Just Suppose

      More Letters From Paradise
            Just Suppose

The man shuddered as he walked quickly past the elevator, knowing that sounds from it had ceased days ago. He had keys to an often vacant apartment. Maybe he could find some bottles of water.

It had been three weeks earlier that the giant tsunami had roared ashore at Waikiki. The entire South shore of the island had been wrenched apart by the raging wall of water. People living in buildings above seven floors survived. Bodies and debris filled the silent streets. Electric power failed, and so later did cell phones, as there was no way to recharge them.

Tourists used to being supplied with food and water, raided flooded kitchen storerooms and took to the debris filled silent streets, in search of food and water.

Help from the windward side of the island was being delayed due to downed trees and wreckage from the storm. Help was also slow in coming from the mainland due to a giant storm which prevented supply planes from arriving. Even ships carrying relief supplies found it impossible to cross the churning sea. Waikiki was now all alone.

All the stores in the area were either destroyed or looted of their contents. Roving bands emptied small mom and pop stores located on higher ground. The police and sheriff departments were unable to maintain law and order.

People living in condos were spared the effects of the storm,but soon ran short of water. Some tents fashioned long ropes of electrical cords,sheets torn into strips and woven together. These were lowered down to the ground where bartering took place. Canned food was exchanged for gallons of water.

Small bands of men roamed the hallways of the silent buildings looking for kitchens to loot.

The man thought that he and his wife were probably safe as they lived so high in the building, and it would be a long climb up. They had often heard gunfire. He wished he had bought a baseball bat for protection. But the leg of a table or chair would have to do in an emergency. As long as their deadbolt held, they were pretty safe.

Sometimes choppers were seen lifting people from the roofs of buildings. But there were so many people, the task was overwhelming.

The storm ceased at last,and the battery powered radio told that cargo planes would soon arrive, and drop supplies.The man and his wife  watched as the sky was filled with men and cargo chutes,landing on the wide grass field of Fort DeRussey and nearby beaches.

Far fetched? maybe, but just suppose.

      Aloha
      Grant