She's My Hero

Stormy Meetings

26 Years ago

         I was getting supplies on they day of my sisters wedding when it started to rain. Now while I loved the rain I was under strict orders to not get my hair wet.

           I ran into the store as fast as I could, grabbing some extra things for myself. My sister knew me well enough not to let me eat while in my bridesmaid dress, but she apparently didn't know me well enough to allow me to have food before I had to start getting ready. Without food I become a slight monster.

She was a sucky big sister I guess. I rushed through the self-checkout damp in my hoodie and jeans. Barely registering the lady who wished me a good day and I rushed out the door.

          As I'm jogging to my car, which I do not reccomend if you're out of shape, I notice a person sitting under a street light in the pouring rain. They had on a hoodie and jeans and both were soaked with rain. Both hands were hidden inside the hoodie and they were looking down. It was almost like the person was asleep they were so motionless. Moved by curiosity I decided to approach them with my umbrella that I had in my car.

          Crouching down in front of them I realized it was a guy. I asked three little words that would apparently lead to his undoing. "Are you ok?"

         He looked up into my eyes and all I could see was the anger and the sadness that was right there in his eyes. The emotions hit me with such force I was left dumbstruck.

"I'm fine now leave me alone!" He shouted.

Taken aback by his sudden tone I flinched but stayed rooted to my spot transfixed. Something wasn't right and bleeding heart that I was I couldn't just leave him. Nobody likes to be seen as vulnerable, and that's exactly what was happening right now.

         I sighed and with that I leaned forward and I wrapped my arms around his back and proceeded to hug him. I could tell he was shocked at this sudden contact by the way he tensed he even tried to weakly push me away for a moment, but than something in him seemed to break open and before either of us knew it there he was sobbing on my shoulder. Slowly he wrapped his arms around me as well and that's how we stayed. Nothing was said and nothing needed be.

          We didn't know how long we had been like this, him crying on my shoulder and me trying not to cry, until my phone started to ring.

           That's when I noticed I too was now soaked by the rain, the umbrella long abandoned, and had somehow ended up straddling his lap. Oh well I thought. I also noticed he had stopped crying and had started to pull away from me still sniffling.

          "You should answer that." he said. He seemed to have calmed down but I could still sense the emense sadness that lingered. I pulled out my phone to see who had called and sure enough it was my sister. Crap, I was about to get an earful. I picked up and held the phone away from my ear waiting for the screaming. "Caspen Harriet Dosy! The wedding starts in 4 hours and you've been gone for an hour! If you don't get back here this instant I swear I will ruin all your summer plans. Do you understand!?"

             I sighed more than ready for this day to be over. "I'll be right there Aspen."

           With that she hung up on me and I knew if I wasn't there in the next 15 minutes I was a dead woman. I looked at the man I was still sitting on and decided it just wouldn't do for me to leave him here.

I'll never make that mistake again.

          "You're coming with me." I said. And with that I was off him and pulling him up before he could even think to protest. I picked up my umbrella and still holding his hand dragged him to my car.

          "Wait a second." He said finally coming to his senses. We stopped and I waited for him to speak. "I don't know you. Why are you doing this? Where are you taking me?"

          "Oh now you're worried about stranger danger?" I said jokingly. "Well I'm taking you to a wedding, since I don't have a date I decided to bring you along with me. There's free food involved and it should certainly be a lot less wet there. You in?"

         He went quiet after that and looked lost. He looked up at me and after about a minute nodded his head. With that I rushed him to the car and we both got in shivering from the cold. What I didn't notice was the smile that had worked it's way onto my face as I fiddled with the heating in the car and zoomed out of the parking lot to where the wedding was going to take place.

Little did I know that this one instance was going to have a major ripple effect on my life.