Outrunning the thunderstorm
Tuesday, May 05, 2009
The following story has nothing to do with software development. Read at your own peril.
Thunderstorms are powerful. I remember when I was around 11 years old I got caught in a thunderstorm at the park. My friends and I were playing basketball when the storm began to envelop the park, the city, the country, the whole world, it appeared. We moved the playing to a
covered area to wait for the rain to stop. There was no point in going home if we were already safe and dry.
As the sky began to turn dark gray, my heart rate began to keep up with each darker gradient: the darker the sky got, the faster my heart beat. When the smell of wet dirt hit us, so did the thunder. And then the lightning followed. I first saw our shelter lit as if the sun peeked through the clouds. I then heard the big loud boom and crackling of electrons flying from the clouds to the ground and from the ground to the clouds. I was scared and humbled: the power of nature in living color.
Today, I experienced a similar thunderstorm. I'm obviously older, but my mind recalled, my body remembered. This time, however, I wasn't scared. I went outside to my balcony to smell the rain, touch the wind, and admire the world with its dark gray, angry sky. As it began to rain harder and harder, two kids came running from the park. They were maybe 5 and 9. I could hear the rain, but I wasn't wet yet. The wall of rain kept encroaching towards them as they ran by my balcony. The sky rumbled again. I'm sure they were scared.
The compact, red car stopped and I only saw the older kid standing on the other side of the street. I couldn't see the younger brother, only his shoes thrown across the road. Where was he? They were holding hands a second ago.
I said, "Oh shit...the car hit the 2 kids." I thought, "Oh, shit...she killed him."
The woman driving got out of the car screaming with her hands holding her head or pulling her hair--I couldn't really tell.
The rain didn't stop, and the wind blew stronger still. And then...the little boy got up crying and began to run. Where? Home? Then his brother followed running after him. Then the driver followed running after
them. Then a neighbor followed running after
them.
I screamed, "Wait!" But nobody waited...everybody just ran.
No one caught up to the kids. They both looked all right. They were running, after all.
The driver returned to her car, still hysterical. I couldn't see the kids any more. The rain continued. I went inside and remembered the day when I was caught in a thunderstorm while playing basketball at the park,
Parque Toluca...
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