The Umbrella of Constantine

If you read my post on my time in Istanbul, you might remember that before I left for the airport I bought a small umbrella in expectation of rainy weather in Spain. You might also remember that I ended up never using the umbrella in Spain, as everywhere I went the rain would either stop when I arrived or any rain in the weather forecast would suddenly disappear. Although I would eventually use the umbrella while in Paris before returning to America, the uncharacteristic lack of rain during my time in Spain led me to jokingly say that I had in fact bought some sort of magical Turkish umbrella with the power to stop rainfall. Perhaps it was some sort of ancient relic. Every relic needs a legend behind it, so over the course of my time in Spain I concocted such a story, and below is what I came up with.

This is no ordinary umbrella. It belonged to the Byzantine Emperor Constantine. Hence, it is known as the Umbrella of Constantine. Blessed by the patriarchs of the eastern church, the Umbrella of Constantine can stop rainfall and divert storm clouds away from the one who wields it. Lost after the capture of Constantinople in 1453, the Umbrella of Constantine faded into memory and legend and was believed to be gone forever, until it inexplicably came into the possession of an Istanbul umbrella merchant, who unwittingly sold it to an American tourist. That tourist, at first not realizing the sacred relic he now possessed, traveled onward to Spain, where the Umbrella of Constantine finally exerted its power again after hundreds of years of remaining in dormant obscurity. Today it hangs in that American's closet, waiting to again do battle with rain clouds.