In the heart of the summer of 1970, Michael Jackson and Madeline Winters met, and at once, the children became inseparable. Underneath that summer sun, an imperishable connection blossomed between them; a connection that, across their passage to adu...
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
Tuesday, February 9, 1971
Madeline
Boom!
I was awoken by a loud thundering noise. I opened my heavy eyes after being torn from my slumber, instantly seeing my dark bedroom. As I laid in bed, however, I began to hear a low rumbling emerge from the Earth below. Within just seconds, that rumbling had suddenly become monstrous, and before I could process a thing, the Earth began to shake intensely.
Instantly, the sleepiness I'd felt disappeared into thin air as I watched my bedroom shake before my eyes. As the drawers of my dresser rolled open and shut continuously, I sat up in my bed, which began to glide across the hardwood floor due to being on rollers. While the unstable floor yanked the bed side to side, a few of my dinosaur toys tumbled off of a shelf that was bolted to the wall across the room. A bunch of books also tumbled off of the shelf, and an orange clock that hung to the right of me soon fell as well.
I looked ahead as my dark bedroom continued to wobble, and my eyes landed on the heartfelt birthday card that Mike had made for me about three months ago. It hung up on the wall in a frame, but after jiggling for some moments, the picture of Mike and me as wizards came crashing down to the floor. A large crack now stretched across the glass frame, but I was thankful that the drawing was unharmed. However, my relief flew out of the window when my bedside lamp—which had a glass frame—came crashing to the floor as well. I shrieked upon hearing the glass shatter harshly in addition to the rest of the roaring sounds. It was all so much. I quickly laid back on my bed and hid under the covers.
After pulling the covers over my head, I squeezed my eyes shut. I wasn't able to hear my own thoughts because of how loud the shaking was. Within not long, however, I heard my bedroom door barge open. "Pumpkin!" my distressed dad yelled out. After peeking out from under the covers, I discovered that he was rushing towards my bed while wearing a white t-shirt and boxers. When he reached my bed, he immediately snatched me up.
As the Earth kept shaking, I clung onto him, and he hurried out of the bedroom while holding me close. Dodging paintings that were falling off of the walls of the short hallway, he hurried to stand beneath the study doorway to his bedroom. When there, he held me with his right arm and held onto the doorway with his left hand. I looked towards the staircase that led downstairs, which was just ahead of us.
I watched the framed photos that hung on the staircase wall swing side to side. "Is this an earthquake, Daddy?" I asked.
"Yep," he answered. I spotted a nearby hallway clock, and I learned that the time was six o'clock in the morning. "A big one."
As we waited for the Earth to stop shaking, I listened to glass shattering and furniture thumping in other areas of the house, contributing to the roaring noisiness. When the earthquake began to subside at last, Dad released a sigh of relief. Soon, an eerie silence filled the house. While he remained holding me, Dad then began to take careful steps towards the staircase. Because there wasn't much glass on the stairs, he was able to walk down without cutting his bare feet. Within not long, we reached the bottom of the staircase, and after walking the short distance to the front door, he set me on the floor.
