A Lullaby To The Weary Earth

It pretty much look like a normal Saturday at the Kennedy Park in Florida as teens cycled with their buddies. At the same time, a few centimeters away families played a friendly game of soccer, as the laughter of the children playing in the water fountain could be heard nearby.

In another scenario you have a few home owners busying themselves putting up shutters and wooden planks on their windows. Simultaneously, while adjacent their next door neighbors were bringing in sound systems and crates upon crates of savanna beers getting ready to have a party, which the police got a wind of and quickly shut the idea down–then slap them with a fine.

In the interim–Asians, blacks, whites and Arabs finally unite for the mere purpose of trying to buy up cases and cases of toilet paper and water which seem to be the current trend. The authorities were called in to try and restore order, as the shop owners got overwhelmed and wanted to prevent kleptomaniacs from looting their supplies.

Francine a 36 year old CFO, made her way home.like she normally did, turned on her television and then sat down to have a cup of chamomile tea.

Twenty four hours ago, she had left work and was inside a crowded supermarket to get water, toilet papers and whatever tin foods she thought she could tolerate–like a responsible person should.

Most of the country was making preparations for the category 5 hurricane that was to hit the following night and so Francine took the usual precautions to prepare for this contingency.

The day leading up to the storm saw no sort of change to wind forces or anything to indicate that a storm was actually gonna hit.

Occasionally, Francine would look through the blinds for some indication but the weather condition remained stagnant, there was no change in the past several hours–so she went to bed.

During the course of the night Francine found herself swimming in a deep pool of freezing cold water. She tried to get out but the harder she tried the deeper she sunk, it was as if some unknown force was pulling her down–somehow she could not get out. She fought harder and harder, that’s when she woke up and realize it had only been a dream.

Francine woke up to gusty sounds of the wind on her roof with water dripping from her ceiling.

She got her lantern as there was no electricity—the utility company most likely turned it off for safety reasons.

Francine managed to push her bed to another area and placed a bucket where the water was dripping then peek through her blinds once more, it was still dark outside but she could hear the trees roaring angrily in the wind along with other unrecognizable sounds.

She had another cup of chamomile with the boiling water she had left in her thermos last night– as she always thinking outside the box, afterwards she change her bed linens and went back to sleep–that’s the beauty of chamomile tea–let’s you feel calm.

Francine was startled out of her sleep again, this time by loud swishing and banging sounds, the storm seem to be at it’s full force and the sound disturbed her sleep.

She got up and peek through her blinds once more, and what she saw was a scary scene before here eyes. Almost everything was displaced and laid scattered everywhere–trees had fallen on her neighbors cars, fencing and electrical wires had tore down and there was also a pool of water with debris and rocks that had piled up at the front of Francine’s yard.

While she was still looking through her blinds, her entire roof blew off and landed on the ground, she jumped in astonishment as cold water made contact with her skin, feeling a bit of panic setting in, she immediately jump into action by dialing the number to the red cross office–A place where had volunteered occasionally. She explained her situation and they assured her they would try and get help to her as soon as possible, as power lines had fallen, the roads were block and a lot of other families just like her had had their roof blown off as well. They encourage her to stay positive and wait for a rescue team.

Disappointed she hang up the phone just then a huge piece of her ceiling fell to the ground with a thud and water just flooded the inside her house–she was completely soaked and trembling by this.

At 7 am Francine found herself standing in her PJ’s–soaking wet. Everything in the house was soaked, all her important documents, clothing, furniture–They were all ruined.

When it rain, it pours, she thought.

Later on that day when the storm had died down, she got a message from her boss saying if she did not show up for work the next day then her ass could find a different job–clearly that’s my biggest problem, Francine thought.

The temperatures seem to have changed again too dropping to as low as 20 degrees. “This weather must be bipolar!” She said out loud.

It was the kind of weather that Florida haven’t seen in a while. As Francine stood in the freezing temperatures—wet and trembling, the only thing she felt was the burning sensation in her fingers and a body that was numb from the cold—she had lost all sensation in her hands as she waited impatiently for the red cross bus that just would not materialized.

Feeling frustrated, she rolled herself into a ball with a small sense of defeat, thinking this is the end.

She started cry because she did not see a way out, her body temperature had dropped to the point where she could not speak or move anymore.

As she tried to calculate her next move, she heard voices outside. A voice was calling her name now but she could not answer or move. 

As the calling got closer, she recognize the voice to be that of Bob from the fire department, he’s a friend of Francine’s Dad more like an uncle to her—and she does call him uncle Bob. Ever since Francine Dad passed he’s been looking out for her and her safety—a promise he made and has kept for the past six year.