Caught in the Storm

As a stressful week is coming to end, Samantha, an office clerk at Pyramid Insurance in Wilmington, North Carolina, anxiously awaits going to happy hour with her best friend to vent about the happenings of her week, Her best friend Kate, a fourth-year medical student at the University of North Carolina, has been her friend since kindergarten. In which Kate was having a panic attack on the monkey bars and Samantha came to rescue her from her fear of heights. These two have been inseparable since then, even though their personalities are polar opposites. Kate was incredibly organized, detail oriented and neat, where Samantha was very free and enjoyed the controlled chaos that was her life, but somehow these two young women even with their differences have been inseparable for almost twenty years.

When five o'clock finally arrived, Samantha grabbed her belongings and headed outside to wait for Kate to pick her up as they planned to go to the local sports bar for happy hour. While waiting outside, she looked at the sky and saw ominous looking clouds coming in. She could smell the storm that was said to hit in a few days. She continued to look at the swirling clouds that were making their way across the once blue sky. That's when Kate pulled up in her car. She opened the window and said:

"Stop staring at the sky and get in!"

Fifteen minutes later, they were enjoying happy hour margaritas at the local bar as they talked about their day. After two baskets of buffalo wings and a couple margaritas, Kate suggested they call it a night because she had a study group early the next morning. It was just after eight o'clock when they paid their bill and ventured towards their car. Again, Samantha looked at the sky and the clouds were getting darker and darker. When Samantha got into the car, she sneezed.

"Hey, do you have any tissues?'

"Yeah, of course they're in the glove box." Samantha reached in front of her, opening it to find a well-organized treasure trove of essentials; right down to a sewing kit. Grabbing a few tissues from the package, she addressed her friend:

"I know where to go the next time I need to sew a button in traffic."

"You can never be too prepared." then Samantha remembered who she was dealing with. Of course, Kate would have this stuff in her car. The rain was really starting to pick up now. While they were listening to the radio, the station broke in with an emergency weather alert:

"We interrupt your regularly scheduled programming with an alert from the national weather service. A severe thunderstorm warning is now in effect for the Wilmington area. Low visibility, strong winds, torrential rain, and lightning strikes have been reported. This warning is in effect until four A.M. Stay tuned for further updates."

After driving along, they noticed the weather was getting worse. Knowing that they had a few drinks in their systems Kate suggested that they pull over and wait it out. As Samantha reclined her seat, preparing to close her eyes she saw flashing lights from down the embankment.

"Do you see that? There's flashing lights."

"Where?" At Kate's question, she sat up and pointed down the embankment.

"Oh, my God!" The girls took out their phones and tried to call 911, but neither of them had a signal.

Grabbing an umbrella out of the car door, Kate ran to the trunk. When she came back, she wore a pink raincoat and matching waterproof pants. She was also carrying a giant red bag on her shoulder and a supermarket bag in her hand.

"Here," she handed Samantha the supermarket bag containing a similar outfit but this one was blue.

"What no galoshes?"