The rain started falling lightly just at the moment of maximum entropy as I was digging in the dirt and emptying the rain barrel and moving heavy rocks and landscape timbers and carting around wheelbarrows of dirt. As it started falling harder, I slowly began to reassemble the furies I had unleashed and one-by-one put them away. But this took a while, because I was tired and moving slowly. And because it wasn’t cold and the rain frankly felt good.
Around the corner, Izzy sat under the bench, tied onto her long rope. She was watching me dig in the mud in the rain, no doubt wondering why I didn’t have more sense. She was quiet, didn’t say a word, but I could see the look in her eyes. For heaven’s sake, what are you doing? Can we just go in now, please?
As it happened, after the dirt was safely piled up and the wheelbarrow was stowed and the tools were put away, we found a dry spot (such as it was) on a chair under the eves in front of the garage.I grabbed a mostly clean rag and dried the two of us, and I held her tightly for a moment.
And we sat for a while — she and I — and watched the rain come down.