i remember when the trickling sound of rain frightened me; pattering against the windowpane in the dead of night like creaky fingers belonging to my fears. first, they were the dark, and roller coasters with skittish tracks from old-timey days, and monsters under the bed with long arms waiting to wrap me into them. those changed, quite how most everything does, into those of melancholy love, and unrequited love, and the constant worry of fairytale endings rattling in my mind until it turned into gunk and spewed out my ears, doing anything i can to get it out, out, out. my dear, i await the days where there is nothing to be afraid of, though they may not come soon. we are impatient beings not designed for the way the world works on its own; outside of who we are. and yes, my fears remain, but no longer am i afraid of the rain.