Thursday, March 13, 2008

  • after the earthquake

    BEFORE THE EARTHQUAKE, I had a cup of tea.  Earl Grey, extra dark, extra bitter as usual.  Most of the other townsfolk had already left.  They had left for relatives’ places, temporary disaster shelters and the sort, preparing for the worst.  But me, I made a cup of tea.  I nailed my furniture to the floor.  I taped my books to the shelf, the paintings and art prints to the walls.  I glued the toilet seat up.  I pasted my dominoes upright on the living room rug.  Then I finished the milk.  Checked the provisions in the cupboard.  I made sure things were secure.

    And I looked out the window, behind the curtain, at the equipment and trailers parked outside.  A team of geologists arrived at my door, setting up camp around the block.  It’s going to happen, they said.  It's going to start right under your living room, they said.  It had been meaning to happen for some time now, they assured.  They told me it wasn’t safe.  They told me to go.  I said no, unwilling to absquatulate.  They shook their heads.  They asked about building codes and emergency supplies, flashlights and sturdy shoes, to turn off the utilities, and good luck.  And they left with radio chatter on their belts.

    So I made myself some tea.  I double-checked clothes hangers and other free-hanging, free-standing objects.  I thought about what I will do after the earthquake. 

    Later, when everything crumbles and car alarms sound off and the cracks in the sidewalks widen, no longer cracks that you can skip over, but chasms that command leaping and bounding and hurdling over, I might run.  I might flail my arms theatrically and scream and check on the dominoes still trembling on the living room floor in the aftershocks.  I might pick up broken dishes that defied adhesives, unbend contorted metal. 

    But for now, I’ll sit in my chair for a while.  I’ll lean back, all the way back, supporting myself on only the rear two legs.  I’ll lean back almost to the point of no return.  Until it teeters on its edges, balancing.  Then I’ll wait for it.

Comments (58)

  • NightlyDreams

    i have never been in an earthquake that was not of my own making

  • Whyerd_Neighme

    Wow, that one's person not caring about what happens, now I think I get what he was thinking, "...after the earthquake".
  • Adamission12

    Absquatulate..... and be merry..... earthquake or not.....  I could see myself doing something similar although I cant say for sure as Ive never experienced an earthquake......
  • greggorant

    ride it out, big guy

    another great one!
  • VersaGratis

    How brave of that person. I'd be like the others

    And thanks for that etymology of my name. So cool! :)
  • pAsTeLs25

    Earl grey, extra bitter- my fav! regarding hookas, it is mainly flavored steam but back where i'm from, they always mix things up. all of us knew that they were just flavored steam, but food inspectors have found otherwise

  • Night_Bloomer

    "I’ll lean back almost to the point of no return.Until it teeters on its edges, balancing.  Then I’ll wait for it."

    What else are you waiting for?
    Good little story.  I would have run away with the others.
  • Insomnia_Journal

    (:
  • rianahntr

    I've been in an earthquake before. I always wished that things would just stay still, but they never do.

    I like the imagery you have here... simply fantastic. You're an amazing writer! *hugs*
  • AnyDaAngel

    ah, yes -- and then it would happen. and your life would never be the same as it had been. this (for some strange reason) reminds me of an episode of the twilight zone, in which a man who works in a bank loved to sneak down to the vault to read..and one day, he became the last man on earth with all of the time in the world..then, he broke his glasses.  moral? read all you like, but one day -- it may just change your life forever.
  • be_the_rain

    i'd stay with you. i'd love to have you around and thinking of all those things, if for nothing else to take my mind off what may or may not happen. you seem to think up chaos and then calm your thoughts, sticking to your guns. :)

    i love that word "absquatulate"...you'd be spared just having that word. lol

    i love your writing. there are three people on xanga i know of who write so well, and i'm glad i found you.
  • poetrybox

    I am in Arkansas... tomorrow we are going to get thunder storms but today.. wow golfing weather... and weekend is going to be great too.
      Now I will do the same thing you did.. but earthquakes usually don't come with warnings... it just come. Once when I was living in San Francisco it was in 2002 and quake hit, 5.2 on the scale. I really felt it as I was staying on the 3rd floor. As it came without any warning what I did was run. The problem was it was about 10:30PM and I was about to go to bed.I was only wearing a boxers. When I got out of the hotel all were asking what is wrong with me. Because the people on the ground floor did not felt the quake at all. And the hotel receptionist told me it is not safe for a guy in San Francisco to wander around just in boxers. I felt two more after that. .. in the next one and half years I stayed in that hotel. During those times I did not run I just stayed and watched T.V as the hotel guys assured me that the hotel can withstand up to 12 on the scale.... Jokingly the manager told me we can strengthen the building more but no more running around in boxers.
       I preferred Green Tea over Earl Grey now I am on to Oolong Tea which is much more tasty.  Still if I am in an earthquake area I will keep a pet like a dog or cat as they sense it long before anything else can.
      Good writing... now sitting on the chair leaning all the way back...mmm I can image that in my mind.. well written.

    The Signature Of A True Human Is The Smile He/She Brings On The Face Of Others.
    LonelyPoet
  • poetrybox

    By the way.. if you haven't read it, read Gilgamesh that is one great work...

  • atsixesandsevens

    kind of makes me feel like nothing on this earth can defeat the singular combination of the human spirit and hope.  and maybe some good tea. 

    recipe for success.

    lab reports really aren't that bad.  they're a whole lot nicer than anything i ever had to produce for english because you just follow the same format each time.  there's no creativity involved.  obviously i enjoy my creativity, i just don't like being graded on it or making it my living.  but you, well, you would do just fine if it was yours.
  • albertchun

    I had a crappy night.  It wasn't that bad in itself: friends, food, whatever.  It's just that I expected more fun, free-flowing conversation, smiles, spontaneity, laughter, freedom, and forgetting the bull crap that accumulated this week.  I didn't get that.  I dragged my feet across my welcome mat, as I pet my dog.  Flipped open my lap top, clacked the keys to my favorite site, and after reading this... I feel better.

    Yeah.

    Thanks.
  • have__a_nice_day

    Really enjoy how you took one of the most spontaneous natural disastors and wrote about it as if it could be prepared for, and evacuated, and sheltered. This brings to mind the BIG ONE predicted in L.A.

    It also reminds me of that moment in Saving Private Ryan when they are listening to the music player while waiting to defend the bridge, soaking up life's precious moments while waiting, anxiously in the calm for an impending disaster.

    I really enjoyed this, as I do all of your short stories, and it seems I can't compliment them enough. You should put a collection together and make it a book. It would be studied years from now, I'm sure of it.
  • Platypus333

    I liked reading this.

    But I personally would have left.   lol

    Rachel~
  • TwoPts4Honesty

    There was an earthquake here a week or so ago, around 1 am... I was up talking to people online and had no clue anything had just happened until my cousin 3 hours away IM'd me that she thought she'd just been in an earthquake!  And people in the building next to me felt it but I didn't, rather disappointing! haha

    Do you write your stories with a meaningful metaphor in mind, or just as quirky pieces of micro-fiction?

    ~S
  • face_the_strange

    I like how you explore the unexpected, even in people's attitudes.  I like the bit about the dominoes.  For me, Earl Grey is second only to Chai right now.  ;)
  • EmpressTangent

    This is wonderful and made me smile all the way through it. Well, except for the minute it took to run the word "absquatulate" through the dictionary in my brain only to realize I don't know what it means but I like the way it sounds. This story is a photo op waiting to happen.
  • Silent_Secrets

    We all wait for our own destruction. It's part of the fun in life. :)

    Hope you're doing awesome!
  • Fostatic

    this short story reminds me of gabriel garcia marquez...except the main character would probably be an old man....although you never mentioned age so...

    very nice, whoever said that you should write a book is right.
  • maxEng

    i got stuck trying to imagine dominoes pasted upright to a rug, then it got even better when i imagined a man balancing in that chair in that room, with everything taped and pasted and adhered just bracing for it while sipping that perfect cup of tea

    thank you.
  • Lost_In_Reverie

    Great story. In a way, that's all any of us are ever doing - balancing on a chair, just waiting for the next blow.
  • atsixesandsevens

    i'm curious, do you write these quickly?  it's always been my experience that the shorter something is, the longer it takes me to write it. 

    then again, they always seem somewhat spontaneous and rather, ahem, cathartic stories.  maybe that's what you're going for, i don't know. 

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