The Rain That Fell Upward

One morning the rain began to fall upward. Rivers thinned, lakes lowered, and clouds swelled with rising water. Scientists panicked, but children laughed and held out their hands to catch droplets ascending. When asked why it happened, an old mystic said the earth was returning its tears to the sky to ask whether suffering had meaning. When the rain finally fell downward again, it tasted sweeter — as if the sky had answered.