The couple walked along the old cobblestone road of the small village in Tremosine, Italy. It had been a beautiful, sunny day, a stark contrast to the way Suzie Anne felt after her rough day at work. She’d gotten the official email notifying her that she had not been selected for the job she’d applied for.

She wanted to be a researcher – mainly, to help develop a new medicine that could help people with chronic pain. She was weary from talking to people day in and day out, who could barely walk because of the pain in their knees and hips and backs. Her best friend Salmon walked beside her, trying to pep her up. “It’s okay,” he said, something else will come along. Salmon had chronic pain himself, in his neck, after an injury in martial arts. He had constant burning in his left hand as a result but had learned to accommodate. Suzie Anne hated to see him hurting too. Salmon was always an encouragement, though. He was tough.

The sky darkened as they walked and a haze developed in the night air. A light rain began to fall. “You know, the warm rain feels good on my neck,” Salmon said, gently massaging his neck with his right hand. “I’m glad,” said Suzie Anne. “I bet some pizza would feel good in our stomachs.” Salmon agreed. They walked a little ways more into the hazy rain. They ordered the Tremosine special, a three-cheese pizza with every imaginable topping and perfectly sweet tomato sauce on thin crust. Steam evaporated from the pizza in their hands as they sat beneath the small roof eating. “Salmon, you’re holding the pizza with your left hand!” Suzie Anne said excitedly. “Woah, I guess I am,” he replied, looking down.

Salmon and Suzie Anne went to their garage that night, after having walked home in the hazy rain. They brought an extra Tremosine special home with them. Salmon prepared his bucket and Suzie Anne her medical kit. They sprawled out a slice of pizza onto the wooden work table. Suzie used her tweezers and pippet to dissect the pizza and extract tomato sauce from beneath the cheese. Salmon carried in vials of hazy rain water from his bucket filtering device. The friends worked together, mixing droplets of the rain water and tomato sauce into a tube. With some refining, they created a paste. Salmon put some on his finger and then rubbed it on his neck. “My neck,” he said. “And my hand, it’s not numb!” Salmon moved his neck side to side and looked up and down. “The sky!” he said, watching a crow fly overhead in the clouds.

Suzy Anne and Salmon made some more batches of the ointment – “Tremosine Rain.” Suzy Anne took it to her patients and they rubbed it on their knees and hips and backs. They were made like new. Salmon took it to his old friends at the martial arts gym – his friends’ knees and shoulders were made new. ~