I Have Him

I look up at the sky as the first drops of rain pour down on my face.

I notice how the droplets splash on the surface of the lake and dissolve with such easiness. Water dissolving into water. Pain disappearing with time. A child's laughter spreading into the hearts of warriors.

Splash. Splash. Splash.

The drizzle turns into heavy rainfall, but I don't scatter like the others in the search for a shelter. I sit here on the stairs of ghat, watching the lake as the rain pours down.

I feel alive. This moment is real -- I don't feel like an outsider.

Mummy had said that it'll rain today and I should take my umbrella with me to the school.

"I don't mind rain."

Like these drops, I think I'm going with the flow, moving where the wind takes me. Probably, I'm like those unlucky droplets that hit against the windowpanes, the ones that are unfortunate to not become a part of something greater -- like being a part of the lake. Just like them, I often feel that I'm unfit for the world.

I stand up, feeling that this world has held me captive and the raindrops are going to break the shackles. I stretch my arms wide open and let the water soak me.

A moment passes. I stand there in the rain, not thinking about the world. I run my fingers through my hair, throwing it back. The people who are cornered under the tree's shade, squeeze themselves closer to each other as if held hostage. I smile at them, knowingly they must have their own reasons to stay away from the rain.

From the crowd, a hand stretches out, feeling the raindrops on the fingertips. Cautiously, the person takes a step forward. It is the new guy from my school who is told to have a bad reputation. I stay away from the gossips because people talk about me, too.

Our eyes meet, but I don't find hostility. There is something else is her eyes -- the emptiness and the lingering sadness that is there inside. He is a misfit, like me.

He looks at me and smiles with all the brokenness. I lose myself in the moment. The rain, the world, nothing except him.

I realize I'm not misfit. I have him.