Pizza in the Rain Pt. II

Check out the first part in this series here before reading!

That Shabbat, I found Kevin during the oneg and asked him when would be a good time to come over that evening before heading downtown to go do whatever crazy, post-Shabbas stuff we felt like doing, especially since it was July and havdalah was excruciatingly late. He shrug, as usual, and said he didn’t really care when. It was Shabbat after all. He added I could crash his study session with his roommate, Justin, and our other mutual friend, Daniel if I wanted to come early. Knowing how introverted Justin was, I shouted to him across the oneg table, asking if he was okay with me dropping by early. Justin, being the non-assuming loner he was, bluntly stated he couldn’t care less what I did. Smirking at his typical curt reply, I told Kevin I’d be there after my traditional, afternoon Shabbas nap, which usually ended around five. He agreed, and that was that.

When I pulled up to their townhouse later that afternoon, I felt some sort of weird flutter deep in my kishkes, as if I were having a premonition that crashing the lads’ study group would be more than the average hang out. Ignoring what I thought were paranoid, overexaggerated senses, I got out of my car and bound up their steps. I was greeted by Kevin with his usual sunny grin and entered the dark man cave. There were literally no lights on in the house, nor did they open the blinds. I inwardly rolled my eyes—not because I was annoyed they were shomer, I knew they weren’t, but because I knew it was probably Justin wanting it dark, though I’m sure Kevin didn’t mind—and took my seat on the far side of the room, across from Justin but away from the lads as they discussed Aspects of Rabbinical Theology by Solomon Schechter, trying to stay out of their discourse. Except, of course, I eventually interjected when Daniel started speculating whether or not there was a Jewish Hell.

As I eased my way into the conversation with the gracefulness of a freight train, I tried to keep my attention focused on Daniel who I primarily conferred with, but my gaze kept drifting back to the steely eyes staring me down from across the room. Justin sat in the lone armchair, seemingly at the head of the group, as though he were Rome’s emperor overseeing his Senate’s session. What made it worse was he wore only a tank top—being the type of hot-blooded man that could go all winter without any overcoat and was probably sweating indoors during the summer heat—instead of the usual Oxford dress shirt I was accustomed to seeing him wear. Whether he heard me audibly gulp or not the few times I did, I’m not sure, but he must have known the affect the sight of his corded arms had on me. Why else would he be staring me down with such intensity? “Because Justin is an intense guy, Lynn, knock it off.” I reminded myself, too many times to count.

Finally, the sun started to set and havdalah neared. Their mock-scholarly debating had ended at least an hour before, and Justin and I were well into another round of Crazy Eights. When it had been clear the study session was over, he had surprised me with sitting down on the floor by the loveseat where I perched. Without explaining, he pulled out a deck of cards and proceeded to shuffle them, taunting me, before dealing me into a game I hadn’t yet agreed to play. If you knew Justin, you knew this was rather forward of him and not at all typical behaviour. It was when Justin and I decided to change games, Daniel, who probably felt left out, began kvetching about how hungry he was. With our next round on pause, much to Justin’s chagrin, I asked Kevin if he minded if Daniel came along on whatever adventure we’d make for ourselves downtown, extending it to also include Justin if he felt so inclined to leave his cave—all to which Kevin agreed.

However, Daniel suggested we all just stay in, order take out, and watch a movie or something, which astounded the rest of us since he was the only extrovert in the room and usually begged the rest of us to go out. Of course, we all immediately agreed and started discussing what food to order and what film to watch. I suggested pizza and LEGO Batman, having seen it in theatres a few months prior, and knowing Kevin, if not also Justin, would love it. (Justin had once lent me his book Batman and Philosophy: The Dark Knight of the Soul by William Irwin, Mark D. White, and Robert Arp, so I knew he was a huge Batman fan.) All the lads agreed, and thus I stepped away from whatever card game Justin had us playing next to order our pizza.

It was well after dark by the time we left to go pick up our food, all of us going along together because why not? It was like being in a restaurant and all the girls going to the bathroom together. As we loaded into my car, I noticed a flash of lightning in the distance. “Did we know it was gonna rain?” I asked, but know one knew nor remembered the forecast. (It was Shabbat.) Figuring it was just a typical summer thunderstorm, we departed for the local Whole Foods where our green pepper, pineapple, and jalapeno pizza awaited.

We couldn’t have been more wrong.

About halfway to Whole Foods, the rain started to fall, but soon, as I approached the overpass to merge onto the East-bound highway, the water fell like a sheet blanketing my windshield. I turned off N’SYNC, slowing to at least 30 mph. Daniel, who had been dancing along to the boy band with me in the passenger’s front seat, kept telling me how to drive, so finally I asked him to, not so politely, shut up and let me drive, otherwise he would find himself on the side of the road. Except as I exited the highway, I had to ask him for help when the power steering went out due to the rising water on the road.

Dual-turning the wheel with Daniel on all the turns, and after what felt like an hour or more of driving, we arrived.

Daniel refused to go inside and help grab the food, claiming he was unsuitably dressed for public in his basketball shorts and t-shirt. (Coward.) Leaving him behind, Justin, Kevin, and I made a run for it as the torrential rain poured from the skies. We entered Whole Foods drenched, all of our glasses immediately fogging up, and we stood there in the entrance mopping up our lenses like a bunch of wet rats dragged in from the gutter.

Food in hand, we stood in the check out lane waiting for our turn to pay and run like hell for the car. As we queued, I looked up at Justin and timidly asked him if he could drive us home. The rain didn’t look like it was going to stop any time soon—we could hear it still pounding away on the roof—and I knew I wouldn’t be able to navigate the car without any power steering. When he didn’t immediately respond, I coaxed him by adding, “You’re the only one I know my dad trusts to drive our car even though you’re not on our insurance.” Sighing, he agreed.

We made it back to the car just as the rain we didn’t think could fall with any more force increased to what I imagined were monsoon proportions. I all but shoved Daniel from the driver’s seat into the back seat with Kevin, telling him my dad would want Justin to drive, so he couldn’t just elect himself as our pilot. We shut ourselves in, and then with one last look from Justin, we began our trek back to their townhouse.

“Take Metcalf,” I instructed Justin. “I don’t think we can manage the highway,” but he had already decided the route I suggested was best. Except the boulevard wasn’t much better. We drove through flooded sections North only to find ourselves in pitch black. One of us commented on how the stores’ and street lights were all out, concluding the storm must have already knocked out the power. We inched our way home in the dark, following the tail lights ahead of us, unable to see any other lights on the road.

That’s when we came to it.

A burst of light exploded on the horizon as we crested a hill, coming to a stop, the last in a row of other vehicles who halted before the violent shower of sparks igniting the night. We watched, mesmerized, until I noticed a flailing shadow. I pointed it out, and Justin said it must have been a fallen power line. A police vehicle approached with his flaring lights, and soon the traffic was being directed to divert to a residential road to the East. Not knowing what other route we could take, Justin followed the herd until our detour ended on the other side of the fiery spectacle.

We continued on our way North. If we could just get to 75th, then we were home free. The fallen power line was around 85th, so not much longer. I clung to my two bottles of ginger beer whose chill had long seeped into my hands. When Daniel made another comment about how maybe we were witnessing an apocalypse, I snapped.

“Shut up!” I screamed. “No more talking about the apocalypse or the world ending!”

There must have been something in my voice to finally get Daniel to hush, or Kevin told him to cut it out, knowing my nerves were frayed.

When we finally neared 75th, just another block maybe, our hopes were beginning to lift. The power was on in this part of the grid, or at least had been restored, and the rain fall had eased. That’s why when we crested the hill just before 75th, we saw it was entirely underwater.

Instead of attempting to drive through the probably four-foot-plus deep flooded creek that had sprung in the middle of the road, like the one car stuck its depths, Justin turned around and headed back to 79th.

As we meandered West, Justin must have noticed my grip on the glass bottles wasn’t loosening. He leaned over and nudged my arm with his shoulder.

“Hey, you okay?” I didn’t respond. To say I didn’t feel some bit of warmth from his touch would be a lie, but I was too absorbed with my icy dread to register it until much later. Justin persisted. “We’re going to be fine.” I wanted to argue, I wanted to scream. What I did was scoff. Though, the worst did seem over. The drive finally uneventful, the rain lessening. That is, until we almost ran into a fallen down tree.

An entire tree blocked the road.

We all groaned, not wanting to be diverted again off our path. We just wanted to eat our pizza and watch LEGO Batman!

We were stopped at some intersection, all the houses around us quiet and dark, but on the Northwest corner stood some sort of church. Justin glanced at it, and saw…something, enough to make the executive decision as captain of our wayward vessel to charge ahead up over the curb and onto the sidewalk and lawn.

Now I did scream. We all did. Even Daniel, who shouted something at Justin. While I worried about this causing any underbelly damage to my car, I was too tired to protest Justin’s course of action. Instead I just held on for dear life as he drove over the uneven terrain.

Once we had cleared the tree, he returned us to the road and soon after we were home.

~

I know I originally said that this would be a two part series, but there’s just too much to share! Stay tuned for Part III next week to find out why this night change my life forever!

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Update: finish reading our story here with the final Part III!