Summer rain

Springtime. It has been a gloomy week in Grenoble. The rains here are completely different from what we have in Vietnam. At this time of the year, rains are much colder than the kind of rain we have there. Yet our summer rains are often much heavier and can last really long. It can even last for days. Sometimes watching the rain reminds me of one memory about summer rain that I can never forget. I still blushed every time I think of that.

It was the summer before the first time I went to school. I must be 5 then.

The fact that I was with my mother in her kiosk during the day everyday allowed me to meet many people. They all stared at me and asked questions despite my mother’s intention to avoid that. One day there was a lady who was a businesswoman owning the rice factory in front of our kiosk. Her name is Loan. She came by to tell my mother that the rain water could cure things, and that she knew someone who had rashes on the skin but after several showers under the rain all the rashes were gone. They were saying something like “Yeah it totally makes sense. It’s the water from the sky. It must heal”. Stuffs like that.

As soon as Ms Loan was gone my mother asked if I wanted to try. I said why not - “Are you sure it will work mama?” - “I don’t know. But it costs nothing to try. It’s the rain water. It’s free honey.” - “Okay then.”

Time passed by and I totally forgot about that conversation. It was not that serious to me.

One day, as every other day, I was reading for the thousandth time the comic book I had at my mother’s kiosk, it started to rain. My mother ran inside the kiosk and told me to go home immediately. She said that I should go home to take a rain shower. - “But how mama?” - “Just go under the rain. Remove all the clothes to have as much rain as possible.” - “Nooo mama.. Isn’t it too weird?” - “You are a kid, nobody cares.”

It was true that I had witnessed the neighbours' children as well as Cham children taking a rain shower from time to time. Some had clothes on and some did not. But I still found it weird somehow. My mother said the last thing that encouraged me a lot “Go honey, don’t be shy, we have serious stuff to do behind that. Don’t be afraid of what people say. Go before it stops raining”.

I ran home in a hurry. Luckily the rain was so heavy that no one could even recognise any one. Everything was like hiding behind a thick water curtain. As I arrived home I called some neighbours’ kids to join me but unfortunately their parents were at home and they did not allow that. They did not want their children to get sick. “Fine. I will do it alone. Still fun.”

I removed my clothes and went naked in the rain. I started to run around our common yard hoping that the rain would pour more and more so that nobody could see me. I expected that it would rain until the evening like it normally does. My plan was to run 3 rounds around the yard and finish that weird thing. It was raining so I supposed people were all inside. Not a chance to cross someone.

I ran and ran. A quarter of the yard, my water curtain was getting thinner. Half of the yard, just a few water drops could be seen. Oh my! Three more seconds later, it was sunny! I need to run back home but I am about 200 metres away from our door. I started putting all the effort on my legs to run home as fast as I could imagine.

It was no longer raining, of course people were going out. There were more and more people in the yard. It was sunny innocently like nothing had just happened. I was totally naked there and tried to run like a real Olympic athlete.

I arrived home and decided that rain showers were stupid. Not fun at all. I was 5.