I had walked my freind home. Watched as she slogged through the mud going up her driveway to her lighted and warm house.

I made my way back to head to where I had parked my Jeep. The clouds hung low and ominous making it seem three hours later in the day than it was. Everything was wet but it had stopped raining. I got back to the main street-four lanes divided by a grassy isle with sparse, thin treelings. None of them more than six inches through the middle and most just saplings...someone had thought about future drivers and them losing control and having something big and solid to crash into fifty years from now. How kind,

I slid down the small hill to the street level. When we had crossed ten minutes before the street was slick with water and it was ankle deep in places-we'd laughed as we ran and kicked through the puddles. Now it was a bit deeper-halfway up my calf. I was wearing boots so it was no big deal but I figured I'd better get back to the Jeep and head home. When I got to the trees in the middle of the street the water had risen to knee-deepness and I could feel the pull of the current underneath.

I paused at the trees looking across to the buildings that lined the other side, They were raised and had a nice boardwalk running their length down this side pf the street and I could see the hill running parallel and above, behind them-where the Jeep was parked.

I started to cross the next two lanes and a sweep of water nearly took me off my feet. I grabbed a sapling to keep from falling and watched and felt the water rise almost to my hip level. This was looking bad.

Some people on the boardwalk saw me and started yelling for me to go back. I pushed through the trees and looked the way I had come and there were large waves rolling from that side of the street-not the cresting kind but like a large boat had passed. The kind of waves that carried a lot of force from all the water beneath them. I went back through and determined I'd swim or wade to the boardwalk and get to the Jeep from there. I started into the water and a wave caught me pushing me back and under and netting me a mouthful of water.

Now I was getting worried. The water was rising and it was getting dark...how long could I hold in the trees? Then what?