“I don’t remember why I ran, I think I was just fascinated: in awe that so much water could come from the sky. I wanted to see if it was raining everywhere else. Was it this wet at my friends house around the block? My parents thought I was in my room, and I didn’t try to sneak away, but that’s what I ended up doing. I had been allowed to walk to her house. Being seven, meant having the freedom to walk to and from her house after school as long as my homework was done and I was home by eight. I didn’t see why this time would be any different. 
    As I ran to the house of my best friend though, the rain got even harder, something I never imagined  was possible. Before I knew it, I couldn’t see directly in front of me. Lightning and thunder struck simultaneously. My dad had told me the you were supposed to count to see how far away the lightning was, but I didn’t know what to do when they happened together.
There was hope that I was running home, but it was only hope. The thick sheet of rain shielded my eyes from the world. There was no inkling of an idea in me about where I was going so I just ran as fast as I could. I slipped and fell, but got back up again. I didn’t need to go home. By the time I got home, I would drown. The water completely covered my feet. I went instead to the first house I could make out and knocked on the door, already shivering from rain. There was no answer. I searched frantically for another house.
Once I was able to find a house, I trudged through the water and tried to keep my eyes opened enough so that I wouldn’t lose it. At the same time I couldn’t stand to have my eyes open as the water poured into them. Eventually reaching the house, what felt to be hours later, the water was to my knees. When the lady opened the door, I didn’t even have to say anything. She hurried me into the house and the water followed at my heels. 
“We need to get up higher.” She said and we hurried up two flights of stairs where we knew that we’d be safe.  She let me change into one of her dry sweatshirts that hung on me like a dress, and wrapped a blanket around me.
I spent nearly an hour trembling before she told me that I needed to get to sleep. She tucked me into bed and patted my back while she filled my head with soothing lies of how it was just water, and that everything would be okay. To this day I debate about whether I hate or love her for those lies. Then again, she didn’t know they were lies, and I guess it really isn’t her fault she had optimist ways. I hope she’s learned since then.
When I woke up in the morning, the water had gone down enough for us to walk on the sidewalk, but her whole first floor was ruined. She walked home with me, saying how happy my parents would be to see that I was okay. It was another lie. When I got home, the first thing I noticed was that the trailer was crooked and there wasn’t any grass left in the yard, only mud. I ran through the mud though, I wanted to see my parents.
It was kind of hard to open the door, but when I did water rushed out at me. My eleven year old sister stood on the couch, trying to keep her head above water. She took heavy breaths and tears streaked her face. The lady I was with said to wait for the water to come out. Once the water level went down my sister hurried out of the trailer. I asked about my parents. Through gasping sobs she told me that they left to find me and never returned.
And that sir is why I never leave the house.”