(From the Twisted Childhood stories)

"Oooh, it's ray-nin!"

Susie let the orange crayon fall from her hand as she stood up. She could hear the first irregular beat of the raindrops hitting the air conditioner. It made a sound like pang-pang-pang. The orange crayon rolled slowly over the edge of the coffee table and landed on the carpet. Susie cinched up her light blue pajama bottoms and ran over to Mom, who was folding clothes on the kitchen table.

"Didja hear me, Mom? It's raining!" Susie said. She was looking up at the side of Mom's head.

"I heard you, sweetheart," Mom said while distractedly balling up a pair of black socks.

"Can I go outside and look?"

"No you can't go outside. You can see just fine from the big front window."

"Oh kay."

"And pick up your crayons if you're done coloring."

Susie glanced at the front window, only long enough to see that it was gray outside. She quickly walked over to the coffee table, picked the orange crayon off the floor, and put it back in its spot next to the other bright colors. She gathered together her pictures - mostly random collections of lumpy orange and blue circles - and put the box of crayons on top. Nice and neat.

She walked over to the big front window and peered out. If she pressed her face right up to the cool windowpanes, she could almost see to the end of the block in both directions. Her soft, quick exhales fogged up the glass, just a little. Then rain began to fall harder, and she could see the dark green leaves on the tree in the front yard bob up and down. The sky lit up with a flash of lightning somewhere, followed a few seconds later by a lonely rumble of thunder. Mom walked into the room, carrying her basket of folded laundry. "Still lookin' for that rainhorse?"

Susie turned away from the window to look at Mom, who was smiling. "Yuh huh."

"You know, my Gram told me about it. She said she saw one when she was little,
and I looked and looked, but I never saw it."

Susie had already turned back to the window. "I know, Mom."

Mom stifled a yawn and carried the basket down the short hall and into the bedroom.

Susie bunched up her brow in concentration. She stared at the street, at the sidewalk, at the other houses on her block, and remembered what Gram said. "Ever heard 'a watched kettle never boils?' It's not like that. You have to look."

Gram then took a long puff on her cigarette. She always smelled like smoke and bubblegum. "And I mean look hard. The rainhorse, it's hard to see. I only saw it that one time, and I almost missed it. Your Mom never did see one, did she?"

Susie jolted slightly as a white van passed by the window, trailing long swirls of mist. It was still raining, very simply and casually without any wind. Her legs were a little stiff from kneeling for so long. Susie never tired of coloring, and Mom had put some of her best work on the refrigerator, held up by black round magnets. Susie watched the rain patter on the sidewalk, the mailbox, the tree in the front yard. Tiny waterfalls poured from the gutter spouts of each house across the street. How long had she been looking? Ten minutes? Twenty minutes? It's so hard to tell. Susie yawned. She glanced back at her unfinished picture under the crayon box. She turned her head and looked out the window down the left side of the block. The same view, gray and wet and shiny. The rain seemed to have slowed to a heavy sprinkle.

Then she turned her head to the right to look in the other direction and she saw it.

She didn't know exactly what to expect, but it still didn't look like she thought it would. It slowly moved down the center of the street toward Susie's house. It was like a misty shadow, a faint slight darkness about the size of a pony. Susie wanted to shout and to jump up and down, but she didn't. It wouldn't be right. She pressed her left cheek to the window hard and squinted her eyes.

When it moved in front of a white house, Susie could just make out four walking legs, what looked to be a head, and what was definitely a tail. It was so hard to see - she had to get a better look.

Quickly but softly, she walked away from the window, around the couch, and entered the short hallway. On the right side, the door to the bedroom was open.

Susie sidled up to the doorway and tilted over, so her left eye could just see in. Mom was in bed, asleep, under the dark red blanket. She always got so tired whenever she had to do laundry. Folded and unfolded clothes lay scattered around the edges of the large bed. Susie walked by the room as quietly as possible to the closet at the end of the hallway. She reached up with both hands, and carefully turned the knob. The closet door opened with the tiniest of squeaks. Susie reached into the closet and got the umbrella. Her very own, it was just her size and bright pink with yellow spots. She got it last Easter. Susie held her umbrella close as she stepped past the bedroom, and then quickly went over to the big window again, just to make sure. The foggy shape was on the sidewalk in front of her house, still walking along slowly, and was about to enter the neighbor's yard. She grinned widely and ran over to the front door. Susie then slipped on her yellow flip-flops, which she kept on a small piece of carpet next to the door, and reached up and turned the doorknob.

When she opened the door, she could immediately hear the rain.

Although it was not much more than a sprinkle now, the grass and tree leaves still bounced and swayed. It was a good thing she had hurried - the storm was almost over. The air smelled like wet pavement and wet dog. Susie stepped out onto the welcome mat, and pulled the front door almost shut behind her. She opened up her umbrella, and whipped it up over her head. She looked out at the neighbor's yard and saw the shadow standing there by the street. It had stopped walking, and it seemed to have turned around to face her. Susie ran diagonally across her front yard toward the sidewalk. She could feel the cool moist blades of grass brush against her bare toes as she ran. It was like a storm in the shape of an animal. Somehow, there was more rain falling inside this region of air on four legs than outside. From a few feet away, Susie could almost see the individual raindrops inside its long body, streaks being blown about by some internal gale. It was no mere sprinkle in there. Holding the pink umbrella over her head, she stared at it. It had no contrast, no pattern. She could only make out its misty shape. It twitched its thin, curving tail as it stood on its thick, stocky legs.

"You don't look much like a horse," Susie muttered under her breath as the shape raised its round head. "You look more like a..."

Susie's brown eyes opened wide, and she gasped.

Susie was very quick. She almost made it back to her front door before the raintiger caught her. One of her yellow flip-flops lay in the middle of her front yard. The other lay by her still body, slowly becoming cleaner and cleaner from the drizzle. The raintiger calmly licked and chewed on a claw as its reddish tint faded away. A shallow pool of water had formed in the overturned umbrella. Satisfied, the raintiger looked back over its left shoulder once, and then continued walking down the street. Then the rain finally stopped, and it was gone.


Joe McManis is a grad student in New Haven, CT. He spends most of his time
looking for invisible photons and hoping electrons will do what they're told.


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