It was a rainy night, a windy night—a night, my cousin, LaRue, and I would never forget. But let me start from the beginning…

 A few days before the torrential rain and gusty winds, LaRue and I discovered a tiny little leak in the ceiling right above our bed. When I say small, I mean a drip every ten minutes or so. As we watched the drip, it was decided that since we were teens, surely, we could figure out how to fix the hole without telling my parents.

As I remember, the conversation went something like this; “Do you think we can fix the hole?” asked LaRue. “Maybe we could plug up the hole,” I replied. “I have some gum in my purse,” said LaRue. “It might work!” I exclaimed.

LaRue got out of bed, walked to her purse, took out a piece of fruity gum, and started chewing.  When it was ready, I stood on the bed and pushed the wet, sticky wad up into the tiny hole.  It seemed to do the trick. We turned off the light and went to sleep.

During the night, LaRue woke me up and told me she had a wet foot.  I turned on the light and noticed the gum we thought solved our problem was on top of our blanket, which was getting wet.  We looked at each other and thought for a few minutes.  Finally, LaRue said, “I  have an idea. We could use the plastic bag from the cleaners to stop the leak.”

 LaRue and I folded the bag and then used tacks to attach it to the ceiling.  I took the wet blanket off and put on a dry one, then we both fell back to sleep.

 LaRue woke up about an hour later and poked my shoulder. “Cindy, look up.” I looked up and saw a bubble – not a small bubble but a rather large one, getting bigger by the second. We decided to watch it a little longer before we woke my folks.  Mistake! Like a flash-forward scene from a movie, the tacks flew in every direction, and the nicely folded plastic bag filled with heavy rainwater fell from the ceiling and landed on our bed.  We were soaked!  Picture this – two wet teens jumping out of bed – screaming with pink curlers escaping from their heads, flying here and there, wet pajamas and feet, pointing to the little hole that had mysteriously grown.

 Within a matter of minutes, we heard the sound of our doorknob turning, and the squeaking of the door opening. There stood Mom and Dad with a questioning look on their faces.  They could not believe their eyes. After a lot of explaining, and punishment of washing the blankets, bedding, and mopping the floor, Mom and Dad walked out of our room, and closed the door. I remember hearing muffled laughter then, “Those girls are like two peas in a pod.” I thought to myself, Yes, Mom, two wet peas in a pod!