Blame It On The Rain Again

Rain was the reason I entered a clothing shop on Fairfax Ave many years ago. I was impatiently waiting for it to end. Following a ten-minute small talk with the shop owner, he tried hard to convince me to meet someone named Dennis, whom I reluctantly met on a blind date. Dennis was a nice guy working as a checker at a chain grocery store and rented a small apartment above Sepulveda Blvd.
On this one morning in February, I was looking out the window from that apartment. Eight lanes I counted on that Blvd! Four lanes of cars going and coming in each direction. The intersection below was flooded by rainwater reaching more than two feet. They said on the radio that 10 inches of rain fell overnight with warnings of floods in the Sepulveda basins. Low visibility and the rainwater splashing hard on the windows made it very difficult for the struggling drivers to cross through these roads that looked more like rivers. The windshield wipers were going back and forth back and forth…
On this gray gloomy Monday morning, I found myself enthralled by this scene below. I could have been under the warm blankets, but I was too fascinated to watch the people below standing on the corners of this major intersection, getting splashed by the cars passing by.
Dennis left already, early enough to calculate careful driving time. I’m watching him cross all 8 lanes of Sepulveda Blvd. Not a man like him would call in sick even on a day like this. Surely, they would understand if he said his engine got flooded or that he was stuck in a mudslide somewhere, I think, but Dennis never calls in sick. And just for the excuse to stay under the warm covers. No. He cares too much about the customers who might be waiting in line to buy the soup or tea they need, and he cares about his fellow workers being stuck with fewer working hands. Dennis with his high moral work ethic knows he’s needed. His integrity never compromises; He’s always there to give a helping hand, doing his job the best way he knows how to. When I saw this young man rushing to the rescue wearing his brown corduroy coat and covering his shoes with plastic bags up to his midcalf, I knew at that moment that I had fallen in love with my hero. my heart was flooded with love and overflowing, gushing with admiration. The steam from my breath on the window and my tears rolling down made my vision blurry but it was super clear to me that my Superman needed no cape or insignia on his chest. Mine just had a lot of love in his heart and a plastic bag on his shoes.
Naomi Young is a teacher in Santa Clarita who brings over four decades of experience in Jewish studies and bar/ bat mitzvah training. She is a seasoned writer and multimedia artist. Connect with her via e-mail at naomiyoung7@yahoo.com or explore her creative endeavors on her website www.naomiyoung.com