Rainy Day

In which the events surrounding an afternoon run on a rainy day are enumerated in such detail as to possibly waste the reader's precious time.

1. Shall we run?

It was black outside. Pitch black. In the middle of the day. A torrential rain was coming down. A column of water as thick as a middle-aged Live Oak was pouring off the roof outside.

He came in and looked out the window.

Still raining, he said. Then he walked out.

Shall we run anyway? I asked loudly.

Sure! he shouted back.

2. Freeway looking like a parking lot.

At 4:30, we got dressed and got into his car. But leaving early didn't help.

Everyone had the same idea, and we all converged on that ribbon of concrete within minutes of each other.

And then the sky turned even darker, and the clouds descended even lower, and the rain came down even harder than before.

And we sat there in traffic.

3. Crossing the bridge.

With the rain coming down, there was no sense putting off the inevitable.

I put on my hat. He started his watch. We started across the pedestrian bridge crossing the river. A comfortable breeze rolled down the river. The freeway overhead sheltered us. Below us, muddy creek waters poured into the gently flowing current of the river.

There were only a few more steps to the end of the bridge. We had only a few steps more to stay dry.

4. The last mile.

We had one mile left.

And when we came to the kayak launch where a stream was flowing down a concrete creek bed, our careful steps thru the rushing waters must have upset someone, for the skies opened up.

But it was too late to make any difference. The trail was sheltered by Cypress trees, and the euphoria had kicked in. Our pace accelerated.

Now, the shallowness of the puddles didn't matter. As we came up to one and then another, we ran straight thru. Keeping a bee line. Maintaining our pace. Feeling the burn. And struggling to keep our conversation going.

We were smokin'.

5. Sitting around afterwards.

Afterwards, we sat around and talked for a while, as we usually do.

And as if it hadn't rained hard enough already, the skies darkened again, and the clouds descended again, and thunder rolled, and the rain came down yet harder.

A nearby creek rushed and boomed as it crashed over final rocks to join the river. The far shore disappeared in the deluge. The traffic on the freeway came to a standstill.

Water poured off the overpasses in great white spouts that smashed to the ground and splashed into the river. The wind pushed the spouts, bending them slightly eastward in equal angles. From the sides of each overpass, twenty or more spouts of angled, crashing water receded into the distant haze of rain like columns extending down the nave of some gothic cathedral or banners decorating the walls of some vaulted banquet hall.

"That is absolutely beautiful," he said.

6. Goodbye, Hello.

Then he looked at his watch.

"It's ok," I said. "She'll be here soon. I'll see you tomorrow."

We walked back to his car. I got my duffel bag. He drove off reluctantly. I changed into a dry shirt gladly.

She arrived in a matter of minutes and honked and waved and pulled over under the overpass out of the rain. I got in. And we went to eat nearby.

7. The Greenbelt.

By the time we got on the road again, the rain had stopped, and the traffic was moving.

"Will there be any parked cars?" I asked as we came down the hill to the Greenbelt.

"I don't know," she said, her eyes concentrating on the road and not on the frontage road that serves as a parking lot for hikers and bikers.

"There'll be two cars," I guessed.

It was a radical statement. That there would be anybody there after those rains was doubtful. But there was. One car. One car parked all the way at the end, just where the frontage road turns under the freeway to U-turn back to the north.

One car. Who is that? What on earth are they doing down there!?

And with that, the Greenbelt was behind us.

8. Sunset

Night tried to come early. The dark clouds blotted out the light of the descending sun.

But in a small, final victory, as it settled on the horizon, the sun burst thru. Far to the west, a sliver of cloudless sky was visible. And the sun found it.

The early night receded. Gray turned to white. White turned to pink. Pink to yellow. And suddenly the grass was glowing and the leaves were shining and the drops of water falling all around were glistening.

And people came out of their houses to look to the east. Up and down the block, men and women and children came out into the street and gazed at the sky.

With their backs to the sun peeking under the clouds from that sliver of sky in the west, they gazed jaws agape at a brilliant double rainbow extending in a 180-degree arc across the cloud-covered sky.

And then, day was done.

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