Fear the Unexpected: An eyewitness of a great tradgedy

Chapter 1

Fear The Unexpected

            I sat up in my bed anticipating seeing the stars and the moon.  This is the only time that I really have time to relax and be calm.  It’s around 4:55 a.m. on the clock but the rare peaceful feeling I get is well worth it.  I got out of bed and crept silently to my brother, Edward’s room.  He has been asking me for a while now to let me see the stars with him.  I was hesitant at first because he’s so young and might wake Mother but he’s been begging.  I tried my hardest not to make a single noise to disturb the silence in the night.  I opened his door slowly enough so that the brass hinges wouldn’t moan in the night.  I walked up to his bed and tapped my sleeping sibling on the shoulder.  He scrunched his face up, too drowsy from his slumber to realize what was going on.  I shook him lightly then Edward’s bright eyes opened and met mine.  I helped him wrap up in some warmed clothes.  I had to hold my hand over his mouth on our way to the door downstairs because he kept giggling and trying to speak to me.  The last thing either of us needed was for Mother to awaken.

            The warm air felt great on my face when I opened the door.  Edward and I’s palms were hand in hand when we stepped out onto the porch.  We sat down and I pointed out every star and the moon.  I showed him which stars that I felt were the brightest and the small ones that I loved the most.  It felt good to really express my feelings with someone other than myself for once.  Little Edward absorbed all of the information I shared with him.  He was really interested.  Little did I know, this would be the last happy moment that I would have with my brother.

            Then, there was a great force that came from the ground.  The ground beneath us was shaking terribly fast.  I was too stunned and confused to even make a sound.  While I was in my daze, I didn’t realize that Edward was screeching loudly beside me.  Even though he was only 6, he knew that something was wrong.  He was terrified and it showed.  The movement stopped but I still didn’t move.  Edward sprang up from his spot on the porch and tried his hardest to open the door but his small arms couldn’t reach.

            I then let us inside.  My reflexes told me to find Mother immediately.  I dashed up the stairs and into my mother’s room.  She was already up and dressed and still fumbling around in all of our rooms, gathering up clothes and packing them.  “What’s going on I asked her?”  She ignored me because she was busy packing.  “Mother,” I tried again.  She shook her head, grabbed me, then shoved me to the stairway.  She told me to pack cans and boxed foods.  I really didn’t understand what was going around me and I demanded her tell me.  Edward was still screaming from downstairs, I was clearly being ignored, the ground is rumbling, and I’ve been told to pack away our food.  For what?  I considered rebelling but I decided not to and did as I was instructed.

            I felt the shaking feeling come again.  This time, it didn’t stop as quickly as when we were outside.  It was strong and it just kept going and going.  I grabbed the half full box and ran.  I set it on the floor near the door then set off to find Edward.  He was still yelling bloody murder.  Our trinkets were falling off of the shelves.  The living room furniture slid across the floor and made loud screeching sounds.  All I wanted to do was get to my brother but I couldn’t see much nor gain enough balance to move as fast as I wanted too.  I found him hiding in a closet with his yes squeezed shut and had his hands over his ears.  I knew he was feeling much worse than I but there was nothing I could really do about it, I picked him up then proceeded to the front door.  My mom was already there.  She had the suitcase downstairs along with some other items that we needed.  I’d never seen her so frantic and panicky in my entire life.  The rumbling in the ground was still quite great and I could hear a lot of commotion on the outside.

            Dogs were barking, children were screaming, and there were a lot of big booms.  If I said I wasn’t afraid of what lurked outside, I would be lying.  My mom sprinted back up the stairs for something.  The house began to crumble.  The floor sunk down and opened up in some places.  I hauled Edward up on my shoulder and high tailed out of the door and onto the street.  Mother was nowhere to be found.  I screamed her name at the top of my lungs but I doubt she was able to hear me from the other noises surrounding me.  The foundation of the house fell down and then the rest of the house cracked up and collapsed in a heap with it.  Mother never made it out the door and I wasn’t able to recover any of the food nor the suitcase.

            My eyes welled up with tears that I couldn’t hold back.  I tried to be strong for Edward but I couldn’t.  I, Alice Crowe, was still a young child myself.  Tears rolled down my eyes while the ground shook rapidly under me.  I sank to my knees and let it all out.  My eyes were probably puffy but I didn’t care.  I looked around me.  Kids younger than me were all alone on the sidewalks experiencing something unimaginable alone.  Others sat and watch the ground move and dance.  Trolleys were knocked over off of their tracks.  People were lying around motionless.  It was the most painful and shocking thing that I have ever witnessed.  I weaved through the bunches of people crowded in the streets and found a spot in what used to be my yard.  I sat there and waited.  Some people waited until the earthquake was over. 

Some waited until they would be reunited with their loved ones.  Some waited to be rescued. I waited for death as my savior.