Chapter Twenty Four, Inundation

“Okay, okay, okay,” Gray got up groggily and hurried to door before Daisy broke it off its hinges. Either that or before she woke Cressida, who appeared dead to the world except for the fact that he could hear her gentle snores in between Daisy's attacks on the door.

He pulled the door open and was immediately shocked by what he saw. Daisy had clearly gotten dressed in a hurry. Her shirt was unbuttoned and her ample breasts were barely contained behind an impatient-looking lopsided knot. Her glossy back waves of hair were a tangled halo of snags and knots. More alarmingly she was accompanied by a policeman whose uniform looked a lot less than crisp and pressed. With a sinking sensation he looked into the cop's face, noting the tired puffy eyes and the 24 hour stubble on the man's chin. Something bad had happened. For an insane moment he wanted to slam the door in their faces. To close it and hold it shut against them with his shoulders pressed against the door's cheap egg-box construction to hold the world at bay and to protect Cressida from hearing whatever the awful news was.

The moment of madness passed and he let his eyes roam beyond the cop. Dan was there too, in his underwear, looking sort of lost and childish without his glasses. Where was Robin and Lizzie--

Batman!

-- he couldn't see them and his heart lurched with a horrid pain as his mind wove countless scenarios of horror where the victims were not someone really close, like a relative. People like Robin and--

Batman!

--Lizzie. Why, he was surprised to find he had time to think, was there never a superhero around when you really needed one? He had no doubts at all that something truly apocalyptic was in motion. No doubt there was a job for a superhero. No doubts too, that no sort of invincible crusader, caped or otherwise, was likely to drop by and fix things up as though no catastrophe was any more bothersome than a stopped-up drain.

All that in a heartbeat. Gray exchanged a knowing glance with Dan and made room for himself outside the door, closing it softly behind him. Maybe he could yet find a way to prevent this, whatever it was, from involving Cressida. It seemed the sheerest folly to try, but he knew he would hate himself if he didn't.

“Daze? Whatever's up?”

“Oh Gray!” She threw herself into his arms. Over her shoulder Gray looked helplessly at Dan. “What?” he mouthed, soundlessly. Dan, ashen-faced, looked at the policeman who nodded.

“I'm afraid there was an earthquake last night.” The cop said. For the first time Gray noticed the mud on the cop's shoes and the rip in his left sleeve.

“Yeah, sure. Little one, I felt it. Around one thirty, wasn't it?” Maybe a tree had fallen on the lodge, or something. Maybe Robin or Lizzie were hurt. Gray was thinking this and at the same realising the lack of logic in such thoughts. He'd been awake until four. If something bad had happened locally he'd have heard sirens and other signs of activity. Deep down he knew something bigger and much, much worse had occurred in the night, but in this alien border country between last night when no-one important was dead or maimed and the horrific hell-zone of today he felt, against reason, that he could yet avoid the inevitable ... if only he could think of a way.

“That was the time, sir.” The cop said,

Dan found his voice. “It was only a small quake, man. But it wasn't here ... it was over in ....”

“Where?” Gray asked, bleakly certain he knew. The answer confused him.

“Braefearn.” The cop said. Then in response to Gray's puzzled frown he added: “It's across the lake from Potters' Beach. I'm afraid the quake caused a large landslip in Braefearn. It caused a tsunami to sweep across the lake. It all happened in minutes, sir. I'm sorry to say that Potter's beach took the full force of the tidal wave. I've been there all night. We haven't found any survivors. I am sorry sir, but I really have to inform Miss Benjamin that her entire family is missing and is in all likelihood dead.”

“God .... Why? How? Daze?” Daisy had slid across to Dan and had tucked herself under his arm. He knew that she had family in Potter's beach too. Dan looked Gray in the eye and shook his head sadly. Desperate for any good news, Gray mouthed the name Luke. Again Dan shook his head, imperceptibly.

Shit. What a fucking bastard bummer!

“Can you gimme a couple of minutes, officer. I'd like to break to news to her myself, if that's OK.” Gray asked, feeling, rather than actually seeing the desperate gratitude in Daisy's eyes who had feared she might need to do that service if Gray had failed to accept it.

“Certainly, sir. Please take all the time you need. I will need to see her myself before I move on. It's just a formality; nothing for her to be concerned about. We just need to establish contact details. Naturally there will be inquests and other legal procedures to be followed. But now is not the time for that.”

“Thank you officer.” He half turned back to the door. “Is it ... is it very bad? In Potter's Beach, I mean. “

“Yes sir. I'm sorry to say its very bad indeed. The destruction is almost total.”

Gray let himself back into their room filled with desolate resignation. Cressida was sitting up, on the bed, wrapped in the quilt. Seeing Gray she beamed sunnily at him. “Look!” She beamed. “Le soleil est brillé.” She swept her arm at the sunlit vista of the mountain outside their window. “Today is going to be perfect. I feel it in my bones ... what? Gray? What is it? You're scaring me.”

Chapter 25

(Well, that's one way to deal with a hard drive crash.)

Seriously, very good stuff, Mirelly. Gray is a good guy. I hope Cress realizes it when she gets through the shock.

This could make our break our girl.

Yes - very nicely handled! Poor Cressy! I think it's a good thing Gray is there...He seems to be just the person who might be able to handle things for her.

Thanks. I've been on tenterhooks since I finally completed this segment.

In the month between the hard-drive failure and my resumption of writing I went thru various phases (as you mostly know), ranging from resigned loss, to I can rebuild, but then I remembered beaches are not always safe and I realised that the natural world had handed me a deux ex machina which would save me the angst of trying to rebuild whole families.

The real problem in completing this repair was in my perfectionista approach in wanting to make sure that the destruction not merely credible, but that I left no loose ends.

I was on fire today and the words poured out of me like a torrent. They're not all good, but I am happy enough that I have regained control of the charcaters I loved the best (Dan, Daisy, Cressy and Gray.) Batman and Robin ( ) have their own plot line .... but that''l come later. I have a lot of catching up to still to do to get the new college kids up and running and ready to synch in with Cressy et al. But I guess I can say Ch 24 is pretty much the end of part one.

Wow

And whew. I am feeling enormous sympathy for Cressida. I guess the previous chapter was sort of a memorial, all that talk about each of her family members gathering for the party. The message on her cell phone from her Mom.

Chokes me up.

Oh my! There is no greater compliment than that. Any writer will admit to dream to accolades of the literary sort (prizes, money and kudos) ... but none of those mean diddly-squat compared with making a reader feel the same you did as you wrote.