Natural Disasters

by J. K. Wise

  “Oh, right. Northside High. Makes sense,” he says. He turns and and nods at the group of people looking lost in the hallway. “Okay, follow me for coffee. Can’t face World War Three without caffeine.”

  They follow Will like scared sheep, but Melanie waits behind.

  “I’m sorry I called you yesterday,” she says with her eyes down.

  “How do you know Will?”

  “I don’t. He recognized me from the swim stuff in the paper. I ducked in here when everything went off outside.” She’s so focused on the floor, I look down there to see what’s so interesting. Stained carpet. I wish she would look up at me. I want to see her eyes.

  “What do you mean, went off?” As I ask, another loud crash makes both of us jump. “Holy shit! What’s going on?”

  “Everything is crazy. Outside, by the river, out on the mall…everywhere. Everyone is fighting and stealing, and the police are armed like soldiers.” She looks up at me quickly, her eyes wide and alarmed. “Oh my God, I have to find Corrina.”.

  Damn.

  Her eyes take my breath away. I shake my head to find some sense. “Corrina? What’s wrong with Corrina.”

  Melanie tells me quickly about how she lost sight of Corrina in mob scene by the river.

  “I have to find her. I have to make sure that she got to her aunt’s. My phone isn’t working, and I don’t know how to reach her. I’m not even sure that I can find my way back to the river, and it isn’t safe to walk through downtown.” She closes her eyes like she’s blocking out a bad thought, and she thinks out loud. “Maybe I can find another bus.”

  “I’ve got a car. I’ll take you there,” I say, and I reach for her hand without thinking.

  As soon as my fingers take hers, my hand screams with red-hot pain, and I cringe and swear. She jumps away from me and looks down at my puffed up, purple fingers.

  “Ouch!” she says. My hands does look pretty extreme. “Is that broken?”

  “I didn’t think so yesterday, but today, I’m thinking, probably.” I try to sound cavalier, but my voice squeaks. Goddamn it, I can feel my pulse in every part of my fingers.

  “You need to see a doctor.”

  “I’m okay.” I try to rearrange my face into a non-pained expression. “See?” Based on the way she’s looking at me like I’m a stepped-on hedgehog, I’m pretty sure I’m failing. “It’s really good to see you.” I say through clenched teeth.

  “It’s good to see me?” she repeats.

  “Yeah.” I’m drowned out by a moving siren of some emergency vehicle screaming through the alley outside. “I mean, it’s not the best timing…” Wow, I suck at being smooth.

  “Jared, I’m scared. And I’m glad you’re here. I don’t know what to do. I don’t know what’s going on. I can’t go home. I don’t have anywhere I can go.”

  I take her hand with my non-busted one. “Hey. Don’t worry. I don’t want to go home either. We’ll figure it out. Let’s go over to that tent on the mall and see if we can find a phone…”

  She’s already shaking her head before I finish my sentence. “Jared, have you been outside? We can’t go out there. It’s crazy. People are hurting people.”

  “I know. Let’s go upstairs and see what we can see. Maybe things aren’t that bad. Maybe it was just a few idiots in a fight.” Even as I speak, I know that isn’t how it is. Still, I can’t stand the look in her eyes. It isn’t like the fear or even the anger that I saw in her after the Newton night. It’s worse, like she knows exactly how bad things can be and doesn’t believe that anything can make it any better.

  I wrangle up a smile. “If we aren’t going outside, how about a cup of coffee?”

  “And maybe a toothbrush?” she says.

  When she smiles at me, it knocks my socks off. Whatever it takes, whatever small thing I can do, I know I’ll do it if I can give her back some hope.

  Chapter 25

  Didn’t See It Coming

  We climb up the concrete stairs in the pitch black stairwell, using my phone as a flashlight. At least it’s good for something. Jared keeps his hand up by his shoulder. It looks awful, and I can tell by his face that it feels about as good.

  As we make the last turn, sunlight shines through dust from where the heavy metal door to the roof is blocked open with a folding chair. As we bust out into the light, a helicopter flies by what seems like feet over our heads.

  DISPERSE IMMEDIATELY. DISPERSE IMMEDIATELY. INDIVIDUALS OUTSIDE OF SHELTER WILL BE DETAINED. PLEASE SEEK SHELTER.

  The voice from the megaphone booms down over the ruckus of the chopper blades. The air swirls insanely. Jared and I run to the other side of a large air-conditioning unit for shelter. That’s when I see over the side of the building.

  It’s only been minutes since I was out on the mall, and in that time, thousands of people have filled the once-grassy open area. Crowds are pulling down the football field-length tent, and inside, people scream and cry, fighting to evacuate the space before they are crushed, suffocated, or trampled.

  “Oh my god, we have to do something,” Jared says.

  “What? What can we do? Fight them all? Tell them to stop? Call the police. There’s nothing we can do.” I lean into him, looking out at the horrible scene. My head is just below his shoulder. He pulls me closer with his good hand around my waist, and I bury myself into his arms. I know I should feel awkward and strange about touching him, but instead, I feel the opposite. With him, I’m not alone in this angry and untamed world. As everything else collapses, Jared hasn’t changed.

  Police in dark riot gear line up shoulder to shoulder on one side of the field carrying shields and clubs. There are rows and rows of them, like Star Wars stormtroopers on the deck of the Death Star. As they start to advance, people shout and scream, taunting them and running back and forth in front of the advancing line.

  “Look,” Jared motions with his elbow, protecting his right hand by holding it awkwardly upright. From up here on this third story roof, I can see a separate mob advancing between the tall university buildings towards the collapsing tent. Their yelling is a roar over the circling helicopter and sirens. The mob marches forward, a bobbing mass. Just the first of them enters the open space, the riot police surge forward into the frantic crowd.

  In the swirling mass of people, one woman fights her way out of the fabric of the tent. She holds a small girl in her arms, and when the riot police push the crowd back, two men fall backward over the mother and her child. No one stops to help them up. Instead, the police push more, and more people fall, setting off a chain reaction. They claw at each other, reaching to hold onto anything, grabbing and pulling others to the ground. I gasp, fighting for her from my faraway perch.

  “Get up, get up. Watch out,” I yell, knowing no one can hear me.

  Jared pulls me closer.

  The mob from the alley surges against the police, and the helicopter begins to spray a red mist over the crowd. People flatten, choking and gasping.

  “Mel, inside, now. That’s tear gas,” Jared says, pulling me towards the door. I hear his words, but I don’t want to turn away. I can’t get my feet to move. Jared practically carries me to the door with one arm. Once inside the dark stairwell, we lean against the wall.

  I fight to catch my breath. I feel charged and drained at the same time, like I stuck my finger in a light socket. I try to catch my breath and turn to Jared. “What are we going to do?”

  “What do you mean? You’re right. We can’t do anything.” I can hear his heavy breathe in the dark. “We should probably go home.”

  “I don’t want to go home.”

  “We’re going to have to go home eventuall
y.”

  I know he’s right, but I can’t think about it. “Even with the whole world falling apart and everyone going crazy, the thing between our parents hit the hardest, you know? Why is that? Everyone is hurting.”

  “I don’t know, Mel, but I feel it too.”

  “Maybe I feel like I should have seen that coming. I couldn’t see an earthquake coming. No one could, not smart people or scientists or experts. So how could I know? I’ll even give myself a break about Alec Newton.” I feel Jared tense up next to me when I say his name, but I keep going. “I know that a lot of girls would have known that he was a dog. But he was nice to me. I shouldn’t have smoked, which was my own fault. I’m stupid about boys and parties.”

  ‘There is no way that what happened with Alec Newton was your fault, not in this or any other universe.”

  “No, to be truthful, I don’t really even know what happened. But I know myself, and I guess I can see why I didn’t see what kind of person he is.”

  “Okay…”

  “But my parents. Our parents. How could I not have known what they were doing? How did I not see what was going on right in front of me?”

  “Because they didn’t want you to see,” he says.

  “Or because I’ve been so focused on myself, I didn’t care enough to notice what was happening to the people I love. I was happy underwater, and I didn’t come up for air long enough be a part of my own family.”

  “I didn’t see what was going on either,” he says slowly, his words coming out of the dark. He sighs. “We need to call them.”

  “No.”

  “Mel, come on. They worry, especially with what happened on our street this morning. The men who were playing cop on our street shot a landscaping guy. I don’t even know if he lived or died. There were police all over the place when I drove away. Hell, we might not even be able to get home even if we could get around the shit outside.”

  God, I wish I could just take a deep breath and submerge. Block out all of the crashing loudness and swim in a straight line. No thought. No decisions. Just one direction at a time toward something I know I want.

  “Who is going to stop all of this?” I wonder to him.

  “I don’t know, Mel.”

  Outside, the crowd screams as we hear the helicopter make another pass.

  Suddenly, I’m so tired, I can barely stand. I slide down the wall and sit on the concrete steps in the darkness. “How’s your hand?”

  “It hurts. A lot.” He sits next to me, both of us listening to the ugly sounds from the other side of the wall. There’s nothing to see but darkness. I close my eyes. “Melanie?”

  “Yeah?”

  “I’m glad I found you.”

  His words hang in the dark.

  “Were you looking for me? Is that why you’re here?”

  “What do you think?”

  “Your friend, Will…”

  “No, I came to find you.”

  I hear his words, and I hold my breath. Don’t say anything, stupid. I don’t want to ruin this moment with dumbness.

  He came here to find me.

  I turn to face him. “I’m glad you’re here.” When I turn in his direction, there is just enough light for me to see the outline of face. I feel like if I reached out to touch him, I would already know the rise and fall of his bones and skin, a map of this boy that I’ve known all my life.

  Ja-red, Ja-red. I breathe him in rhythm.

  “I know your face,” I say.

  Jared reaches for me in the dark. He guides my face to his. “I know your face too.” He leans closer, his hand behind my neck, his fingertips rough but warm. His lips graze mine. He’s shaking, and so am I. We stay here, as close as we can be without touching. He is frozen. I tremble. I don’t want to move away. I want him to move closer.

  The metallic boom of an opening door at the bottom of the stairwell makes us both jump away from each other. Footsteps sound on the stairs.

  I jump up and reach out for the wall to steady myself. Jared finds my hand, and I help him stand. The footsteps climb closer to us. Turning around the last corner of the staircase, one person blinds us with the flashlight from his phone.

  “Jared?” a familiar voice calls out.

  “Robbins? I’m right here. With Melanie,” Jared says.

  “Oh, hey Mel, it’s me, your best friend in the whole wide world,” I hear Chris Robbins voice drawl in the darkness.

  Chapter 26

  Toxic-landia

  I fling the door open into the sunlight, and it crashes against the brick wall and rebounds, almost slamming Robbins in the face.

  “What is wrong with you?” he shouts. I turn around and head towards him. I can barely see him through the blood behind my eyes.

  “Why does she hate you?” I ask as I raise my purple fist to pound it into his face.

  “What, you’re going to hit me with your broken hand? You’re crazy. Calm the fuck down,” he says as he backs off, holding his hands in front of his face.

  “WHAT DID YOU DO TO HER?” I ask again. As soon as the words are out of my mouth, I choke on the air. My lungs close up, and I gag and swallow. I can’t open my eyes, and I can’t get enough air into my lungs. The air is thick, sour, artificial, and I gag again. I hear Chris choke too.

  “Tear gas,” he gasps.

  I stumble blindly, tripping over the concrete stoop, catching myself with my lame hand, and screaming as the pain rips through me.

  Somehow, we make it into the hallway. I stagger, leaning against the wall, in the direction of the bathroom. Chris is behind me. He throws up in the sink, and I throw my whole body into the shower stall and turn on the cold water. The water is freezing, but it clears out my head and my eyes.

  “Do this, seriously,” I choke out to him. I scrub the fingers of my good hand through my hair, washing out the poison. It takes a few minutes before I can really open my eyes. I hear Chris find his way into a shower stall down the long row.

  When we are able to breathe again, we go back to Will’s room and strip down, pulling his clothes out of the closet. It’s not like we have a choice. I can’t freeze my ass off in soaking wet clothes. We sit on the stained carpet of the fraternity room.

  “That was crazy.” I lie back and throw an arm over my eyes, blocking out the fluorescent lights that hurt my stinging eyes. Outside, helicopters beat out a thum-thum-thum over the hum of the riot outside.

  Chris pulls a package of saltine crackers from a crate next to Will’s microwave. “You’re what’s crazy, dude. What is going on in your head? You’re all twisted up. You attack Newton, get in JT’s face, punch a wall, and then, you’re going to fight me?”

  I don’t know what to say. I can’t remember getting angry. “I don’t know what’s with me. Ever since the quake, it just comes up,” I mutter. “I’m sorry.”

  “I don’t even know why you were pissed off. And why were you shouting at me about Melanie?” he asks, his mouth full of crackers. I know that any answer is going to make me sound like the freak that I am.

  “She gets all tense every time she sees you. And you kissed her. I can’t stand to think about that, the same way I can’t stand to think about Newton touching her,” I say.

  “So you like her. That isn’t that weird.”

  I can’t argue with him. I more-than-like Melanie. I just haven’t figured out what to do about it.

  “I need to go find her,” I say.

  Robbins holds up a hand.

  “Whoa. Slow down. I’m guessing she’s not going to go for a stroll out there in toxic-landia,” he says, noddin
g to the window covered with a big flag with a pot leaf on it. “Your reaction to everything is kind of Hulk-ish right now.”

  “I feel Hulk-ish. I don’t have any control. It feels like more than mad. It’s something bigger,” I say. “The world changed in a minute, and so did I.

  “Like the Hulk,” he says, flexing.

  “Ok, whatever. But now, I’m back in this house, the same place I was that night.”

  “The earthquake night?”

  I nod, my head still resting against the floor. When I close my eyes, there it is: a flipbook of pictures I try to push out of my head everyday: the beam breaking, the dust flying in front of the emergency lights--“And it was horrible.” I’m too tired to keep it in anymore. Tears burn up into my throat. “There was blood. And bones. And fire. And I walked outside, and it was the same for miles.” My hot tears come up faster than I can wipe them away. I turn away from him. I can’t stop falling apart in all different ways and all different directions.

  Chris clears his throat. “Hey, Portillo. I didn’t know what you saw. No one knew where you were that night. All I knew was that Stina was pissed off you weren’t at the party.”

  “I’m a fucking mess.” I rub my face the plaid shirt that I just stole from Will. Chris looks at me for a minute, and then, he shrugs.

  “Of course you’re a mess. We’re all messy right now. How could you see all that shit and not be a basket case? You watched a man get shot in the street by Kevin’s dad, for Christ’s sake. Hell, my own dad is in jail right now. There’s some kind of war going on over our heads. We just got teargassed. Freak the fuck out if you want to. Do you want another cracker?” He crunches one into his mouth and hands me the package.

  I wipe my tears on my sleeve and take the crackers. “Thanks.”

  “Look, nothing happened with Melanie and me. She was my Spanish partner last year. I teased her a little. She got all tan and hot over the summer. After class one day, I asked her out. She said no. I tried to kiss her anyway, and she ran away.”