Rain's Journey

Rain grew up with a nice childhood.  She had a loving family with a mother, father, a younger sister and an older brother.  She grew up with quite a few friends in school, and generally lived a happy life.

Rain in her favorite space (Pixaby)

But as she grew older, she felt that there was something missing in her life.  She felt this constant longing to be somewhere other than where she was.  No matter where she went, she wanted to be somewhere else.  She was always restless and the feeling never seemed to be satisfied.

Finally, Rain was a senior in college and it was time for her to start figuring out what she wanted to do after college.

"I can't decide what I want to do," she stated one day.  "Everything I think of sounds boring and dull.  I don't want to do something boring just because it is time to pick something.  I want to go see things!  I can't stand being stuck in one place."

"Well then, why don't you take off a year and go travel the country?  You always talk about how you want to explore.  My aunt makes jewelry and sells it around the country all summer following different fairs and festivals.  I could ask her if you could join her.  You have loved working at boutiques and all those little clothing stores ever since we started school,"  offered her friend Heather, who had known Rain since before they had become roommates freshman year.  The two had become inseparable since they were first matched through potluck.  They knew each other better than they knew themselves sometimes, so of course Heather would have some great ideas to help Rain figure out what she wanted to do.

"I love that idea!  Could you please?  Your aunt is such a fun person, and being able to just travel with her around the country for the whole summer would be so much fun!"  Rain, who had been lying  on the floor dejectedly, jumped up with excitement, giving Heather a giant hug in the process.

Before Rain knew it, all the arrangements had been made, the semester was over, and she was hitting the road with Heather's aunt, Cindy.  The start of the trip was great.  Going from city to city, meeting all of the different people, not being held down to one location or another.  One day, Rain and Cindy stopped at what looked like a festival.  Cindy had never heard the name before, but she thought it would be worth a try because there seemed to be a lot of people there.  After parking the truck they drove in, Cindy walked around to the back to start getting out all of their gear and Rain went to find out some information about the possibility of them selling their jewelry.

(Wikipedia)

Rain approached what looked like an information booth, when all of a sudden everything changed.  From seemingly nowhere and everywhere at once, there were gunshots.  Everybody around Rain burst into action running in all different directions.  Rain dove for the nearest booth and hid for what seemed like forever.  When the noise quieted down, she slowly got up from the booth and looked around.  There were small groups of people clustered around, but most of the people had already left, and in a hurry from the looks of the mess strewn around the festival site.  As Rain looked for Cindy's old, sky blue pick-up truck she realized that Cindy was not there!  Their stuff was gone, the truck was gone, there was not a sign of Cindy anywhere.

Rain momentarily started to panic.  What was she going to do?  How was she going to get back home?  How was she going to survive?  She looked around at the other people still standing around and recognized another booth owner who had been at several of the other festivals and fairs they had been up.  She went up, explained the situation, and asked if she could follow along with owner until she found Cindy again.  The owner readily agreed and they continued on their journey.

At the next city, as they pulled up to the parking area, a hint of sky blue poked out amongst all of the other cars.  Rain immediately jumped out of the car and ran to the truck.

"Cindy! Cindy! Cindy!" She yelled, weaving in and out of the parking spots.  She saw Cindy's head peek out above the cars and then locked eyes with her.  As they met they embraced with a giant hug.

"I am so sorry!  I panicked when I heard the gun shots.  I tried to call you, but your phone was in the truck and then people were screaming that there was a gunman coming towards the cars.  I didn't know what to do!" Cindy said, shaking with the tears and relief that was flooding out of both of them.

"It's ok.  I was scared too.  But, we are back together.  So let's go enjoy what is left of this summer by selling the awesome jewelry you have made."

And with that, they got back to work.

Author's Note: For this story, I used both parts of Sinbad's First Voyage as inspiration.  In this story, Sinbad goes on a trip with some merchants to sail around the world while exchanging and bartering for goods.  One day the ship finds a small island to rest on.  It turns out the island was a giant whale.  As everybody scrambles to get back on the ship, Sinbad is cast into the sea by the whale, unable to get onto the ship in time.  After a couple of days at sea, Sinbad found an island and was able to climb ashore and find food.  After wandering the island for a while, he comes to a trading city where he is reunited the captain of his ship.  After a joyful reunion, Sinbad obtains his earnings from the trip and then returns home.