Forecast: Rain

Joshua Green could hear the sound of the trailer as it rounded the corner onto Second, and was looking up by the time it passed the cop shop window.  The pickup hauling it was a nice vehicle, and familiar looking.  He remembered it as the same kind of vehicle used by the Alexandra Police, Fire and Medical personnel.  It was a hybrid vehicle.  Alexandra had jumped on that bandwagon almost immediately.

In the bed of the pickup truck was a golf cart.  The trailer behind it was silver and streamlined.  An old fashioned slipstream trailer. And as it past, Josh noticed blinds at windows.

“Holy shit.”  Frank murmured, her keys still in her hand.

“You go and patrol.”  He told her, absently.  “I’ll take Wright and check it out.”

The trailer turned right on Central, towards the residences, but once it had completed the complicated turn, it paused and very slowly began to back up.  Josh didn’t move until the trailer was out of sight to the side of the cop shop and the pickup was slowly crossing the street.

Around the front of the pickup came jogging Captain Hank Stanley of the Alexandra Fire Department.  “It that thing even legal on this island?”  He demanded to know.

Josh shrugged.  “Yup.  The pickup, the golf cart and the trailer.  But the problem IS, we don’t exactly have a place for the trailer.”  He told the Captain.

Curiosity drove them to the corner where they watched the pickup back up very slowly.  After almost a solid minute, they heard a distant voice call out “That’s enough, Shade!” And the pickup stopped.  A thin man with a decent haircut came jogging alongside the trailer on the sidewalk. Without a word, he bent at the tailgate, made some adjustments and straightened.  “She’s clear, Shade!” And the pickup moved forward several feet, so as not to block the driveway to the parking lot of the Parthenon.

The drivers side door of the pickup opened and a man emerged.  Tall and slim with half matter dirty blonde hair.  He came around the truck and seemed to wait for the trio of officials to get to him with a lazy smile on his face.

“Afternoon.”  Josh began, expecting Sam to remain quiet, at least for the most part.  He motioned to the truck and the trailer, as the other man started doing something.  By the looks of it he was getting a ramp from the bed of the pickup to the street.  Then he got up and began to do something along all four wheels of the golf cart.  “Whats all this?”

The man who was called Shade followed Josh’s arm movement.  Josh caught a slight smell of sour sweat from him.  “It’s about rain, Officer.”  His voice came out in a lazy drawl.  “Rain is here!”

Josh noticed that both Hank Stanley and Sam Wright looked skyward, but the forecast had been for sun.  Not rain.  Meanwhile the dark haired man got in the golf cart and expertly drove it off of the truck and into the parking lot where it fit with plenty of room to spare in one of the slots in front of the empty shop.

“I don’t see any rain.”  Captain Stanley finally spoke.

“Rain IS here.”  The dark haired man had come from the golf card, swinging the keys around one long finger.  He joined them on the sidewalk and offered Josh his hand.  “Lyric Wasserman, at your service.”

Josh, Sam and Hank all shook the mans’ hand, as well as the other mans’ when he chimed in.  “Shade Ackerson.”  Once he let go of the last hand, he looked at them, curiously.  “Is there some kind of a problem?”

Hank Stanley took another look at the trailer.  “I’m not sure that is the best place for that trailer.”  He voiced their opinion with his voice.

“It’s JUST perfect.” Came a small feminine voice.  From the street side of the trailer came a tiny woman.  She was dressed in a brown turtleneck sweater over which was some kind of off white tunic or large shirt.  Her pants were very baggy and seemed almost to be wrapped around her legs and waist.  She was barefoot.  Walking up to them, she offers her hand.  “Rain.”  she said to all of them.

Josh and Hank still looked lost, looking up to the sky, but Sam looked directly at her.  “Oh … it’s your NAME.”  he realizes.

The group that Josh had already labeled ‘hippies’ in his mind all beamed at Sam.  So Josh looked at him for  little guidance.  The woman - Rain - was now waving her arms about, palms towards the officials.

“Rain March.”  She beamed, her hands still waving about.  “And you are S. Wright.”  She read his name tag.  “Are you the one I talk to about permits and whatnot?”  Her arms were still moving, swaying with the rest of her body like a blade of grass in the concrete.

“I…”  Sam looked at Josh, who stepped forwats, hoping the movement would make her stop swaying.

“Do you plan to LIVE in that trailer?”  He asked, trying to sound polite and professional.  “Does it have the proper hookups for propane and sanitation?  Does it need electricity?”  He began rattling off questions.

She didn’t seem daunted one bit.  “Well come see for yourself.” She offered and turned to the men who had come with you.  “Peace be your journey, Lyric and Shade.  I will call you as soon as all the dust has settled.”  She promised them.  They all hugged and the men got in the pickup truck and drove off, leaving her.  “This way officers and .. Captain Stanley, I do believe you said it was.”

Leading them to the trailer, she paused at an old looking door.  To the right of it was a numeric keypad locking system.  She produced a set of keys and put one in the lock, then, her hands dancing so that no one could see the sequence, typed in a code, then turned the key and opened the door.  “Inspect away!”  She urged, going inside and dancing around them as they joined her.  As large a trailer as it was, it was much smaller with three men and a tiny lady inside.

As Hank looked around, Rain began to tell them about her trailer.  “I was BORN here, you see. In the back on that very bed.  Well, I changed out the mattress of course.” She told them.  “Electricity is solar and I use very little propane.  I have made arrangements to have someone come to take care of the … waste.”

Josh found himself a bit confused.  The trailer smelt odd to him, but not the dirty unwashed body scent he had expected to smell from a hippie woman.  Also, there were several electronics that he could see.  “I thought you were a hippie.”  he looked at her, seated Indian style on her couch.  “Yet you have a television and a stereo system.  State of the art security door locking mechanism.”  He tried not to sound as if he were accusing her of anything.

Rain looked at him from the couch and continued beaming.  “My GRANDPARENTS were hippies.”  She told them all..  “My parents were sort of hippie-like naturalists.  I …  “  she pauses a moment.  “I am a child of our Mother Earth.”  She tells them all.  “As are you, even if you don’t know it.”  She hops up and spreads her arms wide.  “I do not disrespect her.  I do not do illegal drugs or engage in intercourse.  I am as pure as the Mother wants me to be.”  Then she drops them.  “So …. Permits?”  She prompts.

Blinking away his confusion, Josh cannot honestly find any faults and, judging by Hanks silence, neither can he.  “Your cart will need a parking permit.”  He tells her.  “You can get one in the municipal building.”  He heads for the door and exits.  “If you come by the cop shop, I can have a temporary permit written up for you.”  He looks at the trailer.  “But if you CAN find a new place for that … thing … DO.”

Hank bids a rather awkward farewell as well, and Sam smiles at her, in a warm and welcoming way.  “Welcome to Cedar Point, Miss March.”

An hour later, Rain came by the shop for her temporary permit after visiting the municipal building and applying for a permanent one.

Two hours later, she could be seen dancing around her trailer with two large handfuls of some smoking bundles of grass.

Rain had come to Alexandra.