#this part of my story is my experience at the 2017 Mabini Earthquake

[binzie3]

The Earth Quakes

April 4, 2017 ─ It was 20:33 in a peaceful sea-viewed residential area of Sitio Balitian on a typical Tuesday night as I silently locked the backdoor's knob of my grandmother's house. I was alone again to sleep on the floor in a comfy old mattress for the consecutive five months, as a guardian for my sleeping grandmother in her old half-symmetrical wooden-walled room. The whole house was quiet; the television took itself its rest, thinking my grandmother killed it off before going to her bed; the chirps of the crickets still dominate in every silent nights; the neighbourhoods in the rural west side are all surprisingly asleep. Above everything, all was quiet. I have prepared my bed, yet my eyes don't feel sleepy. Maybe the bright six-bulbed chandelier hanging on an open-spaced ceiling is the cause of this insomnia. I stood, and in the corner near the charging brick, I laid my back in an old white chair while my raised feet are in an awkward position, holding my cellphone and trying to grasp the newly downloaded game from the store until it knocked me off to bed.

Ten minutes before nine o'clock, something knocked on the front door. I paused the game abruptly and didn't respond. But the thing has a loud female voice marked by its old age and mature experiences. I knew someone knocked at the front door. This person knew I'm still awake at this hour. I questioned myself; what is this person need at this time of the clock? In all doubts, I remain calm and understanding. I stood from my uncomfortable position and headed towards the door. As I hold the doorknob curiously, something bothered me, but I suppressed the thought without hesitation. I twisted the door handle, hardly enough to hear with its squeaky rusty sound of being unlocked. As I pulled the front door open, I saw my aunt's straight face in a confused and profoundly concerning manner.

Just at the right moment, the world stopped. My hand still holding the handle when we heard the earth rumbled. It came from the left side of our ears. I heard the figurines started to make their sound as the rumble becomes louder than the last seconds. Subsequently, the floor began swaying and dancing to the rhythm of shock waves from the ground as our body followed through the floor's motion. It was unexpected. My aunt and I remain calm at the doorway, but we both knew the panic raging inside of our body. While the ground is still in its movement, I noticed the commotion of figurines from their original position; the television holding its fate between a functional display or some junkyard trash; the chandelier swinging like a wrecking ball; and the squeak of an old-fashioned cabinet full of high-class glasses and plates faint-hearted to lose their worth. In a minute of tremble, terror, panic and fear, the whole village awakens. The alarm of private vehicles echoed through the silence of the night as people calmly stayed outside of the cold night.

I got distracted by the quake that I forgot about my sleeping grandmother. My aunt, shocked by fear and concern, rushed to her room to check and retrieve her in a safe place. In God's graces, my grandmother was fine, but it is funny to think that she was in her deep sleep after all the happenings on that evening. She didn't even feel it as she said it in a serious tone. I burst out laughing, and so did my aunt while she holds my confused grandmother's hand carefully through the terrace. Other family members, including my parents, gathered on the terrace and talked the rest of the night about the sudden quake while I, still traumatized by the event, updated my friends and checked the news and information about the earthquake. There are still some numerous low aftershocks, but it remained our deepest concern because it is nighttime, and we are threatened about the next big quake. We spent the night chatting and hoping the earth comes to a rest.

It was 15 minutes past 11 when the world becomes silent again. No more aftershocks, no more ground rumbles; everything had settled down. We decided to go back to our beds, but I have the anxiety it'll rumble again. Everyone's on their beds with all the main light's off. No choice but I have to face the night until the following day without eyebags and uneasiness, yet I'm still finding my lethargy. I still have no choice but to close my eyes and feel the comfiness of this old mattress, with my mind alive, until my body thought I am on my irregular sleeping pattern once again.

#personal #original story #story I have stored in my folder #posted before my brother deleted it #we are all literary chameleons #this part of my story is my experience at the 2017 Mabini Earthquake #I'm not a true writer but I'm feeling like one lol #i have nothing to do with my tumblr account so I just posted nonsense post like this one #vent #should i continue? #I'm a loser anyway #lol