WC3: Flurry
The glazed windows in the office I work at sometimes hide the fact its raining. Not the heavy kind or the thunder and lightning kind. The light and fluffy kind. The worst kind.
The elevator gives me one last reprieve before I'm thrust into a kind of hell. As we near the ground floor, the voices start to reach me. You can hear the muffled phone calls, people moving about, muffled apologies as umbrellas unfurl into people.
The doors open and the cacophony of sounds hit me with full force. I slip out to the left and make my way towards the doors. I've learnt that less people tend to gather on the left wall. There are lounges on the right side, the reception desk in the middle, and a small coffee stand that has long since closed for the day on the left. Thus no one hangs around the left side of the lobby.
I check my coat and bags just before reaching the doors. Then I pull my hoodie over my head and join the next wave of people leaving.
Our building opens up onto a wide alleyway. On one end it joins the main road, the other way leads into a commercial and residential district. I look to my right and see a river of floating umbrellas flow by. Every now and then one hits another going in the opposite direction, disrupting the flow. Not very laminar.
I start to look the other way when a truck drives by. A wave of water splashes onto the people nearby. It must have been raining much harder earlier. Today has been busy with meetings and 3 reports to write. I've been glued to my desk almost the whole time and neither my desk nor the drinks table are near the window. I turn the other way and start walking away from all the groaning.
The crowd is immediately thinner. People have space to pass by each other without lifting their umbrellas. A raindrop lands in my eye and a gust of wind blows through. One person's umbrella flips and they struggle to fix it, apologising to those around them the whole time. I make it out of the alley surrounded on both sides by tall office buildings. The alley terminates onto a quiet street. People are already moving about enjoying the night life. Cafes on the first floors have closed, but the restaurants and bars above them have all opened.
I spot a few University students, proudly sporting their department badges as they boisterously make their way to wherever. A few couples are out and about. It is a Wednesday and many places promote a kind of midweek pick me up date night deal. I only know this because to avoid looking at anyone in particular I choose to stare at the signs and billboards of the shops I pass by.
I make way down the usual route. Its uneventful and the rain and wind lighten up a bit. I'm a little wet at this point and looking forward to the warm interior of a train. My coat does pretty well with the big rain droplets and aided by an umbrella keeps me dry almost the entire way home. The problem with this mist like rain is the way it clings to you no matter what. It takes its time and seeps into every crevice, slowly invading into even the most effective anti-rain material. I would know, I recently had to write a market research report on the topic and ended up reading a bunch of material science papers.
When I reach the station I sigh with relief and go do walk up the stairs. That's when I notice how few people are around. I look around the covered entrance and spot a notice board. It says an incident earlier in the day has forced the train line to close until tomorrow morning.
I grit my teeth. I have a few choices, go towards the next closest station on a different line, walk all the way home, try to catch a bus, rent a hotel room. I decide on walking towards the next station and hoping one of those other options becomes more attractive.
The rain starts to pick up. Misting harder is a weird way to put it, but the... density of the mist definitely increases. The droplets, though, stay the same size. I hurry along shielding my face. A gust of wind blows by and I can feel the rain enter my hoodie. The wind is getting stronger too.
The people around me start to hurry indoors. No one is walking anymore. The street gets quieter and soon the only noises are those from the places above me.
In the midst of it all I get myself lost. The streetlights become fewer and fewer, the people almost non-existent. The noises from above start to fade away.
I finally look up and around, there's almost nothing open and I'm faced with apartments and small flats on either side. The mist finally turns into rain and I run. I spot a neon light in the distance and sprint the little stretch towards it. Seeing the bright burger lit up outside I hurry through the door.
As the chaos outside is silenced and blocked by the heavy door, I realise I've probably made a mistake. The sounds of voices and clinking glass streams through the inner door. I turn to go back outside when a bright flash goes off through the tinted window. Then I hear the slow rumble and finally the crash.
Perhaps it won't be so bad inside I tell myself.
Pushing open the door the sounds engulf and overwhelm me. The area near the door is setup like any restaurant, but there are few tables and even fewer people. What I initially take as the far wall is filled with little trinkets. A model truck and train, a picture of some singer and a few bottles of various alcohols. I assume wine and spirits by their various shapes. As I make my way between the tables I realise the shelf backs onto a bar. From the entrance you can just barely make out that there was even an opening at all.
I turn the corner and see the sea of people making all the noise I heard outside. The atmosphere is thick, hazy, and hot. I look at the bar area and see 5 people. Its a long wide bar almost all the seats are taken. One of the bartenders catches my eye and comes over. I just ask for a lemonade and wait patiently.
As he hands me my drink I go to sit at one of the tables but a large group of people arrive, at least 10, and I instinctively move away. The crowd then draws me in as the group makes their way through the corridor, leaving no room for me to escape. I look around the large space and see there's some seats at the back. I make my way through the crowd.
I'm about halfway when someone grabs my shoulder. Startled I turn and see some large and smartly dressed man. He smiles at me and then leads me through the crowd. He has a much easier time of it.
There are much less people at this far end of the room. The music is slightly quieter too. The man looks at me and asks if I'm ok. I just nod, a bit overwhelmed.
He asks me what I'm doing here and I point to my dripping coat. He laughs. I lean in and ask why he helped me. He says I looked a but lost and uncomfortable.
I try to remember when I scanned the crowd if I remember where he was, but I can't. I ask him instead if he looks for lost and uncomfortable people a lot. Another laugh and a smile. He tells me that the owner of the place is his friend and in return for some free drinks and food he's tasked with keeping the peace. Like an unofficial bouncer. You're an undercover cop then I respond. Something like that I guess he replies.
He invites me to follow him. When I ask where he says the staff area. I follow and he pushes part of the wall. It opens up and I realise it was a door. I must really be out of it, this kind of place really isn't my thing.
As I follow him down the corridor, the door behind us closes and almost cuts off all the noise. We pass a few doors, they're labelled: office, storage, cleaning, drinks, supplies. I wonder how big and popular this place must be.
We reach the staff area and he offers me a towel. My ears and eyes finally readjust and I look around. There's some soft music playing in the background and the space is warmly lit. There's a sofa and a kitchenette.
He hands me a towel and points to two doors. Apparently there's a shower and changing room I can use. He says to lock it behind me and wait for him to get back. I ask if this is all really ok and he just smiles and says this is his good deed for the day.
I just nod graciously and check my phone. No messages or notifications, but I do have some cellular. The little weather widget has an unhappy face, I guess that means the storm is still going.
The bathroom is really simple, but nice. The lights have a dimmer control and I turn it down a bit, less clinical. The shower area is littered with different soaps. Its a bit overwhelming, I always struggle which soaps to use when in someone else's place. I spot some generic brand stuff and decide to use it.
Meanwhile I put my clothes in the dryer machine. It was like those ones you see at pools to make your swimsuit less wet to take home, but with an auto function.
I finish my shower and my clothes still have a bit longer to go. I realised when I dried myself off that he'd also given me some clothes. I wonder how he knows my size, but quickly realise they must just be spares kept for any customers that make a mess. I am definitely not a large.
Equipped with my underwear (they stayed dry somehow) and oversized shirt equipped I had a look at the adjoining room. He'd called it a change room and while there were lockers on one wall, the only other furniture was a bed. With no where else to sit I collapse onto the bed. The past few hours had been very much outside my routine and I close my eyes for a bit.