Drunk Drowning – in the Rain

Thoughts enter our heads at the strangest times. Just a moment, frozen in time, and bam! The memory surfaces out of nowhere. . .

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Surrounded by friends, he had fallen asleep in a lawn chair with a beer in one hand, a cigarette in the other, and his head positioned at a 90 degree angle  – backward – on a beautiful spring day.

The clouds rolled in and rain poured from the sky, filling his mouth. We tried to awaken him, but he was so drunk he didn’t hear us. We were getting soaked, so we ran into the house and stood at the window watching him like he was our favorite sitcom.

“Do you think he’ll drown in the rain?” we asked each other, lined up at the window, passing around a joint.

The consensus was that, no, he would choke himself awake. So we kept our vigil, waiting for the first signs of distress.

Somebody asked, “Would you be able to sleep through rain splashing on your face?” We shook our heads and passed the joint.

“Do you think we should try again?”

“No, nobody could sleep through that. He’ll get up. Let’s wait.”

So we continued to watch him as the joint went around and around until two of the guys decided to grab him, chair and all, and bring him into the house.

And that’s how a bunch of college students and their friends entertained themselves on a rainy Spring afternoon when they were 19.