This is part 5 of a 5-part mini-serial. You can read all episodes by going to the “Rainy Rendezvous” page or by navigating using the menu above. You can listen to my audio recording by pressing “play” on the AudioBoo player below and/or read the full text that follows.
“Rainy Rendezvous: Episode 5 – An End to the Rain”
by P.J. Kaiser
Stephen burst into his apartment and went straight for the phone. His head still spinning, he pressed speed dial #1.
“Hello?” Came Katie’s soft voice on the other end of the phone.
“Katie, I really missed you this week.”
“I missed you too, Stephen.”
Stephen sank into his armchair. “You did? I wasn’t sure since you didn’t want to go kayaking with me last Sunday.”
“I feel really badly about that. I have a confession. I’m afraid of the water. It’s embarrassing, I know … I did a lot of swimming when I was a kid, but when I was in high school a boy from my school drowned in a boating accident. I’ve been afraid to go in the water ever since. I – I didn’t want to say anything because I know you love kayaking. I just wasn’t sure how to tell you.”
“Oh! You should’ve just told me, Katie – I had no idea. I thought you didn’t want to go kayaking because you didn’t want to spend time with me.”
Stephen grew warm all over hearing Katie’s soft laugh. “That’s crazy. Of course I love spending time with you. Do you really think that out of the blue I would decide that I wanted to break up?”
“Well, I really wasn’t sure what to make of your not wanting to go. But believe me, it’s just as well you didn’t come. There was a really bad storm and I got tossed around pretty badly.”
“Oh – and how did you get back to shore?”
Stephen considered whether or not to tell the whole story. “Well, somebody helped me. It was really weird, I lost my paddle and got washed up on shore out near Seward Park. There was a girl there who luckily gave me her extra paddle. After the rain stopped, I paddled back down to Renton.”
“Wow, I’m so glad you’re okay. You know, I had a weird thing happen this week also. I had a business trip to Victoria – over on Vancouver Island. I took a ferry over on Tuesday afternoon so I could enjoy the scenery. Our ferry had engine problems and stalled out in the middle of Puget Sound. This boat pulled up alongside our ferry within just a few moments and shuttled the passengers back to shore in several trips. There was – oh, it’s not important.”
“There was what, Katie?”
“Well, the whole thing was very strange. There was this whistling sound before the boat came – it sort of seemed to appear out of nowhere. The whole rescue took several hours. I went on the rescue boat’s third trip. The boat was piloted by one guy – he had this big boat out on the water by himself. I spoke to him during our trip. The only thing he could talk about was this girl. I guess he had been transferred for his job and had to leave his girlfriend, fiance, or whatever. He couldn’t stop talking about her – ‘Make sure you take advantage of the time you have together, because it might not last forever -‘ and stuff like that. Very weird.”
Stephen wasn’t really sure how to respond. After a moment, he said, “Wow, that is a strange story. Sounds like we both had some odd things happen this week. What are you doing this evening?”
“I don’t have any plans.”
“I think we should take your boater’s advice and make the most of the opportunity to spend time together. Let’s go over to the Beach Club and have a big steak dinner. You can prove to me that you have no desire to break up. Deal?”
“Deal. And maybe next weekend, we could go hiking instead of kayaking. How does that sound?”
“Perfect. There are hiking paths not far from my apartment. But we can’t go hiking in the rain; I think I’ve had enough rain to last me for awhile.”
