Earthquake
Cecilia G
Summer had just begun, and I was lying on my roof thinking of what to do. Anytime something bad happened, if I’m bored, or if I’m sad. I just go on the roof and think; I think about all my problems and try to find a way to solve each and every one of them. I think about what I should do if I’m bored. Sometimes I even try to plan my life, so that I know what I’m doing with myself in the future. I don’t want to be like one of those bums on the streets begging for money. I want to be an educated, wealthy lawyer, I want to live in a three-story house in L.A., and I want three kids and a supportive husband.
At this point in my life, I just finished my junior year at El Cerrito, where I hate it! Everybody is so stuck up it’s incredible, but I think I can finish my last two years.
It’s three O’ Clock in the afternoon and I’m still lying on the roof when I hear the phone ring. I climb down a tree branch and swing into my bedroom, holding on to the top part of the window. “Hello?” I said, quickly putting the phone up to my ear. It was my friend Sofia. She asked me to come to the spot and hang out and because of the fact that I had nothing to do, I agreed. The spot was a place in San Francisco where me and all of my friends went to hang out when we had time. It was off of 20th, on Martha Street at the top of a steep hill under a bunch of rocks that were piled on top of each other. There’s a path of dirt that leads to a little area where we always go to talk and just to hang out.
I just got off of bat and I’m walking up the hill towards the spot. It’s hard and tiring, but finally I got there. My friends Serena, Jack, Sofia and Andre were all sitting in between two big rocks drinking. They’d always drink, but even though I decide to stay away from anything of that sort, they still offer, knowing that I’m going to say no.
I sat on Andre’s lap and we discussed our plans for the summer, which led to a long conversation and we talked for hours.
Around 6:10, we were all tired and ready to go home, but as soon as we stood up, the ground started trembling which made us all drop to the floor. Rocks were falling from every direction and the ground wouldn’t stop moving. We were all piled on top of each other screaming our hearts out and finally the ground stopped shaking. I tried to get up, but there was a huge rock crushing my leg, even id I was able to get up, I wouldn’t be able to see anything. It was pitch black. I was in San Francisco, crushed under hundreds of big rocks, lying between 4 of my best friends in the whole world. We had no food, nothing to drink and we didn’t know what to except. Jack was trying to calm everybody down, but there was no way anybody was calming down. It was becoming had to breathe and my whole body was cold. Serena seemed pretty calm, and she’s the type of person who I’d imagine would be screaming in this situation. “Serena are you ok?” I said in an extremely worried voice. “Serena…Serena, can you hear me?” my voice was rising. I tapped her on the head. “Serena please answer me me!!” Now I was getting really scared and my voice was trembling “Serena please…please answer me” I cried “PLEASE!” At this point Jack, Andre, and Sofia were all worrying about Serena. Everybody was yelling her name, but there was no answer. She was lying diagonally across my leg on top of the rock crushing me. I lifted my left arm hitting Serena’s cold body and when I got to her stomach, I felt a big rock. The tip of the rock had gone through Serena’s stomach and was now lying on top of my leg. I was screaming and crying and I didn’t have any clue what was going to happen or what to do. I told my friends that I could feel the rock going through Serena’s body and that there was a giant hole in her stomach. At that point all I heard were gasps. It was so quiet; I could almost hear the teardrops hitting the ground. Serena my friend for eleven years had passed away lying right on top of me. That’s the only thing that went through my mind all…night…long. I could see the light in between the small cracks in the rocks. The sun was rising. We were all dehydrated, hungry, and hurting. It was so incredibly frightening. I had never been this still in such a long amount of time, I had never gone so long without food or water. Maybe it’s just my time to go. That was the last thing going through my mind when everything went BLANK.
“Her right leg is broken, her left elbow is fractured and her left knee had to be put back in place, it was dislocated.” I opened my eyes and a tall African American doctor was standing over me talking to my mom. “Ok, thank you very much doctor. When will I be able to take her home?” My mom asked. “Sometime in the next week.” The doctor responded walking out of the room. “She’ll be ok, she’s a strong one, she really hung in there.” My mom looked down at me. “Baby, you’re awake!” “Hi mommy, where are Jack, Andre, Serena and Sofia?” “Oh honey, Jack broke his right arm, he’s in the room next door. Andre broke his spine and he is paralyzed. He’ll be in a wheelchair for the rest of his life. Sofia is ok. She was underneath Jack and Andre during the whole accident. She’s got some bruises and some scars, other than that she’s ok. Now Serena had a beer bottle crushed on her face and a very large rock pushed into the lower part of her stomach. I’m afraid she passed away baby.” I remembered Serena and I burst into tears. “Why was she on top of me? It should have been me! She saved my life and her life was taken instead. I will never forgive myself.!!” “Honey, I’m really sorry. We’ll be out of here in a week and everything is going to be fine. You can’t blame yourself for everything!” I will always remember the day of the earthquake, July 2nd 1989.
