Friday, April 07, 2006

All Before DayLight(the story below is from out of my head but I guess it could have happened something like this, I suppose.)

Mamma woke my sister and I up before the crack of dawn . I can still hear her voice,"You girls get up now and get started with your chores before you go to school." We got dressed in our clothes that we do our chores in and made our way thru the house and down the steep steps out to the hen house . I wasn't really awake yet , it wasn't daylight and the hens were making an awful fuss I thought. " Hey Sissy, that's what I called my sister,, "Sissy what is wrong with the chickens"? "You , your scarring them like always". "No I'm not I haven't even gotten near them yet and look Mamma Cat keeps hiding her babies. Why is she acting so funny?" My sister was getting a little cranky with me I could hear it in her tone. Your the one who is acting funny now get those eggs and let's get back inside, I'm cold. I don't see how you can be cold when there is no wind blowing why it's so quite out here you could hear a pin drop. I can't remember it ever being this calm." C'mon now , I've gotten my basket full of eggs what's taking you so long? I'm going back in slow poke, see ya inside". My sister left me, I got a strange feeling and decided to turn and go in also. I had made it from the backyard where the hen house was and I was on the first landing of the steps when I heard this deep rumbling sound. I looked around but there was nothing there making the noise so I continued on up the steps. I looked over where Papa kept the mule he seemed really restless. I tighten my grip on my egg basket, Mamma would make a big fuss if we broke even one egg. As I took a couple of more steps I felt the stairs trembling, then without any warning the boards began to creak and made a terrible moan. I was scared now , then suddenly the back steps began to sway my sister hollered at me to get inside, the house began to pull away from the steps, my sister reached out her hand and shouted at me to grab her hand. Just as she clasped my hand and pulled me toward her, the steps twisted and collasped into a pile of lumber on the ground below. Mamma shoved us both under the wooden table and put both baskets of eggs in the pantry. I looked up at the dishes on the shelves , Mamma's dishes from England were crashing down onto the floor all around us. We were surrounded by broken glass . My sister was crying, Mamma had the mattress over her . I wasn't sure where Pappa and Uncle Jack and Lil Daniel were durring all of this upheval. Suddenly it stopped. Mamma told us to stay put for a minute, just in case it started up again. Pappa came running into the kitchen and told all of us to get outside right now. Mamma said ,"Grab something"!! My sister ran to our room and snatched up her hair brush and mirror set from Italy. Mamma grabbed the eggs and a quilt and some photographs of our grandparents and the deed to the house. Pappa told us to go to the Windmill out by Ocean Beach he and Uncle Jack and Lil Daniel would meet us there in a day or two. We carefully went out the front door, the steps were still attached but wobbly. Just as we all got out of the house it , the house as if it were alive breathed and exhaled a loud moan and slid down the hill.

12 comments:

Neo said...

Sky - Wow! That's messed up!

Talk about the leaning house of piza!

Peace & Hugs,

- Neo

Wendy C. said...

Wow...

Ellen said...

Yikes, and I thought tornados were frightening! Earthquakes must be real scary. Thank goodness you all escaped the house before it slid away...

Skye said...

Neo, how did you know I was craving pizza?>>>>>>>>>> Wendy,you like my story?>>>>>>>>>>> Ellen, you're comment made me go back and adjust the tittle. LOL!!! p.s. I'm not yet 102!! :) I feel like it somedays. :)<><><>><.Stay tuned part three coming over the weekend.

Ellen said...

No problem, sweetie. But I seem to remember you had a post up about the Opera singer before this one, and I went crazy looking for it... then thought it must be a *senior moment* on my part. LOL!
Cool pics... wherever did you find them?

Skye said...

Ellen the Opera singer got ahead of her self, Primadona!!! Wikipedia,so far. I have learned quite a bit since I started this project from two nights ago!

Ellen said...

LOL! Primadonna indeed!

Diamond said...

This story is perfection personified sweetie! Where have you been hiding this talent - I'm so glad you decided to let it shine!!!!!!!

Cathy said...

Do you worry about the next big one?...

Wendy C. said...

Yes - I love your story! I only caught that it was "straight out of your head" after I read it. While I was reading it I was all thinking how cool it is that someone wrote down their experience during the quake...it was very believable to me :-)

Michelle said...

Wow, you are one clever gal. Your writing is brilliant, had me captured :)

Skye said...

Yes, I do worry about the "Next Big One", but hopefully I and others have learned from the 1989 Loma Preita Quake and have done as much preparedness as humanly possible. Thank you all for your responses as I was wondering how it would be recieved. Now I must continue with the next installment. Oh yeah, I am more worried about the endless rainfall we are getting, as the ground is throughly saturated, we are no longer in a drough and the snowpack has got to melt and where is it going to go? Already a few levees have been breached and the resvoirs are near or full capitcy and why can't it Rain Men !!!!!!