It was a typical May night in Toast, North Carolina. Sixty-five degrees and rainy. Everyone in Toast knows that, even though it to rain evenly year-round, it tends to rain a bit more in May. Julie loved the rain. Something about rain is so peaceful, something she has always found comfort in ever since she was a little girl.

Now, twenty-two, she still gets excited when there is a rainstorm. Most of the time Julie sits on the swing located on the big porch that wrapped around the entire house. This was her childhood home, and she lived there with her mother. Her parents divorced when she was ten years old, and her father moved across town, passed the old, wooden bridge that had been there for as long as Julie could remember. Sometimes her mother would join her on the porch, but it was rare. Her migraines usually got in the way of doing anything. Julie did not mind it though. After her brother Jude got married and moved to Seattle for his career, Julie felt she had to stay, for more reasons than one, but the one she told everyone about was to help her sick mother. Her migraines would be so immobilizing that Julie would have to bring her food and help her mother to the bathroom when need be. How could she leave? How would that be fair to her mother? It was evident that she would have to stay; the thought of leaving her mother helpless was hard to even think about. At least her brother comes every year for about two weeks to go deer hunting, usually around October or so. Jude makes sure he saves up enough time to be able to take a long vacation so that he can hunt. That is one thing that he misses about living in the south, but nothing will keep him away from hunting.

Tonight, however, Julie decides to go into her room to get comfortable in her bed and think. The wind is blowing extremely hard, and being on the verge of a migraine and her anxiety kicking in, Julie is not able to appreciate the rain on the porch tonight. After lifting her window to let the cold air in and to hear the rain hitting the roof, Julie notices the pine trees are swaying in the wind as the rain falls from the sky. The fresh air eases the feeling of her room closing in on her when her anxiety and migraines begin to kick in; she stood there for a while before she hops in her bed and notices the little pieces of dirt that got in her bed, and tries to push them away. She always goes barefoot and sometimes forgets to take a bath or a shower before jumping into bed. She often wonders why she keeps getting in bed to only get back out of it to wipe away the specks of dirt. I wonder if I will ever change this crazy habit I have. Will I ever learn a way to prevent dirt in my bed since it is something I absolutely cannot stand, but if the only solution is to wear shoes all the time then forget it? Julie would much rather deal with the dirt than have to ever think of not going barefoot. Julie realizes she needs some sort of outlet as she lies in bed unable to sleep. A way to sort through all her past experiences healthily, instead of them being bottled away inside. The thoughts of a possible outlet to conquer her pain and fears was the last thing on her mind as she drifted off to sleep.