I had always been accustomed to the dreary weather of my little isle. To awaken in the morning to dark skies hiding the sun and to the sound of tapping silencing the birdsong was natural to me. In fact, I quite enjoyed the white noise of rain; it calmed my often frayed nerves.

Dour weather was essential to my identity. It created the rolling green hills and thick, lush forests of the English countryside. It allowed my tiny rock to support inhabitants and protected them from invasion by turning the Channel into a feral beast.

I adored the rain and thanked the powers that be for its prevalence in my country...until I discovered a certain child of the New World.

And how he embodied a day in his country! Just as the sun illuminated his open fields, so too did it give his golden hair a lustrous glow that was more glorious than any monarch's treasure. It kissed his skin, giving him a slight tan that enhanced his radiance, and it seemed to be reflected in his bright, white smile.

But the most striking of the American's features were his eyes. They must have been pieces of a cloudless sky, for they were just as wide and blue, if not more so. Surely every angel in high Heaven envied those eyes and scorned their Maker for neglecting to grant them such a gift.

With this image, contempt for my once beloved English rain began to develop. It would hide the daylight that reminded me so much of my dear American and make me truly feel the distance between us.

I began to utterly detest even the slightest drizzle when I realized how it drained the boy of all life. It stole the sunshine from his hair and gave his blue eyes a grayish hue. The energetic smile disappeared from his face and he would simply gaze wistfully out at the darkened world.

Now the rain has become the bane of my existence. It is nothing but a constant reminder of what I have lost. I have lost my sunshine, my beacon of happiness, in a torrent of loneliness.

But I have no one to blame but myself. In my possessive nature, I hid his true potential. I did not allow him to shine as his very being dictates he should. I became the rain that drained his life.

So, rather fittingly, I hate an essential part of myself...for that is what drove away my love.