the river moves on

a week of heat and storms

I head out into the street outside my office building in Santa Maria at the end of the day, attempting to catch the break in the rain in order to walk home.

Turning the corner, the weather is clearly not on the same page as me.  The clouds tear open and the battering of the earth begins again.  Four days ago the temperature in Santa Maria was over 100 degrees Fahrenheit, and now I am cursing not bringing my raincoat to work.

My open umbrella dances with others on the street, rising and falling to pass each other and avoid poking out their owner's eyes.  Again, I turn and the rain beats down, increasingly more aggressive.  I stop under an awning, waiting for it to slow, but after a while decide that the bottom of my jeans are soaked anyways so I might as well continue.


As I walk, the rushing water on the sidewalk seeps into my shoes and slowly soaks my feet, creating an internal slip and slide for my foot.

I come to a crosswalk that is no longer a crosswalk.  A river about four feet across now runs through either side of the zebra strips, ankle deep, brown water that is carrying all the dirt of the city to some unknown location underground.  I survey the scene, walk towards a slimmer part of the river and in the end have to stomp across anyways, giving into the wet, allowing it to fully bathe my feet and ankles.

And I can't help but smile as an old woman stomps across with me in her flip flops as she explains to me that it's good she's wearing a short dress so it doesn't get wet.  At the next river, deeper and wider than the last, off go her flip flops and she wades across the street.

A small bird rolls down the sidewalk with the water, its feathers slicked down to its body, a tiny drowning victim of the storm.

When I reach home, I sit with my host parents at the front door of the house sipping juice and chimarrao, a bitter herbal hot drink characteristic of the South, and watching the rain drops explode on the street.

The storm eventually passes and leaves fresh wet streets,wet people and clean air, staving of the heat.  At least for today.

posted by Annika @ 1:35 AM