Catastrophic Event

The old man snoozes day and night,

His breath falling evenly, predictably.

Young people stand

And watch

And play games of the young near his shores,

Laughing,

As they say to themselves,

Look, we have tamed the old man of the sea.

Then one day he stirs,

His breath is disturbed.

He shakes his old crusty head

And rises with a roar,

Reaching out to crush the games of the young

And those who once laughed

See death glinting in his eyes.

I stretched lazily, watching the sun send golden bars through the cracks in the shutter on the ornately decorated windows of our beach front villa. The breeze that flowed in was warm and smelled of salt. I looked lovingly at the head of ruffled brown hair that was lying on the pillow besides me and smiled. I shook him slightly, marveling as my new ring caught the light and sent small brightly colored flecks of light dancing across the room.

“Time to get up, Jake,” I whispered into is ear. “Come on, sleepyhead, I think its almost noon.”

I kissed the top of his head and climbed out of bed as he wiggled half heartedly. I had not gotten to see the place properly last night, and I was amazed at the gorgeous little house. The floors and furniture were all polished teak and the walls were simple and whitewashed and hung with tasteful accents. I threw open a window in the living room and was standing watching the waves crash over a white, sandy beach that I could see past the palm trees that shaded the villa when my husband, my husband! finally got out of bed. I heard him walk across the room and leaned into his embrace when he stood behind me, his head resting on mine as he gazed out at the beach.

“Don’t you think this place is amazing?” He asked me after a few moments of reflective silence.

“It really is. We are so lucky that Matt said we could housesit for him, I never would have dreamed of having my honeymoon in Thailand!”

“Mhmmm. We are lucky.” He spun me around and rested his hands on my shoulders before his face wrinkled in thought. “Now, how is Matt related to yo- us again?”

I giggled at his confusion about his newly acquired relations. “He is my dad’s cousin. Aunt Lisa’s son, Nate’s brother, remember?” He nodded, even though the look in his eyes told me that he really had no idea who I was talking about. “But that isn’t really important, is it?” I whispered as he pulled me closer and closed the window.

Later that afternoon we walked along the beach, watching the bright blue waves washing delicate seashells across the white sand. The sunlight was dancing across the wave tops, leaving beautiful sun dazzled prints behind my eyelids. We held hands and talked about all the things we were going to do in our new life together. I felt a warm glow filling me every time I glanced over at, my husband! I was sure the novelty of that thought would wear off soon, but for now every time I thought the words “my husband” a silly grin split my face in two. That night we watched the stars swirl overhead and decided to get up the next morning for a picnic breakfast at sunrise.

So we got up early and set out for a small cove that we had seen in our previous explorations. We go there in plenty of time, and sunrise saw us leaning against the trunks of palm trees eating food out of a wicker hamper. Leaning against the smooth trunk of the palm tree I sleepily watched my ring glint in the early sunlight. I was only broken out of my reverie by an excited shout from Jake, who had gotten up and wandered a bit further down the beach.

“Look, Lisa! The water’s receding! Oh, would you look at that shell! Oh, and there is a sea star, that’s amazing!” I stood up, staring in confusion. The water, which had been lapping against the sand several feet away from where we were sitting had indeed disappeared to a distant blue sparkle several hundred yards away. A small warning was sounding in the back of my mind, but for what? Water receding, water receding, what did that mean? I mulled over it as Jake rushed from one wonder to another, further and further down the beach. Then it all snapped into place and I glanced up in horror.

“Jake!” I yelled, scrambling down the shore towards my husband, who was several hundred feet away down the shore. “Jake! Come back, we need to get out of here!” I stumbled on a slippery stone and hit my knee. “Jake! Water receding is a sign of a…” I lost my voice as I saw the water seem to take on a life of its own and rise up out of its normal place, towering over the small figure of my husband. “…tsunami,” I managed to choke out. “Jake!”

I saw him turn and start running toward me as the water rose higher and higher above us. I was still standing there, staring in shock when he caught my arm, pulling me roughly around as he sprinted up towards the trees. We hit the line of palms and kept running, but now we could hear the roar of the water behind us. I glanced back and threw myself behind a small knot of palm trees next to Jake, hugging one tightly just as the wave hit.

The water shook the trees and tore at my skin and my nose and throat. My arms strained to keep the water from ripping me away from the palm tree, my nails biting into my hands. The noise deafened me, a thunderous roar accentuated by the sound of trees snapping and of someone screaming. I could not breathe, I could not think, the water was everywhere. It wrapped itself around me and pulled me off the tree, bruising me with its smashing caress. Then the pounding crushing force was gone, but the water swept back towards the ocean, capturing anything that the first wave had broken and sweeping it back with it, plastering me against the palm trunks. As the debris swept by it felt like every piece of it had to hit me before it was allowed past. I was battered by branches and planks and small beach toys. Then something, a rock maybe, collided sharply with my ankle, sending excruciating pain through my leg. The water’s pressure left me without the ability to move, so I could not double up, all I could do was endure. My head reeled from lack of oxygen as the world turned into the muddy brown current sweeping me away.

Eventually the pressure did lessen, and I could stand up and take a breath. I was covered in brown muck and felt like every inch of me was bruised. Shakily I reached out, blindly, reeling from the shock of what had just happened. As I stretched out my hand it was caught by an equally shaky one of Jake’s. I looked over, relief filling my eyes as I saw his mud covered figure. He was moving as carefully as I was, which probably mean he was just as battered and bruised.

“W-we made it,” I gasped as I took a shaky step towards him, placing my feet carefully through the piles of debris that covered the ground. “You’re alive.” Somehow this felt like a miracle to me, that we had both managed to live through something this powerful. He put his arm protectively around my shoulder as I discovered that I couldn’t put weight on my ankle.

“Yes, we are both fine. We are alright.”

We slowly started to pick our way back towards the house. Jake moved carefully, he had been hit by a branch and he thought he might have a couple broken ribs, and I walked in a slow half limp while avoiding the piles of rubbish that were everywhere. After what felt like an eternity we rounded the rocks close to the villa and stopped in shock. The house was gone. I had heard that expression before, when people said that buildings were just gone, but it never does the situation justice. The place that we were looking for to find sanctuary, a phone, food, our clothes and a bed had vanished. All that was left was the cement foundation and a couple of support beams standing into the sky like jagged teeth mocking us in a broken smile. We stood and stared for several minutes before turning to each other with the same question in our eyes, what do we do now?

It was then that I learned something very important about tsunamis. There are always second waves.