13 Years of Catholic School and a Big Wave

It started raining last night in Center City at 7:55 pm. At least that's when the rain arrived at 18th and Spruce.

I knew it was getting dark outside a little early, so it didn't surprise me that it was sprinking as I prepared to walk to the train station. Mais, apres moi, le deluge.

By the time I ran back inside and grabbed my yellow umbrella (yep, the one with the clear panel...I feel like Madeline when I carry it) it was pouring. Biblical. When I had walked half a block, the lower half of my pants were soaked. So, I went back to the office to wait out the worst of it.

Storms of that proportion don't often last long, and that was the case with the Giant Storm of 7:55. I waited. And 30 minutes later, the rain was down to a spittle.

I left the office and walked down Spruce. I took caution to stay away from the road edge because there were puddles. But my ADD kicked in at the corner of 17th and Spruce and I didn't notice a foot-deep pond in the road, just outside La Fontana Della Citta. But Taxi Boy did. And as the light turned green, he hit the gas.

It's funny how reactions work. I saw it all happen in slow motion. The light turn green. The taxi lurch forward. The driver staring right at me. The wall of water.

I didn't flinch. I didn't react. I just kept walking. I must have been hit by 100 gallons of water. It was warm. And it dripped from my shirt and jeans on my walk to Suburban Station.

I wasn't going to give that bastard the satisfaction of reacting. It's just what he wanted. He wanted me to jump back, to scream and holler, to flip him off. But I didn't. I just kept going. Soaked to the skin. And let him go home to his squalid Taxi Boy life. Sure, he Super Soakered me. I'm sure it was going to make his day, but it didn't work.

So, I went home, soaking wet, to my warm and dry house. And thought: 13 years of Catholic school, and the thing I learned most is not to react. To be in control. Sister Marie Claire would be proud. Sister, may I go to the lavatory now?


Photo credit.