When Disaster Strikes

Nikolai and I are in one of our family owned hotel, while our parents are out looking
around for more property to buy. I sigh, being in Tokyo, Japan should be an amazing experience
you would think, but it is kind of hard to enjoy it when you are only sixteen looking after your
ten year old little brother.
"Nikkolette! I'm bored, lets go do something! Can you please take me to Game
Hollywood ?" Nikolai pleads getting on his knees, making his blue eyes big and sticking out his
bottom lip.
I roll my eyes at his behavior, "No Nikolai, the laws are different here, I don't even have
a car, and mom said not to leave the hotel. Anyways, why can't you read a book for a change?" I
ask flipping through a magazine.
"Ugh, you are so boring! No wonder why you barely have any friends." Nikolai mutters
throwing himself on the bed opposite of me. I sigh, and do not say anything, it was true, I really
did not have friends to hang out with. It is just that no one wants to hang out with the quiet,
nerdy, rich girl. I tried to make friends but they all wanted to be friends for my family's money, I
could be popular if I wanted too. I mean I have the looks according the the queen bee at school.
My bright blue eyes, my natural light brown hair, my 5'5 foot frame, and I know I am not the
skinniest girl in school. But it still hurts to know how people are so shallow these days, not really
caring about what is on the inside but what you look like on the outside.
Nikolai on the other hand has it easy, he is still in the fifth grade; he did not have to
worry about the whole clique stage for a couple of more years. Plus all the girls in his grade
thought he was some sort of angel, due to his cuteness, or so I have over heard from giggling
girls when I had picked him up from school in the past.
I toss the magazine onto the table sitting in front if the bed I was currently occupying, I
grab the remote and go through the channels, I stop at the news, "We have about a minute3 until
the earthquake hits," the news person says. All of a sudden everything starts to shake, "Nikolai!
Get under the desk now!" I yell at him and push him off the bed right as the ceiling fan drops
onto it. I hold onto Nikolai for dear life. You would think that living in California, home of the
Andres Faults, that we would be used to this by now. About six minutes later, the shaking
stops. I open my eyes to see the hotel room completely destroyed, the pictures that were once on
the walls laid on the floor shattered, the dressers and the flat screen T.V. off the walls and on the
ground.
"Nikkolette," Nikolai's timid voice says beneath me, "what was that?" he asks looking up
at me with tears streaming down his face, "It was an earthquake, Niko, nothing to worry about
okay?" I tell him soothingly using his nickname.
I crawl out from under the table and help Nikolai up, "Come on let's go down to the
lobby to get some answers." He nods and grabs hold of my hand, I have never in my life seen
such a terrified look upon his face. He is always the tougher one out of the two of us, even for
being five years younger.
We go down the stairs not trusting the elevators, seven staircases later we are in the
lobby. I grip tightly onto Niko's hand not wanting him to get lost. A large amount of people are
in here, people speaking both english and japanese, all asking the same exact thing; what is
going on?
I tap on a woman who has a hotel uniform on, "Excuse me Mrs." I say politely, "do you
know what is going on?" she turns to me eyes going wide, "Oh yes, Ms. Diamond," I was
shocked at first that she knew who I was but then it occurred to me that everyone knows who my
family is, "there has been a tsunami siting, due to the 9.0 earthquake8, we have about fifteen
minutes until it hits I'm afraid." she says frantically. My eyes go wide at this information, what?
We only have fifteen minutes before it hits.
Nikolai starts to drag me away, "Where are we going? We need to get somewhere safe!"
I yell at him, all of a sudden my phone rings.
"Hello?" I answer, "Nikkolette, it's me," my dad's voice says on the other line, tears
swell in my eyes. "Dad, where are you and mom?"
"There is no time for that. I need you to grab Nikolai and yourself, and go into the hotel
kitchen okay?" Nikolai starts leading the way once we are in the kitchen, my dad gives me more
instructions. "Now there should be a button underneath the third island to the right, push it and a
cabinet should open, get inside and don't come out until I call you." he says seriously.
"But dad" I start off "No Nickolette! Do as I say!" He demands into the phone, "okay." I
whisper quietly. "I love you daddy," I tell him silently crying, "tell mom I love her too." "I will
tell Nikolai the same," he says, "see you soon..." and the line goes dead.
"Come on," I tell Nikolai with a sudden burst of courage, we do as my dad told us. Once
we get in the safe room, everything starts shaking. I walk backwards until the wall stops me and
bring Nikolai into my lap holding him comforting him. "Don't worry Niko everything is going to
be alright, okay?"
We sit in silence, but the quietness is soon forgotten, once we hear water from outside the
room, I squeeze my eyes shut, and rock back and forth. Nikolai's cries in my arms, I start singing
I Will Follow You Into the Dark by Death Cab for Cutie trying to calm him; his cries start to
become whimpers. Soon Nikolai is sleeping in my arms. I bite my lips to keep me from crying,
tasting the iron from my blood due to biting them too hard. Only if mom and dad did not have
to do all this business work, we would have been together back home in California I sniff,
pulling my sleeping brother closer to me.
About a couple of hours later all the shaking and noises stop, I shake Nikolai awake,
"Did it stop?" he asks rubbing his eyes yawning. I nod and motion him to follow me, "Dad said
to stay here," I roll my eyes, "And since when do you listen to what they have to say?" I question
him raising an eyebrow. He doesn't reply, "Exactly," I say opening the door causing water to
rush in.
"Way to go Nikkolette." Niko mutters, I ignore his comment and drag him up with me.
"Come on we have to go find mom and dad." I say taking a deep breath, if they are still alive, but
I do not dare say that outloud. We walk out of the hotel, "Okay mom and dad went to have lunch
at Sushi Yoshitake in Chuo with Mr. Yao, to talk about a new hotel. So they have to be
somewhere around there."
"Do you even know where that is?" Nicko asks, "Yes in a matter of fact I do, unlike you I
read and get to know the area whenever we are traveling to an unknown place." I snap at him,
getting irritated real quick. I bite my lip looking around, okay so we are in Chiyoda, Tokyo, so
Chuo is the next town over, but which direction? "You don't know where it is do you?" Nicko
deadpans, "Shut. Up. Nickolai." I say closing my eyes, trying not to let my anger get the best of
me. Ugh why does Japan not have street names? The biggest community in the world but yet
no street names!
I pull out my phone and use the compass app, not the most reliable thing but the best I
have at the moment, "Come its southeast." We both speed walk towards our destination, "How
long will it take for us to get there?" Nicko questions, "Um, I say about an hour to an hour and a
half." I respond.
After two blocks we see mass destruction, buildings, cars, and homes all destroyed. Hell
some of them you can't even recognize, that were once houses. Bodies, they were everywhere,
policemen drag them to a tent that has doctors and nurses. The nurses start attaching cards to the
injured people's bodies, I see a child probably not even three years old get a black one; he's not
going to make it, there is nothing else that they can do for him. I hurry and look away with tears
streaming down my face, Niko squeezes my hand in comfort.
We keep walking, it was basically like walking through a disaster movie set, except this
time it is not pretend it is real. We continue on walking through water, we spot a fire going on
near by, the smoking causing our lungs to burn and ours eyes water.
About a mile and forty minutes later, we stop to rest, "Nikkolette, what time is it?" Niko
asks sitting on the trunk of a car. I pull out my phone from my back pocket and notice it was
dead, of course. I put it back inside of my pocket, I look up at the sun and then at the floor. I
remember back in history class that they said in ancient times, people used their shadows to tell
time. I face my body south and look at my shadow, " Okay, I say it is about 4:30. So we have
about two hours of daylight left." I say helping him up.
We continue on and about five minutes later we hear crying, I stop and look around,
"Nikkolette, come on we are almost there." typical Nikolai, "No, lets see what it is." he sighs and
looks by a car, "It's coming from over here," he says pointing.
I look under the car and see a little red head, "Here grab my hand, I'll pull you out." I put
my hand under the car and pull the person out. It was a little girl with red hair and big green
eyes, "Hi, what's your name?" I ask her gently, "Gwacie," she says. "And how old are you
Gracie?" "Tis many." She says putting up five fingers.
"Owy!" Gracie shouts out and holds onto her arm, "Here let me see." I grab onto her arm
and notice that her bone was kind of popping out, "Niko can you find me a piece of wood and
something to tie with?"
Niko hands me a piece of broken plywood and wire, I place the wood with her arm,
"Niko hold the wood here tight, Gracie this might hurt but I need to support it okay?" I tell her,
she nods understanding. I start wrapping the wire around her arm and the wood, good thing I
took sports medicine. Once I am done I take off the sweater I am wearing and make it into a
makeshift sling.
"Okay lets go, Gracie do you know where your parents are?" she shakes her head no. I
sigh, "Alright come on we need to hurry and get to Chuo." We take Gracie along with us not
wanting her to be by herself.
After a while we finally reach Chuo, I smile. Okay lets find them, "Gracie!" A voice
yells, we turn around and notice a tall brunette running towards us. "Dilly!" Gracie screeches
running to the person. I share a look with Niko and we go after her. The two wrap each other in a
hug, "Dilly dese awe the people who helped me." Gracie says pulling away from the hug. "Hi
I'm Dylan, thank you for keeping my little sister safe." He says giving me a boyish smile, "I'm
Nikkolette and this is Nikolai, it was no problem. I know I would want someone to keep him safe
if it was me." I say pointing at Niko.
"So are you guys looking for someone?" He asks, "Yeah we are actually, our parents." I
say. "Well there is a medical tent not far from here, I say about three blocks away. Just keep
going east from here." He says, "I hope you find your parents." Me too Dylan, me too...
After the three blocks we see the red tent and rush over, "Hi we are looking for our
parents." I tell a doctor, he then points to the opening to the tent. I grab Nicko's hand and dash
in, and see my parents...
I wake up with a gasp, I take in a couple of deep breaths. I throw the covers off of me and
check the clock, it's three in the morning. I carefully get out of bed and go into the restroom and
wash the sweat off my face, I walk out and slip some shoes on. I quietly sneak out of the house
and make my way to the place I visit every night when I cannot seem to sleep.
I push open the rusty old gate causing it to squeak, I go all the way to the back and make
a left at the bench, right at the maple tree I take a seat in front of the two gravestones.
Levi Diamond, June 28th, 1976 March 11th, 2011, A Father and a Husband, Celine Diamond, December 3rd, 1979 March 11th, 2011, A Mother and A Wife, Your Memory Will Carry On.
I let the tears go down my face freely, "I knew I'd find you here." A voice I know oh too
well says, sitting down pulling me into a hug. "How did you know I was here?" I whisper
quietly, "I felt you get out of bed and then I remembered what today is." He says back kissing
my forehead.
"It's been four years, Dylan." I say biting my lip, "Four years since Nickolai and I found
them dead in that tent." I cry out.
"And to think about 18,000 died, hundreds of people went missing, and even for it
being four years ago, people are still dying from radioactive water. All of this happened just
because of a stupid earthquake, I mean I know tsunamis are common in Japan. Just because
tsunami means harbor wave doesn't mean anything, did you know that, that tsunami went
about 550 miles per hour!" I start ranting but Dylan cuts me off with a kiss.
"You know these four years haven't been that bad," He starts off, I raise an eyebrow at
him, "What do you mean?" I ask him.
"Well it's been four years since I first met you, three years since I saw you in the park
reading, two years since I asked you to be my girlfriend, and a year since I asked you and
Nikolai to move in with me. And these past four years have been the best ones of my life.."
Dylan confesses to me. We sit there in silence for a while just enjoying each others company.
"You really loved My Chemical Romance huh?" Dylan asks laughing as he reads the
graves.
"Loved? You mean love," I say jokingly, "I love you." I then say seriously. "I love you
too, Nikkolette. Let's go now, we promised we would go visit Gracie, and I didn't let Nikolai
know that we left." Dylan says scratching his neck.
I shake my head and we walk back hand in hand. I look back at the graves. I love you
mom and dad, and your memory will carry on, but until then, see you when disaster strikes, I
think smiling.