Reached into my pocket and pulled out my little phone. 11:45 pm the clock read. Good timing I tell my phone and achey legs. Flash. I look around for the source. Who is taking a picture now? Rumbles from a passing truck can be heard in the distance. My legs hurt from the scurry I just made up 3 flights of stairs and down 5 blocks from the train to the bus stop. Missing this bus would mean waiting another 30 minutes in this uncomfortable heat.

Flash. Again with the pictures! What is with taking photos at this hour? I couldn't do it, too paranoid that somebody would snatch my camera or phone. Another truck rumbles down the pot hole riddles streets. I marvel at how muggy it is. My slacks, usually flowing in the breeze, are clinging to my legs, like weird tights.

I look down the street hoping, like the others who are waiting, to glimpse a sight of our air conditioned chariot. Alas, it continues to be elusive. I stand there rocking back and forward, impaitently waiting. Not just for the bus, but for a breeze. Flash Damnit! What is with that camera! My lungs are demanding air my nose can't find. Another truck rumbles down some unforseen road.

And then it hits me. A smell. A scent. The scent of a refreshing...NO! I reached in my  bag, searchng its content. Scrambling and screwing up my beautiful organization and space utilization. The flash of the unseen camera, the rumbling of the distant trucks. Where is it !?!?! The mugginess and now the scent. It's going to rain. And not just any rain, but a torrential down pour that could only occur in the summer. I yank open my bag and peer inside. It's not there! My travel buddy. My friend. My little purple spotted, green dotted protetor is gone.

There was no camera, no trucks but there was lightenin and thunder; and like the bus, my umbrella was missing in action. Running for shelter was not an option, simply because there was no shelter to run too. Along this stretch of road, covered by store fronts selling shirts and shoes and vaccums and dolls, none had a prutruding awning.

As the wonderfully horrible breeze saurated with the smell of rain passes my nose, I see it. Illuminated in a flash of lightening was a bus. The Bus. My air conditioned protector from the impending unwanted mother nature provided shower, was on his way. Joy washes over  me as I do a little shake of a happy dance about missing the rain.

Flash, rumble, flash, rumble, flash rumble. 3 lights to go. Come on bus! Flash, rumble, flash, rumble, flash, CRASH! Come on bus! 2 lights to go. Flash, crash, flash, crash, flash... Down Pour. Water cascaded down from the sky and down my face. Raindrops penetrated my shirt and moved into my pants. 1 light to go. Precipition clouded my vision and soaked into my sneakers.

The bus pulls up infront of me. What I once looked at as my luxurious coach that was coming to wisk me away from the overbearings heat, was now a cold frigid prision. A prision I was confined to for 20 plus minutes, in which I would freeze because of natures shower. I took a seat and pulled out my phone. 11:50 pm.