It's Raining... Hard

Today I had to walk to my car from school in the downpour which came from the remnants of the hurricane. I get on the railroad tracks that lead out of Newark and walk along them for quite some distance, till I get to Jason's old neighborhood where I park my car. You should have seen it. It was raining so hard that I could only see a little way ahead. It was flooding, and there was a river running down each side of the tracks. I was on a very long and skinny island.

Going home I tried one way, and had to turn back because the road was underwater. I found an open way and on the way home stopped at a park near my house to look at the flooded river. The water was up several feet, roaring and brown. I waded in till the water was up past my belt (that would be knee deep) and looked as the river spilled over its banks and ran through the woods.

I wanted to swim, but I thought it would be kinda stupid. I should have been home an hour ago and nobody knew where I was. They might be worried already, it's never smart to swim in a flood, so forget about doing it alone. I stood there, watching the water swirling all around, sweeping debris along with it, sheets of rain spraying along the surface which rose and fell in earth colored rapids. My common sense got the best of me, and I turned to leave... maybe.

I walked back to solid land, ripped off my shirt and jumped in. How often do you get a hurricane like this? This might be the last one this year, and who knows... by next year I might be a boring old man. The time was now!

The first step the water reached my knees, the second step it was over my head. I was in the current, accelerating like a race car, or maybe like one of the dead logs that just fell in. I had anticipated fast powerful water, but the currents were crazy. I was being thrown forward, then pulled backwards, pulled down. I was caught in a swirling eddy. I was wearing jeans and work boots, so swimming was difficult, but I paddled hard! I tore myself out of the current, and caught hold of a root that was sticking out of the bank. I pulled myself to safety and slithered and sloshed up out of the river.

Maybe some things aren't smart to do. It would have been safer to go straight home, but somehow it made me feel so much more alive. You feel so small when you are spinning out of control in a flooded river, and so happy when you get back to shore. I would do it again in a second. Maybe you could come too this time!