By Gina Lee

<The Last Night in San Francisco>

So yeah, it was the last day of our goddamn trip. I mean, after all the fun we had with fresh $4.00 nectarines, chocolate buses, the Golden Gate Bridge, gays in flower pants, and the warm breezy weather, it was hell depressing to leave the place. Even though we had not planned to stay there for a long time, I was longing for a couple more days to enjoy San Francisco.

Coming back to the hotel I was tired. Not just tired, but like freaking tired. My roommate was kind of a phony, saying that she has unlimited energy or something for shopping; if somebody dropped her in front of an outlet store right now, she would be able to roam around for hours, not tired at all. Rolling my eyes, I slumped against the bed. I was probably like a slice of melted cheese.

I do not know how. But my eyes flew open, and I was still in the same position, flopped over the top of the bed underneath my backpack tossed on the pillows. Rubbing my eyes, I looked outside – it was getting dark. I probably dozed for an hour or too. But it was not just getting dark, but it was goddamn raining. I hated rain. I hated anything that was cold and wet. Rainy day was gloomy. I always felt like I had to damn cry or something for no good reason.

But that day, it was a little bit different. Perhaps I had gone mad, too tired out. The little droplets of rain falling down from the sky seemed, I don’t know, cute, I guess. I was, for the first time in my life, appreciating a rainy day. It was so nice and everything – the quiet sound of rain. I suddenly felt an urge to run out in to the rain. I wanted the rain. I wanted to get wet.

My roommate was asleep, so I slipped on a coat and tiptoed out with a key. When I went out to the lobby, the outside was already goddamn dark. At first I thought I should just go back up to the room, but that would be a phony. I was just about to run out when a guy at the front grabbed me.

“Don’t you need an umbrella, miss?”

He was really kind. The way he smiled and all that made me feel comfortable. But umbrella was not what I wanted at that moment. I needed freedom. I needed rain.

“No thank you. For some reason I don’t right now.”

The guy looked puzzled, but just grinned and went back to his work saying ‘okay’. He would have thought I was a retard or something. But that didn’t matter. I ran out, unarmed.

It was goddamn cold. But I just stood there, in the middle of the parking lot. In a few minutes, I was soaked. With my hair glued on to my face and my shirt stuck to my body, I probably looked like a drowned corpse or something. But I was feeling good. I felt so damn happy, if you want to know the truth. I don’t know why. It was just that the rain was so damn nice, the way it kept on gently tapping on me. I mean, it was like, the most, oh, I don’t know, tingling moment. I still don’t know what that impulse had been, how that possibly occurred. But God, I wish you could’ve been there.