Ankle-Deep Fast-Flowing Stream

This afternoon I had to go submit an assignment for Geotechniques. It was raining really hard, but the due date is today so I went anyway. Its a hilly area so when it rains the side of the roads have ankle-deep fast-flowing streams. I decided to wear flip flops because shoes would just get soaked.

On the way back, I had to cross one of those ankle-deep fast-flowing streams in order to cross the road. It was raining hard for a while now so the stream was quite wide. A truck was approaching and I quickly started off before my whole being got drenched in skid spray. One foot had to go in the stream because it was too wide to jump clean and the other stepped half submerged at the edges of the stream. I brought forward the foot that was in the stream -- but my slipper stayed behind, held down by the water pressure. Then it started drifting away. I took two steps after it, then my other slipper slipped off and drifted after the other one. I chased after it for about 5 paces then gave up and watched as both my slippers drifted away by the curb. The truck passed by, projecting the stream onto me, and honked its horn -- whether mockingly or sympathetically, I know not.

After my slippers drifted out of sight, I resigned myself to walking back barefoot and crossed the street. I got to the other side of the street and there stood 3 university guards by their post.

"Wheres your slippers?" one of them exclaimed, sincerely concerned. I guessed that they hadn't seen my heartbreaking drama in the ankle-deep fast-flowing stream. Another guard ran out of the post to see what was going on.

I couldn't help it, I laughed.

Finally, I managed to gain enough breath to tell them what happened and we all laughed, holding our stomachs in the pouring rain.

So I walked barefoot the rest of the way back to my dorm, just like old days when I was a child refusing to wear slippers while playing football on the dirt roads. Lots of people stared at my bare feet. They would have stared at my face as well, but I took care to angle my umbrella so that nobody could see it.