GBA(s)FC Entry #5

Golden Showers
by Antonia Bloom

He came out of the desert, a tall man wearing trousers and a tailored tunic decorated with shiny stars. He said his name was Soldier and he spoke to the skies.

We never dreamt that a drop of rain would come. There hadn’t been any rain for six months and people became resigned to their fate, knowing there was nothing anyone could do to change things.

Soldier said he’d come from a city far away. He drew pictures in the dust and that’s how we understood him.

Every day he pointed towards the skies and smiled as though he knew the rain would come. Nobody else smiled. They lay on their unwashed sheets unable to lift their heavy heads. Children no longer cried, but heaved rattling sighs and stared at the dust and milk-less mothers, their bellies large and empty.

One day a plane came out of a cloud. The sun was as hot as ever and Soldier ran around the camp clapping his hands.

Then we saw the smaller clouds, they seemed to float, suspended in the sky, then they dropped like giant raindrops and we thought it was a mirage as the sun glinted golden.

The raindrops slowly fell around us and far into the desert. Those who were strong enough ran to fetch them. Inside, there was dried food and water, but nobody wanted to drink or eat, because they couldn’t remember what it had been like before the drought.

A little girl crawled out from her shack and put the water to her cracked lips. The next day she had a little more, then she began to walk around and smile and we remembered how we had been before.

Soon after, Soldier left us. The village people said Soldier must have been some kind of celestial being, but I still have one of his shiny stars and every night I speak to the skies and wait for golden showers.