It is, she thought, but it always passes, and rainy season always comes around again, and the outsiders come with it, always two of them, always a man and a woman, and we always tell them exactly what is going to happen, and they don't believe it, and what happens... happens. 'Come on, you old crock,' she said, 'offer me a cup of coffee before my head splits wide open.'
He offered her a cup, and before they had finished, the sounds of hammers and saws had begun in town. Outside the window they could look down Main Street and see people folding back their shutters, talking and laughing.
The air was warm and dry, the sky overhead was a pale and hazy blue, and in Willow, rainy season was over.