The drops fall all around me, tinkling into tiny ponds and flowing in mini rivers on the stone floor of the courtyard. My feet begin to carry me in circles, faster and faster until the sky becomes a blur. Laughter bubbles up inside my mouth, and I open up to let it out, catching raindrops on my tongue. I turn my face into the downpour.
It's like being reborn, like the old me has washed away and trickled through cracks in the stone under my feet. I wish I could feel this way forever.
I have better balance in bare feet than in heels, but eventually I fall. I raise my head and there, five feet in front of me, stands Fiyero. We just look for a moment, and I see something different in his face than I'm used to—something softer.
"Glinda," he says. "What are you doing?"
I'm embarrassed that he found me this way, and I lower my eyes to my wet, muddy knees. I brush away the water that drips through my lashes. But then he comes to kneel in front of me, and that same softness radiates from his body to mine. I look into his face, and a smile so small that it's hardly there at all passes between us.
"I'm dancing in the rain."
His smile grows, and then mine, and then he laughs, and I laugh with him. He stands and takes me with him, and our feet begin to carry us in circles, faster until everything's a blur—everything but his smile.
