Tuesday, February 24, 2004

With what can only be described as calm deliberate purpose Ms. Greanwyloe had picked up a small piece of the broken plaster and with it began to make strange symbols and patterns on the steel surface of the fallen door that lay on the ground next to Theo. She seemed oblivious to the chaos that was surrounding them. A new fear began to swell up in the pit of Theo’s stomach. The shaking was not stopping. All he knew about earthquakes, all that he had ever understood told him it should have stopped by now. He struggled to his feet and reached for Ms Greanwyloe. The little woman took a small cautious step away from Theo and smiled. It was perhaps the most reassuring smile he had ever seen. With a burst of motion she began to wave her arms around in the strangest fashion, and over the roar of the destruction going on around them he could hear her voice singing a beautiful melody. The rhythm was quick and the beat was grabbing at his heart. She sang only a few verses of a strange song in a language he did not understand, and suddenly Theo felt the air next to him being sucked away as the fallen door rocketed off the ground like a jet. It shot straight up into the air and when it was as high as the roof of the Dokik tower, the arts and sciences building that was coming down all around them, it stopped and then like some kind of delicate bird it twirled and dipped. It seemed silly to think it, but Theo could almost swear the door was happy to be flying.
Wait! He shouted in his mind, the door is flying?! This was impossible. He stared in disbelief and felt the world was turning upside down, but Ms. Greanwyloe moved towards him now and shouted. “ Get moving,” and pushed him away from the collapsing building. The two of them began to run. Ms. Greanwyloe was making weird gestures with her right hand and giving out loud sharp whistles. Theo could not help but see the animated door darting above them, left and right. Pieces of the falling building were raining down all around them, and those pieces that would have surely rained down right on their heads were neatly deflected by the flying door.


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