Amurehna

The sky looms heavy with storm clouds, the ocean roars in seething restlessness below. I am standing at the edge of

the city, which is situated in cluttered layers. The lowest layer is one diamond patterned metal grate secured by chains. I overhear someone saying that there is another hurricane vortex forming at the base of the city and they are worried it will grow. Curiously, cautiously, I move to the edge of the grate and peer over the side. I see a swirling vortex a few hundred feet below, with each moment , the center deepens and the eye widens. I back away, suddenly the ocean rises to the underside of the grate, slapping at my feet. I grab a plastic bag that has a pair of rain boots and my cellphone as I hurry away, climbing up up to the next layer of yellow concrete. I run a few steps but feel like I'm forgetting something, so I turn to look and realize that the bag I keep my dream journal in is still down there. The roar of the water is tremendous, I drop back down and grab the bag by the strap, but it was caught underneath so when I tug on it the bag spills open. Cursing, I stuff the contents inside...and my phone slips out of the plastic bag.
I throw the strap diagonal across my chest and bend down to grab my phone, the water immediately absorbing the platform. With a surge of panicky triumph I throw myself up three more layers before the water gets me.

Here I am on the edge of lucidity, somehow the way I move my body, and the way I have my arm extended

overhead, keeps me from being submerged, I manage to surge with each new wave and stay above surface. The ocean consumes everything in great cross-hatching fluctuation. There is one extremely tall central yellow building and I progress toward it, I'm lucky enough that the water leads me to the mid-building entrance. I see it's a hotel, and many people have fled here as the roof may be the only high ground. I run up the stairs and pass by a hall with 8 elevator doors and go straight to some sort of check-in table. I kneel down in front of it and put on my boots, stuffing my phone into my satchel. I wonder if I should bother taking it with me, my journal is ruined now. I stay there for a long time, falling into a kind of distracted lull.

"What the hell am I doing?!" I think, surging to my feet, I have to get to the roof before the whole building is submerged.

I see my boyfriend swept away by a crowd of people, all headed for the elevators, a woman and her small son are at the tail of the group, all trying to press themselves into the only open elevator. I step to another one and push the button quickly several times. The doors slide open and I throw myself inside, punching the button that will take me to the roof. The elevator rises but water begins to filter in through every seam.

"Oh, of course!" I think sarcastically.

I am spat out onto the roof which is waist deep in water, there is no one else on the roof. I start swimming, noting the many ships out on the water exploding or simply sinking, then turning into dark blotches in the water. I paddle past one boat as it is bursting violently into flames and I'm worried that the oil in the water will catch fire and I'll be burned to a crisp.
I realize that I have separated from my body and am watching myself from high in the sky, and that I can choose to be above instead of in the water. So I do. My escape is that easy. I sail onward with effortless speed, the wind roaring in my ears.There are two boats not sinking, one is speeding out of view over the horizon and looks like a clipper ship. The other is a little motor boat pulling up to a fenced cliff's edge that survived the watery cataclysm. I direct myself toward it, a familiar Japanese man extends his arm to me, I reach down to take his hand and he guides me soundly to the deck.

"You're alright!" I cry, happy to see him again. With sweet amazement I realize that his boys are with him, part of me knows that

they died years ago in an accident but somehow this event has returned them to his care. Though they are extremely pale and a little grey. The youngest is three, there is a middle boy of about fourteen, and a nineteen year old. They all look so familiar but I can't figure out why. The two other boys greet me like a long lost family friend, and take turns giving me a hug before climbing to the other side of the fence with their father. He leans on the top board and tells me that the return of his boys was meant to be, then earnestly asks after my boyfriend.

"I don't know, I saw him on the sixth floor before I got in the elevator, but no one else was on the roof." I start to say that I

think he is dead, but there's a painful wrenching in my chest and I can't get the words out before I cover my face and cry.

"Maybe it wasn't meant to be?" The man asks me. I don't want to believe that though, I want him to have escaped.
"Maybe he made it to that other ship..."
"Sure, maybe." He smiles at me.

I look out over the water and on either side of it, like the banks of a river, there are great water-logged expanses of land. He explains that the waves overtook that too, but immediately began seeping away after stripping all the trees bare.

There's something about seeing many people crammed into a small space and getting ready to go on or are returning from a hunting trip, and ordering fast food. I wonder how long the stores of easy, familiar food will last and what these people will do when it runs out.