I've always been fascinated with the rain. How it sounded when it hit my roof at the top of the apartment building. How it sounded when it hit the floor or windows or any piece of metal especially.

I loved the cold smell of rain. Loved how calming each drop of cold water was on the skin. I loved how the rain could silence the thoughts in my head and bring back memories that never truly left, for I yearned to go back to such times when the world was a beautiful place and life was simple. If wishes were horses was the saying, right? But even now when the world relied on more and more machines for their needs, horses were scarce and expensive to acquire. Such a lose-lose situation.

I could see the world from where I was high on my apartment's balcony, and it was empty with only few people out on the road and some tucked into street corners. Cars splashed water into these corners as they flashed past with headlights on full power, and the people shifted into the corners a bit more. Their heads were buried in their clothes and their lips, I guessed, pursed in the silence of the broken. If tears ran down their faces, then I hoped it warmed their cheeks even if it was just for a second before it grew cold.

Rain poured in my face and several dropped from the roof of the balcony and sank into my head and spread across it. It tickled, I giggled. Another car passed, I sighed.

“You sure you're good out here, sweetie? Now, I don't want you catching a cold.” The woman draped a towel over my shoulders and patted my hair. “You tell me whatever it is you need, okay, cupcake?”

I nodded.

She went back inside.

When I'd woken up from my dream that morning and I'd seen her cooking in my kitchen with ingredients that were surely not mine, seeing my kitchen as empty of food, I'd immediately asked her where she'd gotten the ingredients. And what she wanted.

“Nothing more but to take care of you, sugar,” she'd answered and patted my head then slid several plates of food on the kitchen table.

I hadn't hesitated to dig in.

In hindsight, it was pretty foolish to trust someone like that but hey, my tummy was full and I wasn't dying yet.

Neither was Mizuki, who'd eaten a whole can of tuna.

The sky was gloomy and it was afternoon but most people were at their jobs and I had no classes that day. The only thing on my mind was an expensive craving for chocolate ice cream.

I bet I had some change in my purse. Enough to buy ice cream. But I sighed. That was money I could use to stop at the grocery store to get the things I needed. Things essential for my survival so I wouldn't starve to death once the ice cream was gone.

I heard the woman singing in my tiny kitchen. I hadn't even asked her name. But I pushed away from the railing I was leaning against and I took the towel off my shoulders.

“I want to go out to the ice cream store,” I said when I got to the kitchen.

“It's a cold day for ice cream, but I've never been known to deny cravings, cupcake. Ooh, and you've got funds.” She laughed and headed straight to a bright pink handbag sitting in the corner.

Funds?

If she meant she wanted to give me money for the ice cream, then I would probably hug Mizuki when I told her thank you. It was best to avoid hugging strangers even if I wanted to.

But you would eat a stranger's food and take a stranger's money? Yeah, good morals.

“Don't worry,” I stammered. “I have money for ice cream.”

“You think I was gonna give you my money?” She laughed. “Be for real, baby girl. I'm giving you your own cash. You gotta put it to good use out there.”
She handed me a pink credit card with a bright yellow sun embossed on it. “Don't worry, they'll accept it anywhere you take it to. Even the bank. Pin is 9788. Enjoy yourself.”

I stood there with the card in my hand.

I turned it to the back and it was pretty much just a card. There were none of the normal things you would see in a normal credit card on it. No chip or card number or even a bank name.

“Are you…” I began but I heard her singing in my room and guessed she'd decided to arrange my things.

I should be freaking out that a stranger was in my home with me, but instead I was more concerned with whether to go to the ice cream store with the card or just chuck the useless piece of plastic into the bottom of my bag and forget its existence.

Childish as it was, my lower lip trembled that I wouldn't be getting any ice cream. The people at the store would look at me like I'd gone crazy if I handed this to them. So I sighed and hid the card among a few books, grabbed the towel and returned to the balcony to cry in the rain as the day passed me by, while I wallowed in my own misery.

Worse off were those sitting in the corners of the street, but it didn't make the fact that I was broke any less painful.

***

Evening arrived with gloom. And even though the sky was still a rumbling mass of dark clouds pouring down water, the streets were filled with people who hurried to go places—most likely their homes.

My craving for ice cream had only grown. But I wasn't sad about it this time. I stood from the balcony thoroughly soaked to the skin.

I took my dripping self to my room and peeled off the clothes from my body. I stepped into the shower and simply washed off the residue of rain water on my skin. I dried myself when I was out, got a pair of pants, a hoodie and an umbrella.

I took the card out from between the pages of the book and gathered the change I had into my pockets.

The woman was sitting on the living room floor and Mizuki was rubbing against her arm and purring.

“I'm heading out,” I said to her.

As I watched her play with Mizuki, my heart swelled with affection that the two had formed a bond so briefly after meeting. There was no fear whatsoever in my heart that she would kidnap my cat or anything of the sort.

Without looking up, she said, “Have fun, cupcake.”

And I nodded before closing the door behind me.

The only fun I intended to have was one when I had ice cream in my hand. I would get it somehow.