It was raining out. It had been raining out for seventeen days, nonstop. It kept her awake late at night, the pitter patter of the raindrops on her roof. Lena was at work right now. Her job was to give out movie tickets to the audience as they bought them. She worked at a rundown theater that rarely got crowded, but in the past two weeks almost every movie was sold out. Today, the line stretched all the way back to the door about ten feet back from the counter. Lena was working alone today at the ticket booth and the line moved very slowly.

Customer after customer came and came, all with faces flushed with impatience. The rain was bringing out the worst in everyone. Everyone was crabby and bickering and there was no smile in the crowd. It was two hours later when Lena noticed something peculiar in the movie theater. Her shoes were wet as though she had stepped in a puddle. Lena stepped out of the counter and noticed that the floor was soaking wet, the rain was beginning to flood the theater. Now, one might wonder as to how it did not flood before, but the reason is because the theater takes place up on a hill and most of the water slides right off.

The amount of water sloshing around on the floor began to concern Lena and she cut the power to the theater. Staff members and audience members came out yelling. She cringed back against the counter. She just didn’t want there to be an electrical fire. The audience fled the theater almost as fast as the rain fell. Once there was some peace restored (with all of the paying customers gone), Lena’s boss came storming out of his office.

“What was that? We have to refund EVERYONE all because of you! Do not make me fire you, Lena.”

“Fire,” Lena began “Fire was the reason I cut the power. Look down at the floor, it’s soaking wet. The flood is catching up to us and I did not want there to be an electrical fire.”

“You don’t worry about that, missy, that is for ME to worry about. YOU do not make executive decisions around here. Do you understand?” The manager’s face was red with fury and it looked as though steam was flowing out of his ears.

Lena cringed. “Y-yes, but--”

“There are no buts, Lena! You either understand or you’re fired. What will it be?”

“I don’t want to be fired, sir.” Lena looked around her, everyone was staring. “So, I guess I will quit then. I am not sorry for thinking of the safety of hundreds of people.”

The manager looked furious as Lena handed in her keys and name tag and vest. She exited the building calmly, but as the storm raged on, so did her tears. She cried. Lena felt as though she could do nothing right, everything she did seemed to turn out bad. Even as she cared for others, she was fired. Lena stomped her foot in the water and shouted out a curse word and cried. The gray in the sky fit her mood perfectly. She felt as though she was drowning in her sadness and the sky looked as though it was drowning in the rain. It was impossible not to pity herself, she had just lost her job. It wasn’t just the job though. It was her pride, it had been damaged severely by her boss. He belittled her in front of everyone and did not even appreciate that she saved the place from going up in flames.

Lena sloshed over to her car and noticed with uneasiness that she might not be able to drive in the flooding waters. When she finally got into her car, it moved lazily through the water and slowed down when the flood waters became deeper. Lena reached a corner when her car stalled. Shouting out a swear, she slammed her hands on the steering wheel. This was just not her day.

The rain pelted down Lena’s back and the water reached her ankles. She sighed and sat on the top of her car’s roof. She had an umbrella and it stopped her from getting any more wet than she already was.