There was only one thing that separated him from all the other happy raindrops – he wasn’t. He was grumpy. Why all the other raindrops calling his cloud home were terminally happy, he really had no idea.
“What’s the sense of it all,” he thought. “We start off small, grow up by joining together, then leave our home we’ve known all of our life. We fall down to earth only to evaporate and end up right back here. Doing it again and again.” Will, the very grumpy raindrop, crossed his gray arms across his large chest and let out a deep, resounding sigh.
The very grumpy raindrop looked around at the billions upon billions of other raindrops in Nimbus. He knew their cloud home was actually a nimbostratus, but he thought calling it Nimbus was better. Besides, Nimbostratus was too long of a name and way too much effort to pronounce.
True, they were all raindrops, but that’s where the resemblance ended. Some were deep red, others bright orange, vibrant yellow, crisp green, deep blue, or soothing violet. There were even indigos.
“Humpf,” Will snorted, “Who wants to go through life being an indigo?” He wasn’t any of those colors; he was a gray, the only one of his kind. Perhaps that was the reason others didn’t want to play with him? He looked different from all the rest.
None of the others looked like him, or even acted like him. The other raindrops spent their entire time in Nimbus joining together to become bigger and heavier so one day they could fall down to earth. He thought he was fine just like he was and he wasn’t going anywhere.
Will shouted, “You don’t make a difference down there! None of us do! No one appreciates what we do for them! So why do it?” As always, no one answered.
The happy little raindrops paused for a moment, listened politely to him as they always did, and then once again continued to join together. They had heard it all before. Will continued to complain about his life until it was time to leave Nimbus.
Soon they’ll be heavy enough to start their journey down to earth, adding to creeks, rivers, lakes, the mighty oceans, and giving life to plants, trees, insects, animals and humans. It was a journey all were looking forward to. All except one very grumpy little gray raindrop named Will.
The grumpy little raindrop couldn’t understand how he could make any difference in anyone around him or in anything. Nimbus was so big and he was so small. How could a single drop of water make a difference in anything? No one would miss him if he never existed at all.
Over the many years he had somehow gotten lost in himself. So much so that he could no longer find a way out of his grumpiness. Then one day, a lifeline to climb up and out of his gray depression was dropped to him by a most unexpected source. A blonde, curly-haired little girl called Kendall.
Lying down on the green carpet of soft grass in front yard, Kendall and her little sister Caroline were cloud-gazing again. It had become almost a daily occurrence during the pleasing weather of spring. Looking skyward and giggling, the sisters pointed out the ever-changing animal shapes hidden away in the darkening cloud overhead called Nimbus.
Kendall and Caroline’s active imaginations saw shapes and images adults could not even imagine. The sisters imagined seeing laughing elephants marching with their trunks held high in the air, lions doing circus tricks jumping through hoops on fire, and bears dancing on giant pink and blue balls.
What the girls didn’t see was the sheet of rainbow-colored raindrops hurtling down towards them. The raindrops had just been let loose through a rip in the bottom of Nimbus, their cloud home. The two little girls also didn’t see the one very grumpy raindrop ahead of all the others — a grumpy gray raindrop called Will.
Though he had tried to hang on to the cloud, he was pushed out of Nimbus ahead of the rest and now found himself hurtling down towards earth. Heading straight towards impact with one of the two girls.
Will wasn’t as big as all the rest of the raindrops and so he gently landed on the nose of the blonde curly-haired girl. Slowly he ran down her nose, over the curve of a cheek, down and around her neck before finally coming to rest on the green grass below. What he heard next, as he soaked into the parched soil, changed his life forever.
The very grumpy little raindrop heard the girl giggling. His travels across her nose, cheek and neck had somehow tickled her. He had brought her joy and by doing so made a difference in one life after all!
And with that happy thought the grumpy little raindrop did something he had never done before – he smiled. As he smiled, his gray color turned to shiny silver. And he kept smiling as he waited to evaporate and start the trip all over again.
This year a very grumpy little raindrop, or raindrops, could drop into your life. Are you the lifeline that’ll change their life forever?
Remember where there is a Will, there is always a way. From our family to yours, The Wife and I hope you have a happy and prosperous New Year.
[Rick Ryckeley has been writing stories since 2001. To read more of Rick’s stories, visit his blog: storiesbyrick.wordpress.com.]
