Rainwalkers by Matt Ritter

Author:Matt Ritter [Ritter, Matt]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Weather, droughts, toxic rain, Climate Change, Salinas Valley
ISBN: 9781620060476
Publisher: Brown Posey Press
Published: 2019-05-12T22:00:00+00:00

Early the next morning, the rain stopped, and Will was sitting on the front porch. A great reef of light was yawning across the eastern Valley, the sun hadn’t yet risen, and the Valley was still blanketed in clouds.

Will knew the time to leave his house and Gonzales, likely for the last time, was drawing near. For years his heart was tethered to this home. This town had been his redemption, his chance at another life. He thought of Hannah and how she'd loved this house. All the upkeep was work done out of love. He sat on the porch, whose boards they had sanded on their hands and knees each night for a week after returning from the fields.

He thought of Helen and how much she looked like her mother. His heart came up into his throat. This house was the location of all her first times. The day she was born, right there in that bedroom. How nervous he'd been, worried about Hannah, then after Helen came screaming into the world, everything seemed right. The worries that plagued Will about his past, about the future of the Valley, melted away on the day Hannah gave birth. That baby girl was his antidote for the world that had shown him so much darkness and pain.

Her first word was formed right there on the front porch. Heywilly. Something she'd picked up from her mother, a quickly slurred version of “Hey, Willie.” Heywilly. Heywilly. She said it over and over as she crawled from her mother in the kitchen to where he worked on the front porch railing. The first time she took any steps in his direction was in the living room, stumbling like a drunken sailor into his open arms. He thought of the first time she called him Daddy. There was also the night not so long ago when they had to explain to her about the collections, how it may happen to him and Hannah. How adult she was, taking it all in stride, saying, “It’s okay, Daddy. For the Valley.”

He felt like so much of the good fortune he received after returning from the war wasn’t meant for him. A wife, a child, a comfortable house; these were all things never meant for him, but there he was, being comforted by his daughter as he explained the cruelties of the world to her. He had done such terrible things and was good at doing them, like a tool being used for its right purpose. In a strange way, the soldier and ruthless killer version of himself were truer than the husband and father.

This house meant nothing without them. Neither did Gonzales nor the great Valley that cradled them. His love of the Valley, which at one time he was willing to carry out the unthinkable for, was only love for the Valley’s people, and now that was gone, too.

Will’s chest felt tight. He rose and focused on the parting clouds in the sky above Gonzales. Captain Wilson.

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