Water & Wind.

*A short story I wrote as part of a writing exercise for a storytelling class I took, in which I had to write a story of an event that took place within an hour on one block in my hometown. Enjoy!

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It started with a sudden hot and muggy wind. The thing is, warm and humid were sort of the norm around here, I guess I should explain where here is exactly before I go any further. Puerto Vallarta, a fishing port turned booming tourists destination, known for our beautiful beaches, deluxe resorts, thick jungles and strong tequila. But being situated on the Mexican Pacific Coast we should also be known for our often very destructive storms and natural disasters. Thunderstorms, floods, earthquakes and...Hurricanes.

When my mother was a child the then growing port was hit by a massive Tsunami. It knocked out windows and ripped off doors on a lot of businesses and homes, disastrous for the business owners but very convenient for the looters. My mom recalls that as people panicked and rushed to find family members who had been displaced by the Tsunami, her neighbor came home with a new T.V.

It was 2002, the anchors on the nightly news had been warning us for days to evacuate the city and head past the mountains to Guadalajara or further inland. My mom and I could have gone to my dad's childhood home, and stayed with my grandparents in the tiny pueblo of Mascota. But with her father's house being on the hills we assumed we'd ride it out smoothly.

Although we were on higher ground, we really weren't prepared. We hadn't stocked up on supplies like flashlights and waterproof gear. We hadn't fortified our windows and doors to keep the storm out, as the hour got closer we thought aloud about these things, but it was useless, the wind changed directions. Hurricane Kenna was here.

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Kenna arrived like any uninvited guest, loud and obnoxiously. The sky shook as thunder echoed all around us, we sat on our balcony watching as the palm trees began to sway so violently we thought they'd snap. The rain came as the wind fully established its presence. Although the rain was beating down hard and angrily, the temperature made it seem more like a nice bath rather than a present danger.

The lechuzas that made themselves regulars on our telephone wires were nowhere to be found. I stood on our balcony in awe, as a three year old I had never witnessed Mother Nature unleash her wrath like that before. It was an event of biblical proportions to my young mind, God was angry, why? I did not know, but I knew we had to pay the price.

Suddenly everything was turned up to 11. And the once beautiful coastal landscape was swallowed up by disaster. My mother grabbed me and pulled me inside, I simply laughed and said "ama mira las arboles!" Fascinated by the trees above all else. We cowered in our room on the ground floor. Sitting in darkness and in fear. Water slowly trickled in from the cracks on our windows and door. It slithered in like a serpent making its way methodically towards us. When it found us, it called in for reinforcements.

The water began to rise and we realized we coudn't stay in our bedroom. So we made our way up to the second story where my tio's and Papa Rafa were watching the storm. There we sat, the five of us, as our city was cleansed, as the jungles were watered and as the smog was cleared.

Kept awake all night by the sound of the water trying to force its way inside. thunk thunk thunk thunk. My Papa Rafa could sleep through anything and he did just that. Creating a strange melody with his snoring as it mixed with the pattering rain outside. A mix of rhythm and danger.

I stayed up all night afraid to close my eyes, in fear I might not open them ever again. Suddenly just as quickly as she had come, Kenna had left. Made a mess and ducked out before anyone could notice. The only sound was that of silence. True silence, for a moment there were no birds or insects, no wind rustling the palm trees, no cars and their high pitched horns. Just silence.

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After a few moments it was all back. My family rose and began to assess the damage done by our shitty house guest. I walked, barefoot through the water. splash splash slosh splash splash slosh. Feeling the warm water mix with the cold cement underneath. I walked to our balcony and looked out over the city, for once everyone in Puerto Vallarta was doing the same thing, waking up to a different city than the one they had fallen asleep to. We had survived God's wrath. The world hadn't ended, and our city still stood, battered, but there.