Horizontal Rain by Betsy

          Whump!! The wet bed sheet hit me on the side of the face as I was trying to attach a corner to the clothes line. “I’m trying to hold it steady!” yelled Gillian. Her words were inaudible in the howling wind and driving rain. Our last act before leaving what had been our home for the past five weeks was almost an impossible task. Two women could barely manage, working together, to hang one bed sheet on a clothes line.

          Whump! whump! went the sheet again and again as we battled the relentless wind.

          “Well, we’re leaving the Orkney Islands on a very typical day, aren’t we,” I screamed over the wind.

          “Yes,” yelled Gill. “We better get moving and get this laundry hung pretty fast. We can’t miss the ferry.”

          I wondered why our house exchange hosts had a washer but no dryer. After all we wanted to leave the house in good order. This meant washing household linens at the last minute. And, yes, drying them. But this had to be done using the resources at hand; namely, a clothes line and clothes pins. And it had to be done NOW. We couldn’t leave wet laundry in a pile in the house. Never mind that the wind was blowing about 50 mph and the rain was coming down harder than ever.

          Not that it was unusual for it to rain and blow. In our five weeks visit to these islands north of the Scottish mainland there had been very few days when it did not rain. And the wind--oh the wind. The wind caused it to rain horizontally most of the time. Consequently, the laundry flew horizontally on the line. And today was no exception. The lovely people of the islands have a saying. “If the wind ever stops blowing, we will all fall over as we are forever leaning into it.”


          It had been a magical time--our five weeks on one of the islands of Orkney. In spite of the islands’ abominable weather, we had visited most of the archeological sites many of them newly discovered and older than anything either of us had ever seen before. We had truly enjoyed the rugged coastline with its high cliffs and pounding surf below--the home to puffins, oyster-catchers, all kinds of gulls, and many other birds. The people we had met there were truly delightful as well--living a very laid back, slow-paced, rural lifestyle.

          Now it was time to leave and we would miss all of this for it had been a wonderful experience. But in unspoken agreement we knew neither of us would miss the rain! And my, it did rain!

About the Author

Betsy has been active in the GLBT community including PFLAG, the Denver women’s chorus, OLOC (Old Lesbians Organizing for Change). She has been retired from the Human Services field for about 15 years. Since her retirement her major activities include tennis, camping, traveling, teaching skiing as a volunteer instructor with National Sports Center for the Disabled, and learning. Betsy came out as a lesbian after 25 years of marriage. She has a close relationship with her three children and enjoys spending time with her four grandchildren. Betsy says her greatest and most meaningful enjoyment comes from sharing her life with her partner of 25 years, Gillian Edwards.