Page 6 (1/2)

There were two anchors working together and they explained it very calmly, but the wo Her eye makeup was all smeared around her eyes and I wondered why nobody fixed her makeup It was CNN, for God’s sake

The man in the blue suit said he would repeat the chain of events for anyone just joining the broadcast That was us He said a volcano had erupted on an island called La Pales of ash and a fiery mountain appeared on the screen behind the anchors

The woman with the bad makeup said that the western face of the entire island had exploded with the eruption of the volcano Five hundred billion tons of rock and lava had avalanched into the ocean

They didn’t have footage of that

Blue Suit said the explosion had created a " at six hundred roider as it approached the coast of the US Then she stopped talking Her voice caught in her throat, and Blue Suit took over

The atsunami had hit the Eastern Coast of the United States at 4:43 am mountain time

Boston, New York, Charleston, Miami

All had been hit

They couldn’t estimate the number of fatalities

I just sat there I felt completely numb

It was the worst natural disaster in recorded history

The est tsunae

It played so fast they had to slow it down so you could see as going on

Fro and a tall cloud drawing closer and closer, frame by frame, but it wasn’t a cloud--it was a wall of water--and then the i out at the water, only there is no water, just a boat stranded about ato Jesus and then the ih the minitab can’t see the top thunders up Then darkness

Chloe said she wanted to watch kid TV We ignored her

Bad Makeup said the National Connectivity was down because three of the five satellite centers had been located on the East Coast

Blue Suit said the president had declared a state of eency and was safe at an undisclosed location

We watched, mostly in silence

"Turn it to Tabi-Teens," Chloe whined "This is bo-ring!"

I looked at her She was totally clueless She was listlessly picking at a label stuck on the minitab counter

None of the little kids see They were just kind of slowpoking around, hanging out

I had to keep watching the TV Couldn’t think about the kids

I felt gray Washed out Like a stone

Bad Makeup said the ered severe weather conditions across the rest of the country Her voice caught on "rest of the country" Sheacross the Rockies (that was us)

I looked over at Josie She atching the screen Caroline had crawled onto Josie’s lap, and Josie was stroking Caroline’s hair absente from the East Coast

They showed a house carried up the side of a mountain They showed a lake full of cars They showed people wandering around half naked on streets in places that should have looked familiar, but now looked like locations fro, people washed down rivers like logs on a log float, people washed up along with their cars and garages and trees and trash cans and bicycles and god-knohat else People as debris

I closed my eyes

Near me, someone started to cry

"Put it to Tabi-Teens!" Chloe de!"

I took my brother’s hand It was ice cold

We watched for hours

At some point, soot out sleeping bags for everyone

There was a lot of whining fro fro us Especially Chloe and Batiste

Batiste kept talking about the "end of days"

He said it was just like Reverend Grand said would happen The judgreasy face

I just wanted to think I couldn’t think and they all kept crying and asking for stupid things and clinging to us and I just wanted therabbed Batiste by the shoulders

She said, real clear and kind of et candy As much as you want Go do that"

And they did