Never Forget You

I awoke to complete darkness in my room. My music was still faintly playing though, but she had turned it down. I remember we were reading, propped up against one another. Alex was reading aloud from Man’s Search for Meaning. My hand was playing with her soft hair. The last words I clearly remember hearing were “when we are no longer able to change a situation, we are challenged to change ourselves, and this in turn presupposes the human capacity to creatively turn life’s negative aspects into something more positive.”

It was at least midnight when she had started reading from the book. And I figured I had fallen asleep around one thirty. She had tucked me into bed, which had become a habit for her, and left. Cleaning up the dishes, and putting the clothes to dry. I would have to thank her when I saw her tomorrow. I rolled over in my bed, groping around in the dark for my phone which I remembered was on my bedside table. When I felt it, I brought it closer and pressed the home button. The bright LED left my eyes stunned for a moment, as I winced against the light. There was a group text going on. It had started earlier, but at night I put my phone on silent when I just wanted a little time for myself.

Natalie: (9:45pm) Just a heads up, we’re having a get together at my house tomorrow. My mom wants you guys over to help paint, and whatever. Possible bonfire later too.

Callum: (9:49pm) Yeah sure. What time?

Andy: (9:49pm) Gotta baby sit my little sis until noon.

Joshua: (9:49pm) I’ll be there earliest around 11am. Sleeping over my girlfriends tonight, and I plan on sleeping in.

Alex: (10:00pm) Oh? Doing what, Joshua? Hardly sounds innocent.

Natalie: (10:01pm) Whenever you can get here. And Alex, don’t be rude!! Joshua may be a man-whore but I think he at least has SOME morals, right?

Callum: (10:02pm) Nope.

Alex: (10:02pm) Nada.

Andy: (10:02pm) Uh-uh.

Joshua:(10:03pm) Uh…yeah. Gotta agree with the guys on this one. Haha.

The conversation went on a bit more, talking about Joshua’s indecency, and what was planned for tomorrow. Which was really today now. I was about to set my phone down, when I noticed my name came up in the conversation.

Joshua: (1:47am) HEY GIA. WHEN YOU STOP BEING A LAZY ASS, ANSWER YOUR FREAKING TEXTS.

Natalia: (1:48am) Do you have to yell? It’s not like she can ‘hear’ you. She’s probably taking a swim, and left her phone in her room.

Alex: (1:49am) Well, you are right about her leaving her phone in her room, but she just fell asleep.

Callum: (1:50am) And how do you know that? Being a stalker again, huh? I should reaaaally tell your mom about this problem.

Andy: (1:50am) Wow Alex. Never knew you had it in you.

Joshua: (1:51am) ahahaha. Alex, you’re way too creepy.

Natalia: (1:51am) Alex…we think you have a problem, and we want you to get counselling.

Alex: (1:53am) Ugh. Really guys? I know this because I’m with her right now. She’s asleep, and I’m just leaving.

Joshua: (1:54am) Yeah, cause that explains a lot!

Callum:(1:54am) Don’t do anything indecent while she’s sleeping. She’s our little water goddess.

Natalia: (1:55am) YEAH! Don’t touch, Alex. Wait, if she’s water, can I be air?

Callum: (1:56am) Sure, you are a bit of an airhead. I call earth.

Joshua: (1:58am) Dibs fire. Because I’m, wait for it, …..super-hot!

Alex: (2:01am) Sometimes, I really wonder why I call you guys my friends. UGH. I guess I’m spirit then. Haha. I’m almost home. I’ll text you guys in the morning.

Andy: (2:02am) Then what am I?! You guys took all the elements. Can I be heaven?

Natalia: (2:03am) RUDE CALLUM. RUDE. Night! And Andy, that’s lame.

Joshua: (2:04am) Cassie is calling for me. (; Night guys.

Callum: (2:05am) Too much information, bro. Night guys, and Gia who is actually asleep but I’m still wishing you a good sleep!

Andy: (2:06am) WELL? Wow, thanks guys. Leave me out. LOVE YOU TOO.

There the texts stopped. I was laughing to myself. Guess I was the little goddess of water. Checking the time, it read back to me 4:37am. I rolled onto my back, throwing an arm over my eyes. I could squeeze in another three or four hours of sleep before heading over to Natalie’s for breakfast.

As I lay there, I felt a slight tremor. I propped myself up on my elbows and looked around my room. The tremor happened again, and lasted and lasted. I slowly got up, and my entire room started shaking violently. Books on my shelves were being thrown to the ground, and I could hear glasses from the kitchen falling to the ground and shattering. I barely had time to process what was happening. Ocean water started lapping at my feet as huge waves crashed into my room. I could hear wood started to splinter as I looked up, my ceiling was starting to collapse. A huge shard of wood fell down from the ceiling, and sliced down my arm and cutting deep. I gripped my arm tightly, blood trickling through my fingers. That woke me up and I realized what was happening.

I stumbled my way to my balcony on shaky legs, but in the three seconds it took to get me there, the arches above the door collapsed, making it impossible to get through. More of the ceiling was falling around me, knocking me to the ground. I struggled to get back up under the heavy weight of the wood. Water was still pushing through the blocked opening. I started to panic. I had to get out.
‘Nereids, help me!” I prayed as I tried to dodge more falling pieces of ceiling. “Help me please!” I ran for my door. Just as I passed through, my room collapsed on itself, and the hallway was starting to give too. “Mom? MOM?!” I screamed, as I passed her room. I steadied myself against the rocking, quaking movement of the ground. It was hard to see into her room, past the dust cloud. I made out her body on the bed, a hand scratching against the large piece of wood trapping her against the bed. She looked over to me, bloody lips mouthing the word ‘run’, before her entire ceiling collapsed.

My instincts were screaming at me. “Get out! Run already!” I complied, as I sprinted through the now crumbled hallway, jumping over debris as the ear-shattering noise of the earth collapsing made it hard to focus on anything else. I felt things falling against me, digging painfully into my skin. I kept running through the hallway. I didn’t notice a plank on the floor snap in half, one part flying away and the other part snapping back against my abdomen. Hard. I collapsed to the ground, breathing and wheezing for air. Gasping, I coughed and tried to make myself get back up. My body was aching, and I don’t know how I managed to get my body back on its feet and start running through the rest of the house. I jumped through the now glass-less porch doors. I could feel the shards lodge themselves into the soles of my feet.

Shoulder-rolling onto the glass, I skirted backwards, watching as my entire house cave in on itself, the ocean water spurting upwards. Smoke billowed from parts of my house.

Everything was suddenly very quiet. I couldn’t hear a thing. Not even the rush of blood in my ears, or the wheezing in my lungs as I tried to intake air. I could only watch where my house once was, and now was being drifted away by the ocean waves. A scream ripped through my throat when a wave brought out more debris from my house, along with a mangled body that lay face down in the water. I could barely make out the familiar short brown hair, and a shredded silk kimono that I remember buying in Japan from a trip a few years back. Her arm was bent in a way it wasn't supposed to. She was face down in the water, moving only when the waves moved. I felt bile rise up in my throat.

The water, unknowing to me, kept carrying my mother further and further away with each wave until the body got pushed up in a pile of debris. ‘I should get up. I should go over there and get her. Tell her I’m sorry. She wouldn’t like it if I let her stay there. Why didn’t she swim? She was the best swimmer. She taught me how to swim. Hell, she was a swim instructor. Why didn’t she survive? If anyone could, it would have been her. She kept living after my father died. Kept pressing on. Why her? WHY?”

My hearing came back, as the earth shattering was at full volume. All I could hear was screaming, and the crashing of lives being destroyed forever. The trees were falling in the forest, as more smoked billowed from the houses in the forest. Fire was starting to rage. Looking around, I could see my surviving neighbors falling to the ground at what remained of their houses. Arms held high to the sky in prayer to God. “What god? What kind of all-loving god would do this?” The words came out in a hoarse whisper. Down the road, I could see a mother holding her daughter, sobbing as the child lay limp in her hands.

The earth shook for what seemed like forever, as I sat there trying to keep myself steady. The earthquake endlessly shaking, and rocking our tiny island. As I leaned over and started picking out the glass from my bloodied feet, did the shaking start to subside. ‘Get up, Gia. You need to get up and find the others.’ I needed to get up and see if anyone else was alive. What would I do if they weren’t? What if I was the only one who survived? What if…?

I winced as I finally pulled the last piece from my feet and threw it aside. Blood dripped from the gouges in my feet. I got up slowly, a hand immediately pressed against my sore stomach. I tested the tenderness and pain in my feet. I started to limp down the street. Electricity lines were crackling and fires were growing. All up the long road, where the beautiful houses were, now there were piles of rubble and debris. I could feel endorphin's kicking in, as I broke out in a full run. Adrenaline coursing through my veins as I pushed myself to run harder and fast. The pain slipped away as my mind became focused on one thing.

-----

The first house I reached was Natalie’s. What was once a beautiful four story, white house was now a pile of scrap. Most of the houses around her were gone, being swept into the sea.

“Natalie? NATALIE, ANSWER ME!” I screamed out, circling the debris. Trying to find any life. Or hear anything. Nothing. I tried again and again. Five, ten, twenty minutes. Nothing. “FUCK!” I started running again. Joshua's house next. When I reached it, there was nothing left of it either. And once again, no one answered my increasingly desperate pleas. It was the same throughout. Callum's, Andy's, and Alex's. Nothing. I couldn't see them, and there was nothing left. When I was running past the last house on a long stretch of road, I could hear someone crying out. "Mama!" I stopped, and looked over. My breathing labored. My stomach had started to ache again.

A small child was kneeling in the rubble, holding onto something. I jogged over. The small boy was covered head to toe in dust, and mud. I could barely make out his light brown hair and pale skin. He looked up at me, gray eyes stark against the mud. What he was holding onto was a hand.

"Hey, ma'am? Can you hear me? Hello?" I knelt down beside him, peering down. I could make out the body of a woman. All around her was concrete.

"My son," she croaked out. "Please, save my son. Take him...away...please. I beg you." I gently pushed the boy aside as I tried to lift the large piece of concrete that lay directly on top of her. She was already buried underneath smaller pieces.

"Just a sec. I'm going to get you out. Please, hold on." My voice sounded foreign to me. Scratchy, and coarse. And unnervingly calm. I tried to pull the slab up but it wouldn't budge. I heaved again, and walked around it, trying to see if there was another way.

"I won't....make it. I'm destined to die...here. Please, take my...son. Promise me...." Her voice had diminished to a whisper as I leaned in to hear her.

"You're going to be fine! I'll get you out. Your son needs you. You have to live! I promise to take care of him, but you need to live. Please!" I yelled at her, again trying to lift the slab. "My son...Cyrus...please. My so-" Her word cut off, as I watched her eyes glaze over, and her head loll to the side.

"NO!" I screamed. I couldn't lose another person! I screamed as I pulled as hard as I could on the piece of slab, and felt it budge. I heaved it up more, and more until I had it standing to which I knocked it over to the other side. I quickly knelt down to the woman, feeling her neck for a pulse. But, I felt none. No breath came from her lungs. Lungs crushed so painfully from the concrete. "No!" I pounded the ground, hot tears squeezed from my eyes. Was I so useless that I couldn't save anyone?

"Mama, wake up! Mama! Wake. Up!" Her son, Cyrus, shook her arm with his tiny hands. His little voice shaking. The woman's words echoed in my head as if she was whispering them once more in my ear. I stood up, and picked the tiny child up as he struggled to get out of my grasp. "Mama! Mama!" He screamed, as I started walking away. I had to save this boy. His mother. I had to keep my promise. I had to. My heart aching for the boy. I held him tighter in my arms.

"I'm sorry. I'm so sorry." I whispered over and over to him.