Send Down the Rain

by Charles Martin

The snow was falling heavy now, but the moon had risen so it hung behind the clouds like a flashlight shining behind a sheet. “It was October. Harvest moon. So bright you could see your shadow. When the tide washed over the shells, leaving them wet, the shells would reflect like black diamonds. We filled up a backpack.”

“Hate is a powerful weapon. But it is powerless when it comes to cutting chains off the human heart.”

rapidly in Spanish to Javier and Peter. The three nodded. “Okay.” “Okay,

“Long time ago, a friend gave me a gift I can never repay. The longer I live out the reality of that gift, the more I come to understand the enormity of what I owe and what is required to wipe the slate.”

“I’d seen what evil could do. Evil never gave itself for anyone. It takes what it doesn’t own. Holds your head under the water. Rips your head off your neck and dangles it from the city wall. Evil dominates. Controls. Eradicates. Evil is a sniveling punk, and if you let it inside you then you spew hatred, which is just another name for the poison we drink hoping it’ll hurt someone else.”

not love. Love rushes in where others won’t. Where the bullets are flying. It stands between. Pours out. Empties itself. It scours the wasteland, returns the pieces that were lost, and it never counts the cost.”

where the verdict is guilty, grabs you by the heart, and says to the warden, ‘Me for him.’” I turned and glanced at my brother. “Sir, we live in an

“For giving me what I needed.” He swallowed and dug his hand into the package. “And not what I deserved.”