-it's never impossible-

A storm was coming, she figured. The humid air hung around her like a towel draped over a clothesline. The sky was darkening with each passing second, and in the distance, she could hear thunder.1

Good, she thought. She was sitting on a swing, dragging her sneakers in the sand beneath her. The eerie emptiness of the playground seemed to mock her. A rough wind tipped the seesaw, and to her it looked like a ghost child was sitting on one end.2

When it started to rain, the first thing she noticed was that she was lonely. Rain always made her feel more alone than usual, and her arms ached for someone to hold close to her. She reached out with two shaking hands, but no one was there.3

Far away, she could hear laughter, and the squish of footsteps in mud. Two teenagers rounded the corner and walked into the park, leaning on each other and holding hands, stopping after every step to laugh and kiss each other. 4

The girl slipped off her swing, and huddled under the monkey bars, trying to make herself invisible. Rain poured from the sky in deluges like a sheet of icy bullets, stabbing at her skin. It felt like a lion was trying to tear her flesh from her bones.5

The two teenagers stood together, the boy’s hands around the girl’s waist, looking up into the vast gray mass that was the sky. He whispered something into her ear, and she nuzzled his cheek with her own. Under the monkey bars, one tear fell from the girl’s eye.6

Many more followed, until her face was wet with not only rain, but with also a tidal wave of tears. Seeing two people so happy dug her pain deeper inside her until it spread all over her heart like a hungry disease. She looked at her hands, shriveled and pruned from the storm, and wished someone would hold them.