In a Singular Minute

One second, we were messing around in the bedroom, another we were staring at the bright cloudy tree sprouting into the sky.

Me and my sister Liv were playing with our toys in our bedroom when suddenly it was like the sun came to visit our little suburban house through the window. Flashing to peek at us only to dip out of sight when we turned. We saw it through the window. An orangey ball of cloudy smoke rising higher and higher into the sky every second. It looked like tree, though a bit round. It was mesmerising, I couldn’t take my eyes away from the orangey-red colours sprawling across the ball. I looked at Liv to see what she thought but she only gave the most terrified look I ever saw of her making She called out to Mom while I was still staring outside. That ball seemed to be coming from the big city, where Dad goes to work. I thought it was nice that it came from there, because it means Dad gets to stay at home more often now.

I heard Mom’s slippers stomping towards us and I turned around. Her eyes stared out of the window, and they seemed like they’ll bulge out of her wrinkled face. grey streaking across her bobbed hair. She screamed and shouted my name; the cloudy ball is getting really big. Mom tried to grab me; I was confused and hesitant at first. what’s the harm of looking at it?

My question was answered when the glass broke into a thousand shards. Flying into my face. I felt sharp, prickling pain all over my face, then I was pushed back. It was like all the wind gathered into one fist and punched through the window. I even felt the house shake. My ears rang in a high-pitched siren. I could barely hear Mom screaming bloody murder and I don’t know if Liv was in the room or not. I was rubbing my face, feeling wetness on my cheeks and cold sharp objects lodged in my skin.

I felt hands holding my body, frantic, hysterical. My legs were lifted from the ground. My Mom held me close to her chest and I held her close; my eyes were weary after that giant punch. The ringing started to clear, and I heard Liv running down the stairs, calling to Dad, while Mom cradled me. Picking at the shards out of my skin, we ran downstairs when I felt I can open eyes. We were in the living room, Dad knocked over his favourite beige chair. His slick back hair now wild and messy, his smart glasses uneven. How long has it been since that giant flash came? Seconds? Everything was moving too fast for me to understand what’s going on.

Dad pulled out a key, talking about some bunker. He grabbed Liv’s hand and ushered us out to the front door.

The sky turned fiery orange. Our neighbourhood turned to chaos, folks running around like headless chickens. People we knew and played with. Miss Darcy from across the street was beckoning her children to the back of the house in a calm and collected manner, well as calm as they can be. The milkman that would come every Monday left his bike on the sidewalk, seemingly disappeared in the terrified crowd. And I saw old man Jerome sitting on his porch drinking a glass of beer, like he didn’t care about chaos and was merely enjoying what would most likely be his last drink.

Dad rushed us to the back out of the house and a pair of metal doors laying on the ground came to view. It shut by a huge padlock. Dad unlocked the padlock as fast as he could, his shaking and hyperventilation made him took a couple of seconds. Within those seconds one of neighbours came running by. Michael and his family, his wife Hilda and Kevin, their son. He begged us to let them stay in the bunker, begged Dad to let them get inside so that they’ll be safe. I knew Dad and Michael talked to each other a lot and laughed about the sports they liked. Mom and Hilda would make small gossip, though I didn’t get what they were saying since it was ‘girl talk’. And I played Kevin often; it was so fun.

Mom didn’t say anything, her cries were getting caught in as she try to come up a sentence. Hilda was ugly crying to Mom to let them through. Kevin stayed silent. Not really crying or shouting but in shocked silence. He stared at me, tears flowing down his cheeks. I felt them on my own as well.

When Dad unlocked the bunker, Michael tried to rush down into it along with his family but Dad the something I thought unthinkable of him. He punched Michael right on the jaw, knocking him to the ground. His wife screamed, kneeling to her husband in attempt to wake him up. Mom rushed downstairs into the bunker, grabbing Liv along the way. Dad came in last and went to shut the bunker door. I saw Kevin for the last time between the gaps. Before I could call out to him the door shuts.

How has it been since all of this happened? One moment me and Liv were playing in our bedroom like it was any other day of the week and then everything we came to know was gone. Our home, our neighbours, our world blown away, boom. It took a minute for it to all come crumbling down around us. Now, I don’t know how long it’s been since we’ve entered the bunker. It was minutes. It had simply been about a couple of minutes. But it felt more like days, weeks hell even months. Maybe this bunker was doing something to my mind to make it seem like years go by without a second’s notice. I knew it was me hoping all of this to be over soon.

If it’ll be over.