The perfect sunrise

The summer had finally arrived and everyone was looking forward to the usual warm weather and sunny days that lay ahead. Long days of sitting out on the beach while watching the sunset, late night strolls through the park, cicadas buzzing off somewhere in the darkness...just to name a few expected scenes.

And then came the endless rain. They had never experienced a monsoon throughout an entire season, especially during summer. It really put a damper on everyone's plans. Interestingly, some people had adapted to these changes while others had taken more drastic measures.

For instance, you take the Hurley family who had rented a house on the beach. Their journey had not been pleasant. It took them nearly double the time to drive on the various highways necessary to reach their destination since the day chose to produce a deluge. Cancelling their trip was out of the question since they had booked it months in advance, so they had no choice but to carry on with their vacation.

It remained dark and gloomy upon their arrival. Daniel slowly pulled up onto the gravel driveway and he could hear the rocks producing their familiar crunching sound underneath the wet tires. The house had a large wooden garage door, no doubt having stood against numerous wind gusts from years of heavy ocean breezes. Yet it remained firm and rigid as a main entrance to the house.

"The code is 5923." Said his wife Helen while searching for the keypad. "It's on the left side of the wall."

He could sense that she was exhausted and slightly disappointed.

"Honey..." He said softly while holding her left hand. "We'll make the most of it."

Somehow he had the effect of easing her frustrations. On the other hand, it wasn't always this easy with their kids.

"How are we supposed to sit on the beach when it's like this?" Asked their son John with an annoyed tone.

"Are we just going to stay inside the house every day?" Inquired Lucy, who temporarily stoped scrolling through TikTok videos to raise her concerns.

Daniel paused for a moment before addressing their questions.

"We are going to be a family. That's it." He said with an aura of confidence.

Then he quickly opened the driver's side door and scurried over to the keypad while his raincoat got battered by the never-ending drops from the dark clouds. The rubber keys were not sensitive and he was forced to push them hard and slowly. As the door opened, a light inside the garage had illuminated the room and he was happy to see there was enough space to unload everything in there.

After parking the car inside the garage, his family had taken their time getting out of the vehicle. Daniel noticed a set of wooden stairs ascending to a door sitting nearly six feet above the ground. Daniel and his family slowly followed him as he opened the door.

There was a nightlight that rested by the wall next to the door. While entering the interior of the house, they found themselves standing in a large kitchen.

A brief flash lit up the room and a roar of thunder was heard a few seconds later. Dishes slowly rattled within the cabinets and then their vibrations diminished quietly.

Helen flipped a switch on the wall to light up the entire kitchen.

“I must say that this is nice!”

It did have a modern, sleek design with clear cabinets and marble countertops. John walked into the adjacent living room and sat on a large couch that faced a wall mounted television. He quickly found the remote resting on the coffee table and immediately hit the power button.

“I wonder how many apps are on here.”

Lucy stood in the kitchen staring at her phone’s screen. “Does anybody know the WiFi password?”

Daniel felt the need to interject. “Everyone…let’s go to the beach.”

His family was very confused by this request.

“You’re joking…right Dad?” Lucy said with her eyes still fixed to her phone’s screen.

“I mean it…let’s get our coats on and talk a walk.”

Helen could see that her husband was actually serious.

“We just got here honey. Don’t you want to put some of our bags away first? Maybe relax a little bit?”

“I really think we should go. I don’t want to sit inside here right now. The sun hasn’t come out in weeks and I’m not going to wait for it.”

He paused while walking over to his daughter. “And no phones.” She got the message and put it into her pocket.

They put their raincoats on and walked out of the garage door.

The dark clouds had not subsided and they still hung over the ocean as a giant canopy. Heavy rain drops continued to beat down on their backs while they began the trek along the shore. The beach was vacant except for a few scavenging seagulls who occasionally chirped in their quests. A few minutes had passed in near silence as the wet sand dug into their sandals.

“Is this ever going to end?” Asked Lucy while keeping her head tilted downward.

“One day.” Her father had slowly replied.

“How much longer can it keep raining like this?” John said as he fixed his hood.

“As long as it takes.” Daniel said confidently.

Another brief flash was seen across the horizon. A small echo of thunder was heard several moments later.

“I wanted to sit on beach chairs too you know.” Responded Daniel. “But this is the hand we’ve been dealt and sometimes you just have to play it out.”

“Bad luck…is that what you mean?” Asked John.

“Luck is what you make of it.” He paused for a moment. “We’re here and adjusting to it.”

“I guess so.”

A seagull quickly flew past them and then disappeared into the dark clouds.

“Your mother and I took a walk like this in the rain when we first started dating. We were both still living in the city and out late one night. No smartphones to give us weather alerts, so it just happened.”

Helen smiled while holding Daniel’s hand.

“You remember that? We just got out of the subway and had to walk several blocks to your apartment. No umbrella or coats either.”

“We just laughed.” She said cheerfully.

“It didn’t matter after awhile. We were just happy.”

Another distant roar of thunder was heard.

“And then you had us.” Lucy said with a friendly smirk.

“We’re not that bad are we?”

“Maybe just a little.”

“You guys are ok.” John remarked.

Lucy hooked her father’s arm and stood next to him for the remainder of their walk.

They decided to head back to the house several minutes later. When they got back inside, they all changed into dry clothes and sat together on the large couch in the living room.

Instead of normally taking her phone out, Lucy became more interested in learning about her parents.

“Tell us some more stories about when you guys were dating.”

Helen thought about this request for a couple of moments before deciding on what to tell her children. They were both teenagers, so they could handle something more mature.

“When your father and I first met, we were both working long hours in the city. Sometimes we wouldn’t leave the office until after seven or eight on a bad day. We still wanted to go out and have fun.“

Daniel had a feeling he knew where his wife was going with this recollection.

“There was one night where we both got out of work late and met each other at this bar that we really liked for dinner. After that, we took a really long walk around the city. It was a beautiful summer night and not too hot either.” She paused to take a drink of some wine she had poured herself. “We spent that night just walking around, having an endless conversation about anything and everything. It felt so good and natural.

Then we walked all the way to the pier at the end of town. We sat at this bench and just stared at the dark ocean, neither of us wanting to leave. And we continued to talk, all through the night. We stayed for the sunrise and realized we had work in only a couple of hours.”

She took another sip of her wine. “But we didn’t care…because we were young and those moments were real. We didn’t even go back to our apartments to change or anything because it didn’t matter to us.”

“You guys just went to work the next day in the same clothes?” John asked.

“Yeah…we did and you know what? I don’t regret it. That was one of the best nights of my life.” Helen said enthusiastically.

Daniel sat there and nodded his head in acknowledgement. “It was for me too.”

“One day, you’ll both have those moments.”

The rain continued into the next day of this very unusual monsoon summer. It was still dark and gloomy as it had been yesterday. John had woken up and found Lucy laying down on the couch scrolling through her phone.

“Where’s Mom and Dad?” He asked.

“Probably still sleeping.” Lucy presumed but then when she stood up from the couch, she saw a row of beach chairs sitting on the sand by the ocean. There were two figures sitting in the middle chairs, one of them with their head resting on the other’s shoulder.

“Let’s get our coats on John.” She said to her brother who silently agreed.

Helen felt herself dozing off while sitting next to Daniel. They had been out here for the past several hours, laying in the darkness while waiting for the sunrise. Even with another day of rain and dark clouds, they could still see a glimmer of the sun somewhere out there.

They didn’t mind the rain falling down on them. They didn’t mind the darkness of the dawn. These moments made them feel young again. And these were the moments they had cherished, the ones that they could reminisce. And then they were joined by their children, who then sat in the other empty chairs. They didn’t care about the rain either because they wanted to see the sunrise too that was deeply hidden amongst those black clusters in the sky.