Monday, January 28, 2013

Waiting for the Storm to Pass



Disclaimer: I don’t own the original story by Ray Bradbury; this is simply an alternative ending.
Waiting For the Storm to Pass
    7 years past. 7 long, lonely, rainy, dark years. That one day that the sun shined like a bright smile, where she was locked in the closet changed Margot. She never forgot, never forgave. She turned from happy and optimistic to depressed and frail. Though she would lash out at people frequently. Hitting them and threatening them. Like her body went into autopilot. Then she would gain control, only to break down crying. Her mother would calm her down. More than once in a while her mother would tell her that “Life isn’t about waiting for the storm to pass; it’s about learning to dance in the rain.” Margot would tell her mother she was a doctor, not a philosopher.
   She never met those kids again. The regions of Venus grew and they all moved. The planet has been growing rapidly. People flying there to live on the beautiful new planet. They thought it was paradise. Margot thought it was prison.
   One day she while she was walking to school, one of her only friends, an optimistic bubbly girl named Abby, rushed to her. “Hey, hey Margot, guess what!” She said, bouncing on the balls of her feet. She didn’t wait for an answer; she stood in front of Margot, causing her to stop in her tracks. “The sun is coming out Wednesday!”
  Margot was surprised, no flabbergasted, no bumfuzzled. She couldn’t stand the rest of the day. At the last bell she ran out the room like she was being chased by a demon. She arrived back home in under five minutes. Her parents, unfazed by the door slam, were sitting patiently on the couch.  Before she could tell them about what she learned that day, her parents broke the news.
They bought three one way tickets back to earth, and were leaving tomorrow. They didn’t know the sun would come out Wednesday. Tickets were expensive; they wouldn’t have another chance to go. Her mother always thought that they should wait for the sun to come out again, as closure. Though they waited long enough. Margot kept her mouth shut, faking a smile. They were leaving tomorrow.
The next day she stood outside, everything packed and in the ship that was going back to Earth. She was about to walk through the doors when something extraordinary happened.  The rain stopped. She looked up to see the clouds moving away from a bright light. The scientists were wrong. The sun had come out today. Margot stood there for a few minutes, basking in the warm, bright hug. When the sun resumed its hiding spot behind the clouds, and the rain droplets fell down once more, Margot walked through the doors, smiling.

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