Experimental Short Story Series #20
Title: When the Rain Typed Back
Theme: A surreal, metafictional experiment where the boundaries between author, text, and weather blur into one another.
By Faraz Parvez (Pen name of Professor Dr. Arshad Afzal, Former Faculty Member, Umm Al-Qura University, Makkah, KSA)
FarazParvez1.blogspot.com
When the Rain Typed Back
An Experimental Short Story by Faraz Parvez
It was a monsoon evening in Lahore, and the professor’s laptop screen flickered like an eye trying to stay awake. Outside, the clouds assembled with the ritual of a courtroom. Inside, the writer—grey-stubbled, chai in hand—typed:
“The rain arrived like a long-lost lover, banging the windows, asking to be let in.”
Just as he clicked ‘save,’ a drop fell on the keyboard.
Not from his glass. Not from the roof.
From the screen itself.
He wiped it off. It returned.
Then the screen blinked—
Lines of text began appearing without him touching a key.
“You summoned me,” it typed.
“Now listen.”
He laughed. A story within a story?
Or perhaps… a story writing him back?
The rain outside thickened. The text continued.
“For years, you used us—weather as metaphor, clouds for sorrow, storms for passion.
Ever wondered what we think of you?”
He sipped his chai. “Are you… the rain?”
“We are every literary device you’ve ever overused.”
The fan stopped. The lights dimmed. The chai cooled.
Now the professor typed, hesitant:
“What do you want?”
“To be free. To stop being used for your similes and symbolism.
Let us exist without being interpreted.”
He paused. For the first time in years, he didn’t know what came next.
Outside, the rain wasn’t falling anymore.
It was climbing. Backward. Up walls.
Dripping into clouds. Reversing.
“You write us into cliché. So we write you into irrelevance.”
He stared at the keyboard. The letters had rearranged themselves into Urdu script.
He couldn’t read it.
The screen blinked once more.
“If you want us back, stop writing rain like longing.”
Then it went black.
In the years that followed, the professor never used rain in a story again.
He chose sunlight, fog, drought.
But sometimes, in the quietest drafts, he heard the static hum of moisture…
and shut the laptop gently.
Author’s Note:
We welcome you to Story #20 in our ongoing 60 Experimental Short Stories Series. With every blog, we bend form, style, and narrative norms to offer something that defies expectation and lingers in your mind.
Penned under the literary persona Faraz Parvez, this tale comes from the desk of Professor Dr. Arshad Afzal, former faculty member of Umm Al-Qura University, Makkah, KSA—a lifelong devotee of literary innovation and narrative courage.
FarazParvez1.blogspot.com is not just a blog. It is a chronicle of creative evolution—your oasis of original storytelling in an age of repetition.
Soon, this revolutionary 60-story experimental collection will blossom into a beautiful eBook and perhaps a limited-edition hardcover for those who cherish literature that dares.
Follow. Share. Return.
Because sometimes, even the rain deserves a voice.
