I Survived the Japanese Tsunami, 2011

by Lauren Tarshis

  Ben pushed Harry underneath, and then scrambled in after him.

  “Wait!” Harry screamed. “Nya!”

  The cat was in the middle of the room, frozen in shock.

  Harry tried to crawl out, but Ben gripped on to his ankle, pulling Harry back in.

  “Get her!” Harry screamed at Ben.

  Ben slid out from under the bed and crawled on his elbows after Nya. He caught her by the tail. She howled and scratched at him, but he managed to pull her back so that Harry could grab her.

  Ben had barely made it under the bed when the room seemed to explode.

  And the ceiling came crashing down.

  Finally the shaking stopped.

  It was pitch-dark. Except for Harry’s soft cries, everything was completely silent.

  “Ben?” Harry said, his voice barely a whimper.

  “We’re okay,” Ben said.

  And somehow they were. As the dust settled, Ben could see wreckage all over the floor — broken roof tiles, huge chunks of wood and plaster. The bed had protected them.

  The panic started to creep back, cold hands climbing up Ben’s spine. His mind began to swirl with questions.

  Where were Mom and Ojisan?

  What had happened to the rest of the house?

  He and Harry had managed to survive the shaking. But what if Mom and Ojisan hadn’t found a safe place? What if the earthquake started again? What if …

  He closed his eyes again and took a deep breath, than another. His thoughts slowed down enough for Ben to remember that Mom had been trained by the air force, just like Dad. She knew how to take care of herself. And Ojisan had built this house himself. He’d know where they would be safe.

  Harry huddled close to Ben, crying hard.

  “I’m scared,” he sobbed. Ben patted his back and tried to comfort him. But Harry was screaming now, worse than when Dr. Sato told him he’d need stitches. Patting him on the back wasn’t working.

  “Jedi knights have to be strong,” Ben said. “Now that you have a scar, you have to be brave.”

  That seemed to work.

  Harry gave a big sniff.

  He wiped his nose on his sleeve.

  He snuggled Nya close. “We have to be brave, Nya,” he whispered.

  A moment later, there were footsteps.

  “Ben! Harry!”

  “Mom!” Harry shrieked.

  “Boys, are you hurt?” she called, her voice ringing clear and strong through the dust.

  “We’re okay!” Ben shouted, trying to sound braver than he felt. “We’re under the bed!”

  “Stay where you are!” Ojisan called. Their uncle was there, too!

  It seemed like forever before Mom and Ojisan were able to clear a path through the wreckage. But soon they were in the bedroom. And there was Mom, on her knees, peering under the bed at Ben and Harry. Her face was streaked with dirt and sweat, but her eyes were filled with relief.

  “You can come out now,” she told them.

  Ben pushed Harry into Mom’s arms, and Ben climbed out after him.

  Mom wrapped her arms around both of them. Lately, Ben had pulled away from Mom’s hugs. Not now. He could hear Mom’s heart pounding through her thick sweater. Nya crawled out and buried her head in Harry’s leg.

  “That was very smart, to hide under the bed,” Mom said, letting the boys go so she could look at them.

  “Ben took us there,” Harry said, picking up Nya again.

  Mom looked at Ben. She reached out and touched his cheek, and he felt a flush of unexpected pride.

  But there was no time to talk. Mom found Harry’s shoes and helped him put them on.

  “Come,” Ojisan said, plucking Nya from the floor and handing her to Harry. “We need to get outside. That was a very strong earthquake. It is the strongest I have ever felt. There will be more shaking. It is not safe in the house.”

  As if the earth itself had heard Ojisan, there was a sharp rumble that brought another piece of ceiling crashing to the floor.

  They hurried through the house, stepping over fallen furniture, piles of books, and broken glass. The rest of the house was still standing, but it looked as if it could come down any second. Ben was relieved to get outside. They made their way across the yard and into the street. Some big trees had fallen, but Ojisan’s cherry tree was still standing.

  “Wait here,” Ojisan said. He hurried to the middle of the street, where a group of his neighbors was gathered. Three of the houses on the road were completely wrecked. But it seemed as though everyone was safe.

  Mom, Ben, and Harry huddled together in the cold. Harry held Nya tight.

  “The worst is over,” Mom said.

  Yes, Ben told himself. Nothing could be as bad as that earthquake.

  But then Ben noticed that Ojisan had drifted to the edge of the street. He was standing with two other men. They were all looking intently at the ocean in the distance.

  Ben followed the path of their gaze until he figured out what they were looking at: a strange gray cloud hovering over the ocean.

  It looked almost like smoke.

  Was a big ship on fire?

  No, that didn’t make sense. No ship was that big.

  A siren blared.

  And with a sudden jolt, Ben understood that it wasn’t a cloud.

  It wasn’t a fire.

  It was a wave.

  A gigantic wave, taller than a building, and so wide he couldn’t see where it started or ended. It seemed to stretch endlessly across the ocean.

  Ojisan shouted.

  “Tsunami!”

  There was no time to think.

  “Get to the car!” Ojisan shouted.

  Mom picked up Harry and they all sprinted to the car and jumped in. Mom pulled Harry onto her lap in the front; Ben threw himself into the back.

  Ojisan had the engine running even before Ben had closed his door. The car screeched out of the driveway.

  Why was Ojisan panicking? Why was everyone running? They weren’t very close to the ocean — it was at least a five-minute walk. Ben had never heard of a wave traveling so far inland.

  Probably Ojisan just didn’t want to take any chances.

  The road had been split apart by the earthquake. Ojisan had to swerve around the cracks. Ben flew from side to side in the backseat until he managed to put on his seat belt.

  “What’s happening?” Harry cried, hugging Nya so tight Ben worried the cat’s head would pop off.

  “We’re just moving away from the ocean,” Mom said in her usual calm voice.

  There was a strange noise. It rose up suddenly, a roar louder even than the earthquake. This time it seemed as if jets were landing right behind them.

  Ben turned, and what he saw almost stopped his heart:

  A frothing wall of water, rushing up the street.

  And it wasn’t just water. The wave carried parts of houses, a smashed car, an entire pine tree, slabs of wood and metal. It was devouring everything in its path. Two men were running on the sidewalk. Ben gasped as the wave swallowed them whole.

  And now the wave was coming for them.

  Ojisan stomped on the gas pedal. The engine whined, and the car zoomed forward.

  Mom reached back and grabbed Ben’s hand, squeezing it tight. Their eyes locked. At first Ben couldn’t read the expression on Mom’s face, because he’d never seen it before, not even in the days after Dad’s accident.

  Mom was scared.

  And suddenly there was water all around them, foaming black water, rising up in angry waves.

  The car spun wildly as the waves rushed up around the tires.

  Time seemed to stop.

  The car tipped sharply in the rising water. Ben was held tight by his seat belt. Mom and Harry toppled onto Ojisan, and they all crashed together into his door.

  The door popped open. Ojisan fell out of the car.

  “Ojisan!” Ben screamed.

  And now Mom and Harry were about to fall out, too! The car door was swung wide
open, and Mom and Harry teetered in the doorway. Mom clung to the steering wheel with one hand, and kept her other arm around Harry, who gripped Nya.

  Ben jumped forward to grab Mom, but his seat belt choked him back.

  “Mom!” Ben shouted. “Hold on!”

  “I’m trying!” Mom said.

  Ben struggled with his seat belt, and finally got it open. But before he could grab hold of Mom, the car tipped all the way to the side, almost all the way over. Mom, Harry, and Nya tumbled out.

  Ben watched in horror as the water swept them away.

  Ben tried to climb over the seats, to dive out after them.

  But the water was higher now, thrashing the car back and forth. The door slammed shut. Waves crashed over the roof of the car. Freezing water gushed in, surrounding Ben. In seconds, it was up to his chest. Ben tried to open the door, but it wouldn’t budge.

  The water was at his chin now.

  And there was no way out.

  The car spun and flipped as it sank deeper and deeper. It became pitch-dark, and Ben got so dizzy he couldn’t tell which way was up and which was down.

  It was like being in a locked box filled with water or … a plane.

  A fighter jet that had crashed into the ocean.

  Ben remembered the stories Dad had told him about pilot training. It took years to learn to be an F-16 pilot. And the training never ended. There were always new formations to learn, different drills to practice. The worst, Dad said, were the water survival drills.

  Every military pilot is trained so they can survive in a water crash. A plane sinks quickly, and fills with water in seconds. Even the best pilot will get completely confused under the water, just like Ben felt now.

  And so the air force puts its pilots through practice drills. Twice a year, Dad went to a special training center where he was blindfolded, strapped into a fake cockpit, flipped over, and dunked into a freezing-cold pool. He had to unstrap, find an exit, and swim to the surface — all while holding his breath. In his early years, Dad sometimes failed the test. A rescue diver had to fish him out and drag him to the surface.

  But there was no rescue diver waiting for Ben now.

  He would escape, or he would drown.

  Ben closed his eyes and remembered what Dad had said about escaping from a sunken plane: how pilots turned their hands into eyes, how they would feel their way through the plane until they found a way out. Doors don’t work in a sinking plane; the pressure of the water seals them shut. Pilots need to find a hole, or break a window.

  The water was past Ben’s mouth now, brushing against his nose. He lifted his chin and took a deep breath, knowing it would be his last until he got to the surface. His hands fumbled blindly along the surfaces of the car. He tried to picture what he was feeling — the seat, the roof, the window. He found the window button, but nothing happened when he pushed it. The car’s electricity must have stopped working in the water.

  Now he had just a few seconds left. His lungs felt as if they were going to explode. He was losing strength. He groped until he found the steering wheel. There wasn’t much room in Ojisan’s tiny car, but he managed to pull his knees to his chest, and swing his body around. With all his might, he kicked at the window of the passenger door.

  Boom.

  The window didn’t budge.

  He kicked again, and again.

  Boom.

  Boom.

  Boom.

  CRACK!

  Ben gave one last kick, and the glass popped out of the frame.

  He turned and squirmed through the opening, fighting the force of the water gushing into the car. He pushed against the car with both feet, and rocketed up to the surface.

  But he had barely taken one breath when he was sucked under again.

  The water seemed to be alive, with powerful arms that thrashed Ben, tore at him. Each time he fought his way to the surface to take a breath, the water grabbed him and pulled him down again.

  He couldn’t keep this up, he knew. The water was winning.

  And then he caught a glimpse of something big bobbing in the water, just a few feet away. He had no idea what it was. For a second, he imagined it was a whale. Ben threw his body forward, kicking with every ounce of energy he had left.

  It was a couch!

  Ben managed to pull himself up.

  He gulped in the air, filling his aching lungs again and again.

  His mouth and nose were filled with the disgusting water. He spit and coughed and blew out his nose, trying to get rid of the bitter chemical taste. He blinked his eyes, which felt as though they had been burned.

  Slowly, Ben caught his breath. His vision cleared.

  He looked around him, unable to believe that what he was seeing was real.

  For as far as he could see, there was water — a churning black soup choked with shredded wood, slabs of glass and metal, and other wreckage.

  Ben tipped his head back and screamed.

  “Mom!” he shouted. “Ojisan! Harry!”

  His voice echoed out, and nobody called back.

  There was not another person anywhere to be seen.

  The wave had swept them all away.

  Minutes passed, and Ben floated on the couch, his face buried in his arms. The blue sky of the morning had turned a dark, bruised gray. The water had calmed, the churning had stopped. Now Ben just drifted along, like a castaway in the middle of the sea. He had never felt so cold in his life.

  Or so alone. Ben hadn’t even felt this alone in those first weeks after Dad’s accident, when he had locked himself away in his room. He had refused to see or talk to anyone, even Ojisan, who had stayed for weeks after Dad’s funeral. But in that lonely darkness, Ben had known that Mom was never far from him. There was always Harry knocking on his door, his coach and his friends ringing the doorbell. Ben had sent them all away. But now he understood how important it had been, knowing that all those people were there for him.

  Waiting.

  Now there was nobody.

  A bitter wind blew. Ben shivered. His teeth chattered so loudly that at first he didn’t hear the high-pitched sound drifting from somewhere nearby.

  Eee, eee.

  Ben looked up, sure he was hearing things.

  But there it was again.

  Eee, eee.

  He searched the water. Objects floated by: a lamp, newspapers, a huge stuffed teddy bear, bottles, papers, a soccer ball.

  And about ten feet away, something tiny moved slowly on the water, floating on top of a mattress. At first Ben thought he was looking at a ragged stuffed animal.

  But then he noticed the z-shaped tail.

  And he heard the noise again.

  “Eee, eee!”

  Nya!

  Before he could stop himself, Ben leaped into the water.

  He swam as quickly as he could, blazing a trail through the wreckage.

  He reached the mattress and grabbed hold.

  “Nya! It’s me, Ben!”

  The cat stood there, shivering, staring at him with cloudy blue eyes.

  “Don’t you recognize me?”

  He’d gone crazy now, Ben realized, if he was talking to a cat.

  A cat that probably had no idea who he was.

  But then he saw a kind of flash in Nya’s eyes. She limped to the edge of the mattress, and put her nose right up to his face. And she started to purr.

  Tears sprang into Ben’s eyes as Nya nuzzled him. He felt such a rush of relief, as though this scrawny old cat was a helicopter filled with marines coming to his rescue.

  He hoisted himself up onto the mattress, and sat with his legs crossed. He lifted Nya and held her against his chest, the way Harry always held her.

  It was the first second of calm he’d felt since the earthquake.

  But it didn’t last.

  Because suddenly the water was moving again. The mattress was being carried through the water, fast. Only this time the water was flowing in the opposite direction — toward the sea.
<
br />   What was happening?

  Ben thought about a trip to the coast the family had taken last summer, one of the best weekends they’d ever had. Mom and Harry had built a gigantic sand castle on the beach. Dad and Ben had bodysurfed for hours, riding giant waves to shore. When the waves lost power, the water would get sucked back out to sea. The current was so powerful that Dad had to hold Ben so he didn’t get swept away.

  That’s what was happening now.

  The giant wave had lost power. It was being sucked back into the ocean.

  And it was taking Ben and Nya with it.

  The mattress plowed through the water, pushing through piles of wreckage.

  Think! Ben told himself.

  Soon they would be out to sea!

  Just ahead, he saw something — a tall, skinny tree poking up through the water. It was his only chance. He’d have a split second to jump off the mattress and grab the tree.

  Ben lifted Nya, and put her around the back of his neck, like a scarf.

  “Hold on to me,” he told her.

  He rose up, crouching low on the mattress. Nya dug her claws into his shoulders. But Ben didn’t flinch. He kept his eye on the tree, knowing that the timing had to be perfect.

  He counted down in his mind, like the numbers on a basketball shot clock:

  5, 4, 3, 2, 1 …

  He jumped off the mattress. Nya sprang off of his back and latched onto the tree. Ben reached out and tried to grab hold. But he couldn’t get a good grip. His frozen hands slid across the slippery bark.

  And the water took hold of him and started pulling him away.

  And then something stabbed him in the back.

  He thought he’d been hit by a piece of glass.

  But it was Nya. She had her front paws on Ben, and her back claws still anchored to the tree. Nya was trying to hold him in place!

  It felt as if ten curved nails were hooked into his skin. But Ben gritted his teeth, and forced his icy fingers to cling to the tree. He swung his legs, wrapping them tightly around the trunk. Bit by bit, he shimmied up, so his body was out of the water.

  He’d made it.

  Nya unhooked from him, and climbed up the tree so that she was resting on Ben’s shoulder.