Rain Reign

The power and phone are restored at Rose’s house, and she calls Weldon to tell him about Rain. He is concerned by the dog’s disappearance, and they strategize about placing “Lost Dog” signs in town. Weldon can’t yet reach Rose and Wesley’s house because of downed trees across the roads, but he promises to start building a temporary bridge across the stream at Rose’s house as soon as he can. Buoyed by talking to her uncle and finding a new set of homonyms, Rose makes a list of strategies to help find Rain.

Weldon is able to get to Rose’s house by leaving his truck on the other side of the stream and crossing it on foot at a narrow spot. He brings Rose and Wesley groceries and has also brought supplies for building a bridge. Rose excitedly tells him about her plan for finding Rain, which involves her calling all the animal shelters in the county, starting with the closest ones.

Rose calls all the shelters on the list, some of which are closed because of flooding and storm damage. She gets through to a few people, but no one at the shelters has seen a dog that looks like Rain. Rose plans to call the shelters back in a few days. She eats dinner with Weldon and Wesley, and as she becomes upset again about Wesley letting Rain outside, it becomes apparent that Weldon is patient and calm with her while Wesley is irritable and dismissive of the pain she’s experiencing over her lost pet.

Ten days after the storm, Rose’s school reopens, and Weldon drives her back on the first day. The brothers have built a foot bridge over the driveway so that Rose and Wesley can cross the washout. At school, Rose’s class discusses the impact of the storm on the students. Anders and another classmate of Rose’s have had to move out of the school district because their houses were flooded too badly to save. Rose tells the class that Rain is missing, causing concern among her classmates. When another student, Parvani, begins to cry because her mother’s artworks were destroyed in the storm, Rose comforts her.

The first weekend after school reopens, Weldon takes Rose to the closest animal shelters so she can check that Rain hasn’t been found. They don’t find her even though they check 10 different shelters. Before they left the house that morning, Wesley warned Weldon not to give Rose any treats, but at the end of their discouraging day, Weldon takes Rose for ice cream.

Rose is having trouble concentrating in school because she’s so worried about Rain. She finds it difficult to avoid calling out new homonyms to the class when she thinks of them, and Mrs. Leibler has to take her out in the hallway multiple times per day. Some of her classmates subtly make fun of Rose for her disruptive behavior, but she notices that Parvani sticks up for her.

Rose is dejected during the afternoons and evenings when she gets home from school. Her father is away at work or the bar, and she tries to fill the time with looking through her mother’s box of keepsakes, doing her homework, and making dinner. She’s despondent without Rain’s companionship.

Rose arrives home from school one day to find that Wesley has been fired from his job at the garage. She leaves her father and uncle outside angrily discussing how Wesley will support himself and Rose and goes to the house to call the animal shelters again. Eventually she reaches a shelter that has a dog matching Rain’s description, and she excitedly calls Weldon. Her uncle promises to pick her up the following morning so they can go check the shelter.

Rose and Weldon arrive at the animal shelter, and the staff brings Rain out to the waiting room. It becomes clear based on Rose and Rain’s joyful behavior that the dog belongs to Rose. However, the shelter manager tells Rose and Weldon that Rain has a microchip that was scanned when Rain was brought in. The chip information had a different name and different owner information than Rose’s.

The shelter manager goes on to say that the staff tried to call the owners listed under Rain’s microchip information, but they live in a town badly impacted by the hurricane and are unreachable by phone. Rose is confused and troubled when she learns that Rain might have past owners who could claim her. After some deliberation, the shelter manager decides that Rain can go home with Rose and Weldon while the staff keeps trying to get in touch with Rain’s previous owners.