I've Never Seen...

It was Monday evening.  It was nasty out.  Nasty with a capital 'N'.

In fact, it had been raining for 3 days straight.  It was the middle of summer in New England, but a spring-like storm was drenching everything.

I left the office at half past five as was my usual routine.  I paused momentarily in the lobby to pull my trench coat up around my neck, and open my umbrella.

A microsecond after leaving the building, I was sopping wet.  While my umbrella did offer some protection from the falling water, it was useless when it came to the puddles, and spray from passing cars.  Even a duck would hate to be out in that weather.

I moved toward a cab which had just pulled to the curb and discharged a passenger.  As I reached for the handle on the door, a young woman grabbed my arm and said “Excuse me”.

Her voice was nearly drowned out by the raging downpour.  With my right arm still extended toward the door, I paused to look at her.

She was beautiful.  She had no protection from the rain, and a mass of curly, jet-black hair hung around her head.  She was drenched.

“I’ve never seen one of those before” she said.

“What?” I asked meekly.  It was hard to take my eyes off of her.

“I said, I’ve never seen one of those before” she repeated.  She was pointing toward my feet.

I opened my mouth, started to reach for the come-on line that wouldn’t come, and finally elected to look down instead.

As soon as my eyes left her, she scooted by me and into the taxi.  In an instant, the door was closed and the car pushed out into rush hour traffic.

“Son of a –“