Sad Story
Sad Story
“What are we going to do now?” Kia asked. Kia or Ki-Ki as her friends would call her looked at her husband with questioning eyes.
“I don’t know dear but we will figure something out.” He responded.
Her entire family, her husband Ruel, her daughter Kitana and her son Kiru were trapped in their attic.
The day started out pretty normal. A normal day at the Jones’ started out with Kia preparing breakfast for the whole family. It was a Sunday morning so the family would eat together and talk about how each of their week went, whether at school or work. Today’s menu comprised of boiled eggs, bacon, French toast and hot chocolate. There was also a plate of pancakes, skyscraper high.
“Yummy” Kitana said entering the sunlight dining room. “Everything looks great mom.”
“I agree, I am ready to dig in.” Said her brother Kiru.
As soon as the food was blessed they dug into the abundance of food laid before them. The neighbourhood was really quite most of the times. Sometimes Kia would wonder if she had any neighbours at all. The last time she spoke to her neighbours she found out that they worked but she never saw the left nor return from work. The parked cars in the driveway was the only sign of life in that house. Normally Kia would go for a walk after breakfast to lose some of the calories she just had but this morning she wasn’t feeling it. Had she had gone outside for that walk she would have noticed that dark grey cloud in the far east that was slowly coming her way. The cloud was mean, fierce and angry and destined to cause destruction.
“Kitana, Kiru come here for a minute.” She called out. Being the obedient children that they were they rushed downstairs to see what their mother wanted. “I was thinking we don’t spend a lot of time together and I think we should do a lot more things together as a family. So, today let’s play a family game.”
The children face was excited to hear this. Which child would refuse a game? Better yet one with their family. They all chose a game they wanted the family to play and engaged in an all day, game fest. Everyone got a chance to play the game they picked. Kia was so happy to bond with her family. Her husband and kids were laughing and having a ball. This was the life she thought. On a normal Sunday afternoon she would be watching the midday news to keep up with the latest events and happening. She would also watch the news so that she could know what kind of weather she would have in the week and plan her work wardrobe around that. Had she been watching the news instead of bonding with her family she would have seen the storm warning that was all over the news. Where she lived storms wasn’t very common. The last storm was 15 years ago, started out a subtle rainfall and in an instant transformed into a mighty killer storm. Had she been watching the weather report she would have known that this storm was coming tonight and it promised to create havoc. If she had been watching she would have known to evacuate her home.
It was just about dinner time. The table had quesadillas and pasta with shrimp and mushrooms. While washing up the plates from dinner she looked out the window and noticed that the neighbour’s car was no longer in the driveway.
“Honey, look.” Kia said
“What is it?” Rule asked.
“The neighbours, their car, it’s not in the driveway.” She said.
“Well would you look at that. They probably decided it was time to get out of the house.” He said. “Even the heavens seem to be crying with joy.” They chuckled for a moment at the thought of their neighbour but what was to take place in a few hours would change their lives forever. There was a soft droplets on rain on the roof top now. Kia was in the Kitana’s bedroom reading her a bedtime story and she would normally. By the time Kia got to Kiru’s room the light, subtle rain fall turn to a heavy drops. It was as if the droops wanted to bore holes in the roof of the house. It seemed like with every minute that passed by the harder the rain fell.
The water level rose and found its way into the house through cracks and crevices. Concerned about the rising water level Ruel decided that it would be safer to move the family out of the house and check into a local hotel. But it was too late. The streets were flooded, the water reached the windows of the car. There was no way they would be able to drive to safety now. He woke the kids and took them all to the attic, the highest part of the house.
“What are we going to do now?” Kia asked.
“I don’t know dear but we will figure something out.” He responded.
The rain fell harder and harder. Bolts of lightning danced across the sky and the thunder roared and roared. Ruel looked at the faces of his family. He could tell they really scared. They were trapped in the attic. The water was still rising. Ruel knew he had to do something. His entire family was depending on him to save the day. He paced the room trying to think of a plan. He didn’t have much time to think about it as the water was quickly seeping under the door of the attic. Sooner or later they would be engulfed in water.
It finally came to him. He knew what he had to do. He found a blow up boat that he had stored in the attic for when he went fishing. It was rather small and more likely to handle the weight of children versus an entire family but it would have to do. He blew up the boat as quick as he could. Luckily there was a window in the roof of the attic. He pushed the furniture together, stacking them on top of each other in hopes to make a ladder to the escape window. His wife went first. She climbed up on the stacks of furniture and tried really hard to push the window open. The window swung open and Kia climbed up to safety. Next was Kiru. Luckily for boys they grew really fast. He was tall and east able to reach the window with ease. His sister Kitanya was next. She had to stand on her father’s shoulders to be able to reach her mother’s arms. She was hauled to safety. If they had been more prepared, if they had more time they could have saved Raul too but the door of the attic broke and the water came rushing in. The furniture tumbled under him and brought him under.
“No!” Kia cried out “Not my Ruel!”
