Rain over the Fields

The rut quickly became a divot, then a stream, then a river. The hard pressed tractor tracks disappeared into the mud and all trace of summer was lost in a cataclysm of thunder, driving rain and the violent whipping of the crop. Hanna wiped the rain from her eyes, tucked her hair back under her hood and squinted into the distance as another flash of lightning tugged at the edges of the sky. From somewhere in the swaying mass of maize she heard Molly's excited bark, carried on the wind, almost lost beneath the rolling of the thunder.

She fumbled in her pocket for the dog whistle. She had no idea if it was going to be loud enough to cut through the storm, it was only a cheap one bought from the local pet store. Plastic and tiny.

"Molly!" she shouted. Her voice sounded small, carried away an inch from her face. "Molly!"

Her fingers closed around the whistle and she gave it a long blast. She heard barking again in the distance, further away than before. In retrospect she should have taken the longer route home, should have stuck to the roads. But the rain was never this bad at this time of year, it was July for God's sake. Hanna glanced around her, there was no-one else in sight, no-one else on the path to help. She squinted back over the fields and thought she could just make out a silhouette on the far side. The shadow of a dog just visible as it occasionally bounced above the level of the maize.

"Oh hell." said Hanna, "Molly!" She started at a jog into the field, the maize instantly soaking her jeans, sodden to the knee. Overhead the clouds were swirling, getting darker, denser. A sudden booming of thunder rocked over the fields, a few seconds and the flash. Right overhead. Now that Hanna was in the field she couldn't see Molly any more, nor could she hear her barking, the rustling of the maize filled the air.

"Molly!" The raindrops were heavy now, she could feel the weight of water on her hood. Her hair plastered itself in front of her eyes time and again, blurring her vision, and the crop moved angrily, as if it were trying to rip itself from the ground. The way it moved was unreal, alive. All of a sudden the path behind her had disappeared into the rain.

"Molly!" She gave another long blast on the whistle, and thought she saw something move ahead of her. Just for a second a shadow shifting against the seeds, but it was impossible to tell for sure.

"Molly!" She waited.