing.

"First, you'll pretend to be the new caretaker-s***h-gardener of my garden. But, people must not know you live under my roof, okay? Especially the elderly. They're very conservative. Imagine what they would do if they see you living in my house." Again, he nodded and stared at me, waiting eagerly for my next rule. I pressed my lips together and slightly cleared my throat.

"Two, you cannot use your power when there are other people around. Like what you did with that child's Sampaguita flowers! It's not allowed," I said, crossing my arms.

"But when I saw his flowers dying, I needed to-" I put my palm in front of his face to stop him from speaking.

"Do you know that it's dangerous for many people to know that you have powers? They will take you, torture you, and imprison you," I said dramatically. "And most of all, they will showcase you in a carnival," I threatened.

"But I will come back to you," he simply said with his eyes fixed on me.

I blinked.

I frowned as I cleared my throat. I took a deep breath and almost rolled my eyes. There's no point in explaining if it's difficult to explain to him.

"Anyway! It's not allowed. But it's fine with me..."

Although I really preferred not to, I thought. He leaned in closer to the table.

"Why don't you want to?" his expressive eyes held my gaze and blinked innocently.

My eyes widened and I slightly slammed the table. He flinched in surprise and then adjusted his sitting position.

"There! I forbid you to read my mind! You can't just easily enter my thoughts and know what I'm thinking," I said.

"But I can't stop it. I can't-"

"No!" I hissed. "Find another way, but you can't stay in my mind!" I warned.

He pouted and nodded. It's good that we understood each other. We spent almost an hour at the dining table just talking about the five Do's and five Don't's. After I wrote my name at the end, I signed it.

I was about to write his name, but I realized he hadn't told me about it yet. I looked at him and caught him staring at my signature. I whistled to get his attention. He quickly looked up.

"What's your name?" I asked with narrowed eyes.

He paused and blinked twice. He thought deeply, and after a few moments, he looked around.

I suddenly smiled.

"Alright. You don't have a name, do you?" I asked.

"Yes," he answered briefly.

"So, should I give you a name?" I pointed to myself. He eagerly nodded.

"Okay," I let out an exasperated sigh. "Fine, how about Rain-Um? No, you might get confused by it," I said, arguing with myself.

"Water? H20? River?" I laughed at my own thoughts.

I'm not used to giving names. Even Munching sounded so common. I looked at Munching, who was sitting next to me, looking back and forth between us and...

"Perhaps, I may have to call you Ren," I whispered as it randomly crossed my mind but also sounded very familiar.

"Ren," he echoed and smiled. "I like it."

I shrugged and took a deep breath. Then I returned to my notebook to write Ren's name next to mine. When I wrote the three letters, I gave him the notebook and pen.

He looked at me, confused.

"Your signature," I urged.

He still looked bewildered as he lowered his gaze. I even showed him where to sign above my name so he could understand it better. He nodded and fixed his eyes intently on my signature.He held the pen tightly in his hand. He started with a dot before looking at my signature again. His face was very serious as his tongue protruded slightly between his lips. He made a little line, and I realized he was copying mine. I smiled.

"Ren," I called him. He lifted his eyes to me.

"You don't have to copy mine. Make your own signature."

"Oh." His lips twitched and he scanned the whole kitchen. His gaze settled on Munching. The orange cat stared back at him.

Ren smiled and returned the pen to the small dot. He thickened it in a circular motion and drew two slanted lines on each side of the point. I chuckled as I took the notebook from him. I looked at his signature where he tried to mimic the nose and whiskers of the cat.

I darted my eyes at him, still laughing, and I caught him smiling genuinely at me. We stared at each other for a while, and I almost choked on my own saliva. I stopped and bit my lip before standing up and quickly cleaning up the dishes.

I turned my back on Ren and placed the cutlery in the sink. I sighed when I realized I was still smiling like a fool.

I allowed Ren to temporarily stay in my grandparents' room, but he had to abide by our agreement. I strictly forbade him from touching any of the items there. And he wasn't hard to deal with because he followed everything I wanted.

That night, I stayed up late thinking about the rain spirit, a real rain spirit living inside my house. I used to dream of seeing one of them. Now that it has happened, shouldn't I be happy?

But a lot has changed. I hate them now. I still despised Ren because he was one of them. But admittedly, I needed him for my garden, and I think he needed a home? So, perhaps, it was a win-win situation.

There's no need to be guilty, Flora.

I convinced myself several times that I wasn't using Ren for personal gain before I finally fell asleep. That night, I had a nightmare again about my grandmother being killed by faceless water figures, but one of them now had a face.

A face so familiar, it startled me, and I woke up with the sun already high up. Ren.

I quickly got up from bed and ran to the bathroom. I faced the mirror above the sink and saw my eyes were clouded with mist. I washed my face to clear my head.

For two months after Lola Carin died, I had the same nightmares over and over again. The same thing happened in my dream where she was surrounded by water with figures in it. And they killed her.

Why did this bad dream come back again?

When I got downstairs, Munching was the only one in the living room, but the TV was on. I went straight to the kitchen to cook breakfast.

I was still a bit dazed and absent-minded while frying the fish. I stared out of the small window above the stove for a few moments, and I didn't notice that the fire had already started.

I gasped and anxiously reached for the bucket near the sink and turned on the faucet. But before I could put out the fire, Ren arrived and he put it out himself using his hands.

"He touched the fire like it was nothing and it disappeared instantly, leaving traces of water."

I took a deep breath and wiped the sweat off my forehead. I turned off the faucet and turned to Ren.

"T-thank you," I forced a smile. He smiled back at me.

Instead of cooking a meal, I just opened an instant canned goods and made it into breakfast. After that, Ren helped me fix the garden for the elderly's tea party in the afternoon.

Ren helped me move plants and arrange flowers of different colors. I couldn't help but admire the beauty of my flowers. The scorching heat didn't do any damage to them; instead, they looked fresh and new.

He also helped me paint the flower pots that were starting to fade. It was fun until Ren made some mistakes. I got irritated a few times, and I scolded him a few times too. But he would only give me that gentle smile of his, making my irritations fade away as if I never felt them at all.

Ren helped me a lot in preparing for the tea party. We placed a round wooden table in the middle with a fully furnished and smooth surface. We set up a total of eight seats, with a basket of flowers ready to be given to the elders.

I was very pleased with the setup we made in the garden for the tea party. I beamed with pride as I looked at the beautiful result of our hard work and sweat, but when I looked at Ren beside me, there wasn't even a trace of sweat on him.

I checked myself and knew that I was already sweating, and I might even smell of sweat. Curiously, I took Ren's wrist in my hands. And like an electric shock-though it didn't feel like I was electrocuted-I felt better. Not cold, not hot.

It was just refreshing, like the feeling when you finally get to drink water after a long day of thirst.

That's how comfortable I felt.

Ren and I looked at each other. He chuckled softly as his eyes met mine. Then I realized that my sweat had dried up, and my clothes were no longer damp.

I stared at him with wide eyes. "How do you do that?"

He shrugged his shoulders. "Well, like you said, I have powers, don't I?"

I laughed slightly. He also laughed as he pulled his slipping, sagging sleeves off his shoulder.

"Thank you, Ren. Good job," I paused and smiled as my eyes scanned his clothes. "And I think we have to do something about your clothes."

'Meow'

Ren and I both looked down at Munching, who was now in between us. Even Munching agreed that we needed to do something about Ren's fashion.