Young Writers Society

Kelly was playing with her old Barbie dolls and teddies when it started raining. She hurriedly ran to the window, following the raindrops that were sliding down the living room window as though they were racing downwards.

She called to her father who was on his way from the kitchen to the room she was in, with his newspaper under his arm and a mug in each hand: a tea for himself and a hot chocolate for his daughter.

“Yes honey,” he answered as he stepped into the living room.
“Daddy, why does it rain?” Kelly asked, not looking at her dad but focusing on the falling raindrops.

Dave, with a slight grunt, sat down in his favourite arm-chair – the one with its back to the window, near the beige lampshade in the corner. “Why does it rain?” He repeated his daughter’s question, dropping the two mugs and the newspaper on the lampshade’s wooden stand.

“Uh huh.” Kelly went up to her father who was thinking of a way of explaining the water cycle as such that the little girl would understand; he decided to make up a theory, just like that of ‘Father Christmas’ or the ‘Tooth Fairy’.

He tapped his left leg, a gesture inviting the girl to take a seat where she had as habitude to take for the stories her daddy told her. “When it rains, does it mean that God taking a shower?” Kelly’s theory intrigued the man. He thought it was even better that his.

“Is that what it means? Hmm… so what about when it snows?” He asked her. His daughter shrugged.
“I don’t know. I think it’s when God is lying on the clouds and because God is sooo big (she stretched her arms out wide to show how ‘big’ God was), a little bit of cloud falls and that’s snow.”

“Really?” Dave said, with a raised eyebrow – impressed by Kelly’s ability to reason in such a way.
“Uh huh.”
“Honey, don’t say ‘uh huh’ it’s not very polite. Say ‘yes’. So what is the sunshine?”
“That’s easy: sunshine is when God is happy.” And she traced a large semi-circle on her father’s face, resembling a huge Cheshire cat’s grin.
“That’s very true!” He smiled for real and took a sip of his tea. “Yours is still hot.” He said, referring to Kelly’s hot chocolate because he knew how she liked it.

It was still raining heavily outside. The Barbie dolls and teddies remained on the floor, suddenly illuminated by the flash in the sky. It made Kelly clasp her hands to her ears because she knew what was coming next.

“Uh oh.” Dave also knew what was coming and he knew that his daughter didn’t like it. And it came – the thunder.
“It’s alright honey.”
“Daddy, what’s the lightning and thunder?” She asked.
This time he didn’t have to think so much. In fact, his theory came out automatically after what he had heard his daughter say.

“Lightning is when God sees your pretty faces and He takes a picture – the flash of His camera is the lighting. But… God’s camera is really, really old so it just breaks down and that’s the thunder.”
“Oh. God’s camera breaks down a lot, then. Someone should get Him a new one because I don’t like it when it breaks down.”

Dave laughed, passing his daughter her mug. They knocked their mugs together and both took a sip – Kelly holding hers with both hands and her face half disappearing into the mug.

“Daddy?”
“Yes honey?”
“Daddy, where do babies come from?” Dave’s tea almost went down the wrong way and some spilled onto his shirt. He decided to make up a theory just like that of ‘Father Christmas’, the ‘Tooth Fairy’… and the weather. To avoid the subject, or even having to think up a theory he simply said:
“So smile, honey – you’ll get sunshine.”