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September, 2018

13

Scene One - It is the evening, as to time of day. I'm in a major city, having arrived here recently. It is unfamiliar to me, so I am not oriented as to where I am here or how to quickly move toward another part of the place. This results in extra insecurity as I am inside the foyer or entrance area or in a small, street level restaurant, downtown, in a high-rise or skyscraper when one of the managers in a loud voice (or over the P.A. system) announces that there has been a warning of an earthquake or some other imminent instability and that we are welcome to stay but just fair warning that, especially close to the entranceway, there are heavy parts of the building that could easily collapse (and I imagine much potential under there for people to be crushed). I ask if there is time for us to go take a look outside for where might be a safer place and (get the impression) he answers yes, he thinks so. Some of us leave and look back. Sure enough there is a heavy part of the building's structure that kind of hovers, almost suspended over the entranceway near where we had just been with few if any pillars or other structural support. I ask someone who had been inside and now is with me here outside this large building, on a street full of high-rises or skyscrapers on this narrow street, that looks like it could fill up with collapsed building rubble in a serious earthquake, if she can advise me which way to go, saying - amid my growing alarm - that I am new here and have no idea which way to walk or run to get out of harm's way. (I think) She tells me a direction I might head.

Scene Two - I am still in a downtown area in the evening or at night, but here there are wider open areas as thoroughfares between skyscrapers. As yet, no major quake has been felt, but there is still the sense that a disaster is imminent. A number of us (though not as many as in Scene One) are near each other near a roadway, but also near a fairly wide expanse of paved area for pedestrians, like at a campus or city park. I still (though it seems I am in a somewhat safer place than in Scene One) am not sure this part of the city is really safe, in case of a big quake. I begin to feel a violent, disorienting shaking, so that my footing is no longer stable. I hope I am far enough from the tall skyscrapers, if they should fall, yet am not sure I am. I reach for my cell phone, intending to try and call my wife, Frances, possibly a last chance to speak with her, when a huge section of the top of a skyscraper nearby breaks loose and begins to fall. The part that is coming down encompasses multiple floors. I realize there must be hundreds or thousands of people caught in there as it crashes down into rubble very close to where we are standing, though still probably at least 50 feet separate us from the debris. "Oh my God!" I hear someone scream. Still more huge chunks of high buildings could come down at any moment and might well land where we are. (I wake up.)