24th March 2017

Then and Now

It was just like any other day.

The bell rang I went to class.

It rang again, morning tea.

Another and back to class.

Then only one minute to go. The class sat on the edge of their seats watching the clock tick by even though they didn’t know how it functioned. It finally rang, it was now my favourite part of the day.

Lunch!

Children swarmed from their classes to the playground like bees to honey. Races began to start. Who ever could get to the top first was granted to shake the whole playground. Everyone was used to the playground being shook and the usual yelling of the nasty old witch telling them that they will get consequences if they dear to do it again. I myself never could understand the point of shaking a playground being fun. I preferred to hang as if I were a monkey swinging from branch to branch on the jungle gym. I could feel my hands losing grip on the bars as they shook the playground once again.

” Did you feel that?” asked my friend Georgie.

” It was just the playground shaking again,” I mumbled reaching for the next bar.

” No it can’t be because I felt it on the ground, I still can!” said Georgie in apprehensive voice. I jumped down from the monkey bars, I couldn’t get my balance, like I was on a boat during a storm.

Rattling.

Rumbling.

Rolling.

Stumbling to the grass and I collapsed to the ground, hands over my head, awaiting for it to end.

Starting to rise from the ground. Shock filled my body, everything had changed. The ground had morphed into an ocean underneath the surface, classrooms sitting higher of the ground, cement paths sunken into the earth and parts of classrooms and trees scattered all over the school. Parents started arriving, kids started leaving but I just sat on the courts watching the gate.

A parent walks in, not mine.

Another, not mine.

Then I saw them. My parents had come. They grabbed my arm and pulled me into the car. No one was telling me anything. I couldn’t understand why we were in such a rush. We got home, my mother was now pacing back and forth as we watched the devastating horror of what our city turned into. A faint rumble was getting louder and closer, bigger and faster and then it hit. It felt like a giant had picked up our house and tossed it around. I got out from under the table and turned to the TV, breaking news rolled in saying “There has been a 6.3 earthquake”. I couldn’t believe it, this is what no one was telling me, that an earthquake just happened. More aftershocks came and each one that came was greater than the last. The more there is, the more worried I get. Night fell and the aftershocks had simmered down. Going to bed, not knowing what could happen overnight gave me anxiety. I just want this day to be over. Morning finally arrived and it was time to see devastating city. Driving through the city, looking at the disastrous scene made me think how quickly something can be taken. Buildings crushed into dust and people buried under. On their knees citizens sorrow as they listen to paramedics tell them that their love one has died or has been trapped in a building. It wasn’t the end, it wasn’t going to magically rebuild the city over night, it wasn’t going to bring back the love ones that died, it was never going to be the same again.

 

 

Join the conversation! 1 Comment

  1. Think about how your writing LOOKS on the page.
    Revise punctuation and speech rules.
    Look at your tenses.
    Word connotations, vary vocab.

    Reply

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