December Twenty Eighth Nineteen Eighty Nine...

It is almost half past ten in the morning. Ten-twenty-eight to be exact...

Dano and I are sitting on the peach-coloured leather lounge in her Rumpus room, watching the new Gun's n Roses video clip on MTV. We both agree that this is their best ever song and are idly chatting about Axl's skinny body. He is her idea of a Rock-god and I'm gently ripping her off because I reckon he's too weedy to be hot.

Nic and her boyfriend are picking us up at eleven to go shopping with them. I don't know why- none of us ever have any money. The song has almost finished when the television suddenly blinks off. We stare at each other briefly in surprise; and then the walls began to shake.

There is a large rumbling, it's coming from Everywhere, and I remember thinking that maybe the washing machine had blown up- because Dano's mum was just downstairs doing a load of laundry a minute ago. I can hear her now; screaming from upstairs...

Neither of us moves an inch. Dano has her mouth opened wide in surprise, like she was about to say something but had forgotten what. I can see the bricks of the house swaying in slow-motion and then it is over- almost as soon as it began- and the house becomes solid again. We look at each other, agog, and then our gaze takes us outside to the inground pool; where we watch as a large wave spreads out and washes itself out over the side, almost as if someone invisible had just dove into the still water.

We wander out onto the street where some of the other neighbours have also gathered. We are all wondering Did Everybody Else Just Feel That? What was That? Someone tells us they've just heard on their radio that there might've been a massive gas explosion at the nearby Steelworks. That seems more likely to the radio announcers- we're not on a Fault Line, after all. Then they played Martika's version of Carol King's song I Feel The Earth Move- and then we turned the radio off to save it's batteries.

All the power has gone off- and Dano's neighbour, Mister Green, tells us that the cracks in his ceiling have opened up; but at least everyone's okay. That's the main thing. Nic arrives late; she tells us that all the traffic lights are out and wonders why- because the radio in her car is stuffed and they hadn't felt the Earth moving- they had been driving along and had missed out on all the motion. We decide to go shopping anyway- maybe they still have power in the shops.

There's a lot of traffic on the roads now- people are trying to get home for some reason. It's becoming apparent that this was an Earthquake and that it's been a fair bit more destructive than we had initially thought. We're turned away from the shopping mall; the Security Guard asking us if we hadn't known there had just been a Natural Disaster? Yeah so; we only wanted to go shopping. I didn't know it was suddenly a crime of some sort. It's only when he tells us that the building might not be safe anymore and that they have to wait for the engineers to inspect it that I start to realise the magnitude of the problem...

We decide to go over to Knob's house and see how they experienced it over in over neck of the woods, and on the way there we learn that the Worker's Club has collapsed- trapping many and killing eleven from the early morning Bingo crowd. Later we learn that another two were killed underneath a collapsed shop awning on Beaumont Street and I catch myself feeling sort of glad that it's happened in the morning- if it had to happen at all, that is- because there is supposed to be a big concert held at the Club tonight-and my Sister had said she was planning to go along with all of the Henny Penny girls she worked with. And the death toll would have been so much higher had there been more than two thousand people in the auditorium that night.

Anyway; when we got to Knob's she tells us that she had been asleep when it all happened but that she woke up when she was shaken off her bed. We decide that we'll have a party at her house tonight to celebrate living through the worst Earthquake in Australian history, and set about gathering the necessary alcohol and party food. And in all the rushing about I didn't have the foresight to let anyone know that I was safe and well- and made Myself un-contactable for the next thirty-six hours.

Whoops.

You see, my Parents and little Sister had all been away camping at the beach since Boxing Day, and unbeknownst to Me were at that very moment driving back in a mad panic to see that the house, and me and my older Sisters and the cat, were all okay. I didn't know that, though, and because it was the school holidays and I had just finished year ten and it was Summer again I suppose I thought it would be alright to do whatever I pleased.

I'll also make it very clear that I didn't know my Hubby yet when this next story happened; that doesn't happen until the week after I turned seventeen. Anyway- this little story (I'm planning on posting it tomorrow) is about a Boy who was in a Band called Burn.

Try saying that fast three times.