ONE-HUNDRED: Forgetting

“I was on my way back from the desert when the rumbling started,” Jude continued his story to Arous. “The hoveh-sine trembled and flipped a couple of times.  It was wrecked but I managed to get out.  I thought the tumble had made me unsteady on my feet but it was the ground moving under them.”

Then he saw the ground start to move, small undulations at first, then like big waves on the ocean they came one after another: rolling, rolling. The trees in the distance swayed and followed the earth in which they were rooted.  They followed one another up and down swaying with no wind.  The rumble grew.  In the distance Jude could hear loud thunderous crashes and another strange noise he could not identify.  He crawled out a bit on the sea of earth to get a look around the trees moving beside him that blocked his view of the City.  He saw the old buildings of downtown swaying like trees; one by one he saw them implode and sink or either lean and then topple to the ground. Dust rose in heavy clouds over where they had been, like signals to the distance of their distress.  The odd sounds coming from the buildings grew louder and louder.

“Screaming . . . it’s the sound of people . . . that was the sound . . . wailing . . . “

Confused and a bit shocked from such an abrupt awakening, he first considered how to get back into the City.  He looked around.  He could walk through the main entrance and through the high part of town.  Instead, he just stood in shock as the night enveloped the crumbing City.  He watch fires pop up as buildings continued to crumble and shift.

“How did you get here?” asked Arous.

“Funny enough, this guy in an old wheeled vehicle pulled up behind me.  He stood by me for a moment and watched the City on fire.  He asked me if I need a lift.  Told him where I was going and he said-”

“Sounds like you’re going my way.  I’ll give you a lift.”

“At that point I refused to think about what happened to anyone else.  Simon. You. I just shut everything off and kept going.”

“You couldn’t have done anything,” said Arous.

“Until I saw you, I hadn’t even remembered. Things seemed to have gone so wrong, maybe I didn’t want to remember.”

Jude buried his head in Arous’ lap.  He sobbed and then fell asleep.