Jo Chapter 1: The Rain

A light rain was upon the ground. Jo was dancing as any child without the rain for a long period of time will dance. Her laughter was a light as the curls upon her head. Her pale face was flushed slightly by the excitement that the rain brought to her. There was nothing in the world that Jo loved better than a warm rain.

She was outside in the meadow that was fast becoming muddy. The large weeping willow with freshly made leaves was not far off, and it was drinking up the wet droplets of spring that were falling from the sky. The world was as it should be in Jo’s eyes. From inside she could hear the other girls singing songs of sadness so that the rain would go away and leave them all to play outside. The other girls only saw the rain as mean and cold and something that didn't allow them to play in the warm sunshine of the Abounding. But to Jo, the rain was like a happy memory given to the earth to enjoy along with all living things.

Jo had an unusual way of seeing the good in everything and she rarely became upset (unlike many of the other girls). The one thing that most infuriated Jo, and tore at her heart, was the unjust treatment of any, and most especially of those who could do nothing to protect themselves from the harshness of the world. In fact, if she had seen herself through these eyes, she would have seen pity and done everything she could to free this poor, orphaned little girl from the awful life that she must be living.

Many of the other girls in the orphanage saw Jo as queer and they stayed as far away from her as they could. But Jo never minded, for she knew that their games were all of hatred, and that many of the girls despised one another, even their supposedly best friends. Although Jo could see this plainly enough as though it was written down in large bolded ink, many of the other girls could not, for they were consumed by their own hatred and could not see it in the others. Jo knew that this friendship was false, and Jo knew that if she were to have a friend, she would have a true friend.

Jo was content to spend long days reading numerous books of courageous heroes who always seemed to fall upon misfortune and yet, still had strength enough to persevere until the darkness was destroyed. So could she spend hours writing her own stories of such heroes, envisioning herself as those same courageous strangers who somehow seemed to be so much a part of herself. She did not yet realize that she was to be a hero far greater than those who could only live in stories.

“Jo!” Miss Ryanne was calling for Jo through the dusty orphanage window. “Jo! Get inside this instant! You are soaked to the bone!” Jo continued to spin without reply. “Jo, answer me this instant or so help me!”

Jo paused momentarily thinking of an appropriate reply. “Miss Ryanne,” Jo spoke as she started spinning again. “If I am already soaked to the bone, then I can’t get much wetter can I? So what would be the point of going back inside now?” Jo, only a child of seven, retorted with as much enthusiasm as any child told to stop playing a game at its most exciting moment.

“Josephine Elizabeth! You stop that ridiculous twirling about this instant! All that mud is being kicked up onto your only nice day dress.” One of the older girls felt compelled to help Miss Ryanne at the dusty window. “Must you always act as such a fool? You embarrass the lot of us. Miss Ryanne only wants to give us all the chance to become the sophisticated young ladies misfortune has otherwise tried to oppress.”

“Gracey, the moment you come and join me in this splendid dance, I will do anything you ask of me. Oops!” Jo misplaced her footing and fell in the mud with a tremendous fit of giggles to follow.

“Josephine, you wretched child. Will you ever act like a proper girl? And my name is Grace not Gracey! Are you even listening to me?” Jo was laughing too hard to let in anything that Grace said to her. But she did understand that Grace was only trying to help, and that she was slightly disappointed in Jo.

Miss Ryanne grabbed her umbrella and came out to collect Jo. She walked through the now very muddy field with her skirt raised to above her ankles so as not to dirty it or wet it by the slopping mud. It was something any proper lady ought to do. Once she reached Jo and lifted her gently to her feet, Miss Ryanne became suddenly stern. “I don’t know what I’m going to do with you Jo! I just don’t know. If you won’t become a civilized and respectable young lady, you run the risk of never being unleashed into society. And we can’t house you here forever Jo. You need to make the conscious decision to grow up or you will enter an adult world as a child.”

“But Miss Ryanne, if I’m supposed to be an adult now, when will I learn to be a child? For certainly I must be one once in my life.”

“Jo you’ve had your fun already.” Miss Ryanne pleaded. “Please, none of the other girls have had this problem. They’re all trying to grow up as fast as they can. Why aren’t you?”

Now, Miss Ryanne was not mean, but rather a kind, middle aged lady with a compassion that most people never encountered. She was very aware of the special needs that a particular individual has, that is all except Jo. Jo was a mystery to Miss Ryanne. She would often wonder how a girl of so much potential and knowledge of the world and all the evils in it still have the securities of a normal child her age? The other girls had no other choice than to grow up, but Jo, with the same experiences, choose a path that none could comprehend but her. Miss Ryanne was scared for Jo, for her future was not as clearly laid out as the other girls’ futures were.

“Miss Ryanne.” Jo was speaking in her small but powerful and comforting child’s voice. The voice that was innocent yet in a way all knowing. Miss Ryanne often wondered if Jo could read minds because of the way she spoke, but it was really that Jo read people. “Miss Ryanne. Everything will be alright. In the end things are always set in the right way. He won’t allow anything bad to happen to me. I’m not like the other girls; their future won’t work for me. The road that I am walking now will lead me to my happiness; any other path would not fit me right. You needn’t be frightened.”

A chill went down Miss Ryanne’s back when Jo spoke of Him. He frightened Miss Ryanne more than anything else. “But how do you know this?” Miss Ryanne asked in a small and terrified voice. “How do you know everything will be fine, that it won’t be a disaster? How do you know that He will take care of you and lead you through this life?”

“I just believe Miss Ryanne. Believe with all my heart. And I know that my heart would never lie to me, although I may misinterpret what it says.”

Once Miss Ryanne and Jo were inside the orphanage again, Grace came rushing towards them. “Oh dear Josephine!” she was making a fuss about Jo and the state of her clothes. “We must get you into some dry clothing at once! The last thing we want is for you to get the shivers and then pass them along to all of the other girls. No Josephine, that just won’t do!”

“Gracey I’m fine really.” Jo was pulling away from Grace’s sister-like embrace. Jo knew that if she were to go with Grace then she would be scolded and given a bath.

“Jo, don’t be ridiculous. You need to get out of those clothes no matter.” Miss Ryanne peered into the Day Room where the rest of the girls sat sadly looking out of the rain clouded windows and singing their sorrowful songs. “Now if you two don’t mind, I have other duties to attend to at the present time. So hurry along now.” She walked briskly into the Day Room and addressed the girls who were sniggering as they spied Jo in her wet and muddied clothes.

“Come along now Josephine.” Grace said in what she thought was a loving sisterly way as she steered Jo across the hall into the Wash Room. Then her voice changed into her normal strict know-it-all sort of voice as she said “That was a wicked horrible thing for you to do Josephine Elizabeth! Do you realize how much effort Miss Ryanne puts forth to make you normal? If you won’t conform for your own well being, can you at the very least conform for her?” Grace was liable to go into a long speech about obligations and non-obligatory things that one must do, can do, and should never do, that is if Grace had never mentioned the theory that Jo needed to conform, which seemed to set off a spark somewhere within Jo.

“Conform?” Jo questioned accusatorily. “Conform to what? To the lies and hatred that each girl hides behind her back? To repress my love for the rain which He has given to me? (like Miss Ryanne, Grace  felt a shiver run up her spine when Jo mentioned Him) surely that is not it, for the day I willingly and flatly refuse to dance in the rain will be the day that all the world will come crashing down on me! No Gracey, I am afraid that I cannot conform to your ‘normality’ just to please you or Miss Ryanne. And most especially if what you ask of me interferes with the plan He has for me.”

Without waiting for a reply from Grace, which she was sure would never come, Jo quickly rinsed our her hair, put on her dry clothes (she sighed when she looked at the stain on the bottom of her skirts and remembered that now, all her dresses had stains) and rushed into the Day Room where the other girls were now at play with an organized game that would supposedly help them on their way to growing up. But Jo, who found this game simply boring, took a seat by the dusty window that Miss Ryanne had called to her from only moments ago. Jo reopened it and put her hand outside so as to still be with the rain.

Although she was no longer outside dancing in the rain, Jo was quite content to sit there with the rain falling past the open window. She was still able to see the rain, still able to hear the rain, still able to smell the rain, still able to feel the rain. She sat there on the window ledge almost as if she was in a trance. She was thinking up another story, one with fantastic beasts such as dragons and unicorns, and knights, and castles, and wizards, and an enemy that makes everyone in the kingdom conform to lies and hatred. Tomorrow she would write her story down, but today she would live it.