Tsunami

Kiyo walked quietly on a single lane road near Sendai in Northeast Honshu Island. Kiyo had dreams of becoming an actress one day, and she saw the audition in the daily newspaper. As she walked to the train station that would take her inside the town itself, she reflected on the role she wanted to perform for NO. She spotted her best friend, Junko who stood waving to her, dressed in her customary school uniform. 

Kiyo smiled at her friend, waved back and jogged to her. They exchanged polite bows to each other and walked side by side toward the train station a kilometer away.  

Junko started the conversation first, her framed glasses enhancing her brown eyes. “Kiyo-san, it’s nice to see you this morning.” She noticed Kiyo wasn’t wearing her dark skirt and knee-high stockings like she normally would, instead wearing blue jeans and a light coat that was zipped up to keep the coastal breeze off her slender form. “Are you going to school?” 

“No Junko-san, I’m going to audition for a role of NO.” She stopped and pulled from her satchel that hung from her shoulder an advertisement she removed from the morning paper. “It will be at the Civic theater.” 

“Oh, that is wonderful. Is it a starring role? You are quite good, Kiyo-san.” 

“No, Junko-san it is a minor role as a maid,” Kito replied with apprehension in her voice. 

“I’m sure as good as you are, you will be chosen, my friend.” They reached the train station and saw the train had just pulled up and they both ran to the platform where the usual conductor was checking tickets with his paper punch. He smiled at the two teenagers. 

“Good morning, Kiyo-san and Junko-san. You have your passes?” Both pulled their monthly passes out and handed them to him, a weathered face man with gray hair and smiling brown eyes. “Have a good day. Maybe I will see you this afternoon on your way home.” 

“Yes sir, see you later,” both replied as they boarded the train found a nearby seat and sat down together. 

Both saw two boys their ages walk by oblivious to them. They giggled and Kiyo said, “Oh those two are so cute!” 

“No, they are too immature for my tastes, Kiyo-san.” 

The train whistle blew, and the car lurched forward, and they rode into Sendai, whispering and pointing at the boys between fits of giggles. The train stopped at the station, and they disembarked. The boys went the opposite direction they did and then when they reached the school, both left again as Kiyo continued to the Civic Theater to audition for her role. 

A tremor underneath her feet made her legs wobble briefly. It happened a few days before. According to the news it seemed to be coming from some undersea volcano out in the Pacific, though there were also rumors about the goings on at the reactor at the Fukushima plant, or the North Koreans making trouble again.  

All of this caused Kiyo to worry overmuch about her world around her. She increased her pace to a near trot as she entered the theater. The stage was alit and already auditions were underway. A knot of anxiety hit the pit of her stomach as she slowly walked down the aisle to a seat next to other hopefuls awaiting their turns. 

The others acknowledged her with a smile, but it seemed disingenuous. They had the scripts in their hands and were studying the lines they were prompted to read. An anxious panic rolled over her like a tidal wave and she searched frantically for the director or casting agent. 

She spotted a man with spectacles hung halfway down his nose watching a potential actor perform her lines. 

“Stop, thank you for your time,” he interrupted her abruptly and called out, “Next!” 

“I’m so sorry sir, but I have no script for the audition for the maid role.” Kiyo felt on the verge of being sick. 

He looked down briefly at her. “You’ll do! There are no speaking roles in this part you will play. Unless you are a clumsy fool, I believe you will be fine. Rehearsal is tomorrow at 1600.” 

“Thank you, sir,” she replied. In relief as she respectfully bowed to him and scampered to the end of the theater. 

“What’s your name?” He called out to her in a booming voice. 

“Kiyo Yamamoto,” she yelled back down to him with a bounce of enthusiasm in her voice. 

She saw the time was nearing noon by the time she left the theater. Her stomach rumbled and she knew she needed to eat so she indulged herself by buying a cup of Ramen noodles that she slurped up, guiding the noodles into her mouth with a pair of chop sticks. 

She took her time going back to the school to meet Junko after 1400 when classes let out for the day. She felt another tremor, stronger even than the earlier one, causing concern…” Oh dear,” she cried out getting curious looks from pedestrians who walked by, seemingly oblivious to the vibrations under her feet. 

At two o’clock she met Junko as she came outside greeting each other. “I got the part,” Kiyo exclaimed to her friend. Both exchanged hugs of appreciation and continued walking to the train station 

“Tell me. How was the audition?” Junko asked with excitement in her voice. 

“Oh, it was nothing,” Kiyo told her with a smile. “The director gave me the part by just looking at me.” 

“Were the lines hard?” 

“No, not at all. Then again, my part requires no lines. I’m just a prop, serving drinks to the main characters.” 

“Oh, do they need an extra?” Junko laughed in glee.  

“Oh, I don’t know. I could ask. She absently looked at the clock over the main square that showed 2:45. A sudden rumble was felt unlike anything she ever experienced in her short fourteen-year life. Both girls eyes became wide with fear and acknowledgement when the tremors rocked and swayed as if they were aboard ship in the ocean. They both clung to each other as they fell to the sidewalk. Cars in the street suddenly stopped and many got out and ran in different directions. 

The tremors felt like they lasted an eternity as structures up and down the street either collapsed or loss bricks or facades, windows breaking or shattering and an alarm blaring in their ears. Then it stopped. Both girls slowly got up off the sidewalk and made their way toward the train station. With the exception of horns blaring and that siren wail, it felt eerily serene… 

Both girls noticed a small pooling of water running up the street, and then it ebbed away. Then another, slightly bigger than the last came up to their knees.  

“What is happening?” Kiyo asked. 

A high surf of ocean water rushed into them and over them and Kiyo saw God…