By the time I woke Dan had already been out and got soaked in a downpour. That’s why when the lift doors opened and a man dressed only in a t-shirt and shorts entered, I commented when the lift was moving again that the weather was supposed to be atrocious. He replied that last night had in deed been terrible but he made no reference to this morning. As we stood in silence watching the numbers above the door alight as we passed each floor I wondered if I had offended him in drawing attention to what he was wearing by mentioning the weather. I hadn’t meant or wanted to; after all, I didn’t live there and I hadn’t even been out myself that morning. For all I knew, the rain by now had stopped and wouldn’t return again. I began to back pedal.
“I mean I haven’t actually been out myself but my mate who lives here went out this morning and got drenched in it."
As soon as I said this I realised that this made me sound like I had spent the night there. Before I knew what had come over me I explained to this stranger dressed only in shorts and a t-shirt in the middle of January, that I was crashing the night.
“I’m from London,” I explained.
The man in shorts didn’t reply.
I concluded in a panic that they must all say this. The lift doors opened and as he jogged off in front of me I called after him: “I slept on the sofa”.
I walked five miles in the rain, the holes in my Converse letting in water until they squelched with each step. I watched the faces of the people riding on the bus past me and I begged common sense, what had I done to deserve all this? When the rain began to fall even harder I became ungrateful for my lot that day and went into a giant Asda to warm myself up. When I left ten minutes later I saw the biggest rainbow I had ever seen in my life, its giant arch stretching over the entire breadth of the city. I had seen rainbows before but after walking so long in the rain with holes in my shoes, it was as if the angels had appeared to me in a vision, I was that overcome by joy. I looked around to study the reactions of other people, most of whom were either coming or going between the supermarket and their cars. A couple of children stopped to point and then their mum hurried them along before they got any wetter. Afterwards as I continued on my way, I was glad I hadn’t caught the bus.
