2006-12-15
1:50 p.m.
I left work while it was barely raining and I was optimistic about getting home before the big storm they predicted would be memorable and perhaps kill people was going to hit. I still had nine blocks to walk when the rain came down exactly like it was coming out of a showerhead and people screamed and the wind started blowing like it does in Texas when tornadoes are about. I didn�t have an umbrella but it probably didn�t matter since the rain was going sideways and upwards and hey, the power just now went out! Thank the baby Jesus for laptop batteries. At the bus stop people were packed in and it smelled like wet dogs (assorted Seattle population + rain = wet dog smell, inexplicably). The Seahawks game was starting so traffic was stalled everywhere. People were talking about the threat of landslides from heavy downpours and I thought about the King County Jail just above the bus stop and how it would slide right onto us. The lady behind me said �This city? Really wasn�t built for rain like this? It just doesn�t have the drainage capacity and you always hear them talking about landslides during storms? So, we put my son in private school because he just needed to learn that sometimes you need to do things like busywork to appease the teacher.� I had one of Lolly�s hairbands in my pocket and I held it and silently freaked out and prayed that I would live to see my babies grow up. I really did! I was really skeert. A spot of calm came over me for no good reason and the rain slowed down some. Then I noticed my fingers were wrinkly like raisins from being so wet, I was soaked to the skin and was freezing from the wind so I had a fresh new worry to engage: hypothermia! I got on the next bus that was going within 20 miles of my house just to get the fuck out of downtown.
We crept to the bus tunnel that promises commuter lanes. I was leaning forward in my seat, I was so excited to get away from the huge puddles that were stalling people�s cars but when we got to the bus tunnel it was also full of stalled cars that we couldn�t get around. I petitioned God to hold the bridges up while all the traffic was on them at once and to keep earthquakes away too. She did and when we got off the bridge I was so happy. Then I started to worry about trees falling and squashing us. Then a guy in a wheelchair got on and that means the door is open for a really long time and everyone on the bus gets extra hypothermia, and when he rolled on I smiled at him because I smile at people in wheelchairs, then I thought he might take that as an invitation for conversation so I pretended to go sleep. I am a piece of shit. He said �HEY YOU� and I kept my eyes closed. That poor guy. But it�s not like I could have understood him anyway.
So I�d been on the bus for an hour and been soaked for two and envisioning my eventual cardiac arrest for one and a half when we got to Shoreline Community College, the last stop, and I got off not knowing where I was exactly and street toughs were swanning about so I tried to act like I knew what I was doing, like you�re supposed to do when you�re a girl and walking in the dark. I called David to come get me and bring blankets and pajamas, as if I could change into pajamas in the downpour in the car, I was delirious. The place was closed and I tried all the locked buildings till I overruled a BATHROOM CLOSED sign and hid in there, away from the street toughs, running warm water on my blue hands, till David finally found where I was and I was ecstatic to see that car and my kids in the backseat, and I got in and he was listening to the game that started my whole piece of hell. I prayed that the Seahawks would lose, and they did.
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