Wet Play

On rainy days, Dad stays home. You can’t teach people to play tennis when you have water in your eyes and rivers underfoot. The tennis balls get soggy and they get rat tails of neon fluff that spray on the swing through. They land in puddles on the bounce that have formed on the undulating courts. The ball falls dead. Waterproof jackets with ‘Tennis Coach’ printed on the back breaks it’s barriers and rain seeps through to the last defence T- Shirt. Rain drips off cliff edges of caps, as if you were standing on the rock side of a waterfall. Wistfully looking on, as the world retreats to living rooms and shelters and pubs or a friend’s umbrella. Umbrellas so small, that silently, rucksacks get soaked through while the front of you presses forward. Keys and oyster cards and tampons and 20p coins are kept company by the pattering of rain, that soon becomes a dense heavy canvas above their heads like waking up on a late October camping trip. On rainy days, Dad stays in his dressing gown until midday. This is his only other outfit that I’ve seen him in. If it’s not tennis gear, it’s dressing gown. I’m actually not sure if he owns pyjamas, maybe I should get him some for Christmas. It seems strange that I don’t know that. It’s strange that I’m living with him. But I’m only here for the month and I only see him after 8pm. He works from 8am to 8pm. But today it’s raining so heavily that the water in your eyes would get too much and the rivers underfoot would be a hazard so he’s sat in his distasteful big armchair in his dressing gown, on his phone, while an apple crumble, I asked him to make bakes in the oven. Later he’ll realise the temperature is only on 100 degrees Celsius and he’ll get cross at me for doing that. I actually didn’t mean to do it this time, but I’d burnt the top of my banana bread and the middle needed more time so I turned the dial down. I’d cooked banana bread because I was so hungry and batter was the quickest yummiest thing I could make. I also wanted to do something that wasn’t staring at a screen, pretending to understand what was being talked about. I wanted to make something. And we had bananas. So why not. That’s when you make something. When the essential ingredient is right in front of you.