Some time after I graduated from high school, my family moved from Pennsylvania to Orlando, and having no real plans at the time, I went with them. I was sort of ambivalent about the move, because I had to leave a lot of good friends back in Pennsylvania (including a really hot girlfriend) but I quickly became acclimated to my new surroundings. One day, soon after we moved into the new house, I decided to take a walk and explore the neighborhood. It was a beautiful day and I had walked quite a while through several older subdivisions adjacent to ours, when the sky started to grow dark.
That's when I learned a valuable lesson about Florida subdivisions. Some of them can be quite large, and they tend to have only one way in and out. They're like cities unto themselves, except that there's nothing there but houses. In Pennsylvania, our town was laid out in a grid pattern, so it was easy to get around. In Florida, if you don't know where the entrance is, you can be stuck in cul-de-sac Hell forever! Of course by the time the first rain drops started to fall, I was nowhere near the entrance (wherever the hell that was) and it was starting to thunder. I began to run, but couldn't see much in the growing gloom, and finally had to admit I was completely lost. When the lightning started flashing around me, I realized I needed to find shelter, but there was nothing but private homes for miles. As the rain started to fall, I saw nothing, not even a convenience store, anywhere in sight.
When I slipped and fell in a massive puddle, drenching myself completely, I decided it was time to ask for help. I saw a medium sized ranch home with a nice car in the driveway, and decided to knock. After a few tries, the door opened, and a man in his late 20s stood in the doorway. He was just under 6 feet tall, with an athletic build, and short dark hair. I told him I was new in town and totally lost, and he invited me to come in out of the rain. He introduced himself as Bob, and I told him my name was Rick. I explained that I had gone for a walk and gotten lost. Since I was drenched, he told me to wait in the foyer. He came back with a big blue bath towel, and wrapped it around my shoulders. He led me to a bathroom down the hall and told me to take off my wet clothes and put on the terry cloth bathrobe that was hanging on the door. I did as he instructed, and he took my wet clothes and threw them in the dryer. He showed me where the TV was (fortunately there was a football game on) and told me to get comfortable while he mopped up the small lake my entrance had made in the doorway. I thanked him for rescuing me and he told me not to mention it. The afternoon thunderstorms in Florida can be quite dangerous, he told me, so I did the right thing in asking for help. He gave me a drink and cautioned me to sip it slow at first because it was pretty strong. It tasted like gasoline, but he told me it was brandy, and that it would help warm me up.
