The Day That Was...

Chapter 5

It was my Aunt. Dad looked at me confused. "Why is your Aunt calling me, we're not meeting her for another hour and a half" he exclaimed. He answered the phone and put it on speaker so I could hear my Aunt's reason for the unexpected call.
The answer was a scream.
My Aunt was yelling down the line at my Dad and her voice was completely incoherent, she clearly sounded stressed. Dad told her to stop, slow down and explain what was going on. "There has been a tsunami warning" my Aunt explained, "we can see it in the distance and were not sure if we can get to safety in time. What do I do Robin, everyone is panicking?" My Dad's jaw dropped, I was staring at him stunned. But then he answered cooly as if he handled these sorts of situations all the time. "Ok, just find someone who works there and try and get to a helicopter that is evacuating. I'm sure there would be some. Don't panic, keep the kids with you and get to a helicopter." I was impressed.
But then my Aunt responded with "ok, ok, we'll do that. But the thing is.... We can't find Will. He went to the bathroom 10 minutes ago and he hasn't come out yet." But then all we heard on the other end of the line was a man's voice of which I did not recognise. He was yelling at everyone in the cafe to get to the helicopters. They only had 13 minutes until the tsunami would wipe away the island. My Aunt was screaming back at the man saying they couldn't leave just yet because her son was missing. But that was all we heard of the conversation, because the connection cut out. I started panicking. But my Dad told me to calm down. "Hey, hey, hey, Mack. It's going to be ok. Your Aunt is sensible. Will will be back in just a sec and then they will get to the helicopter. They're going to be just fine" I felt better, the only thing I didn't know at the time was just how wrong he was.
••••
I was continually yelling at the man. "I can't leave yet, my son is missing. He went to the bathroom and he hasn't come back." But the man was persistent. "Ma'am, you have to go, we will find your son and get him on another helicopter, you will see him back at the mainland. Now please go to a helicopter." I was just about to respond when an announcement was made over the intercom. "Ladies and gentlemen, the tsunami impact time has been moved forward, there is only 4 minutes left until it hits. Please make your way calmly and safely to a helicopter. Thankyou for your cooperation"
Just at that moment everyone that was still in the cafe started screaming and running towards the doors. Talia and I were in the way and were swept outside along with everyone else, we were both trying to get back to the cafe and find Will when a man grabbed mine and Talia's sleeves and shoved us onto a helicopter along with 5 other mothers and their kids. I was yelling at the man to let us off so we could get Will but he closed the doors. The blades started spinning and we were rising off the ground. Talia started crying. I didn't know what to think.
We were leaving without Will, and there's nothing I could do about it.