"It's raining now." She whispered to the empty room.

She listened as the rain fell against the glass of the hospital window. Smiling, memories of playing, dancing and walking in the rain flooded her thoughts, her eyes closed against the starkness of her room. The machines clicked and beeped quietly around her but she shut them out and listened to the raindrops.

This was no light shower and she listened to the drops booming against the window. In the distance came the sound of thunder, her smile widened. Oh how she loved to listen to thunder, her body and soul excited and electric from the lightning in the air. Boom went another loud crash. Oh how she wished someone would turn off the lights so she could see the lightnig flashes. She kept them shut against the intrusive neon lights. She wanted to go home.

The door swung open and the lights went off.

"Hi Sweets." She whispered her smile growing as wide as she could stretch it. "You remembered."

"Of course." He sauntered over to the bed where she had lain the last three weeks. Her body barely alive but her mind ever present.

"Please tell me you have come to take me home."

"Yes love, it is time for you to come home."

"It's raining now. Isn't it wonderful the way Mother Nature promises new life."

He nodded as he lit her three candles that sat near by on her nightstand and began moving the equipment out of the way. She watched him mesmerized by his grace and beauty as he went about his task. Oh how she had missed him these last ten years. So handsome, so masculine, he had never feigned in his promise to take care of her. She always knew when it was time to go home that he would come for her.

She tilted her head as if she heard shadows in the room.

"Pay no attention to anything but me my love." He put out his hand for her to grasp and she rose to a sitting position on the edge of the bed. "Care to dance?"

She listened to the music the rain and thunder now played as she slipped onto her feet, renewed like a flower after a spring shower. "I would love to," She replied as he gathered her into his arms and pressed his lips to hers. Her body melted as it always had when he embraced her this way.

"Shall we dance all the way home?" His eyes smiled, "Everyone is waiting to see you."

As they began to waltz, she caught a glimpse of the room as they whirled away to the symphony of rain. There was a hustle and bustle of hospital personnel the machines with their clicks and beeps were now silent. She saw herself on the bed. Crying out to her lifeless shell, her voice brimming with joy and laughter, "I am going home, I am finally going home."