After the Earthquake

  This was intended to be the greatest day of their lives. Then the ground shook.

Colossal amounts of medieval stone fell to the dry earth. Shards of glass flew through the dense air. Clouds of dust coated the atmosphere and silvered the heads of a perplexed and chaotic congregation. A groom stood, transfixed in a strange stare, possessed, while his bride covered her mouth with a blue cloth, silently thankful that she was alive.

  There were large planks of wood laced between one another, mingled with stone, glass and several bodies. Shrill, haunting groans marred the silence of a country, confounded and devastated by destruction. There were two wedding photographers that found themselves capturing the nightmare reality of that day. They captured the building in all its glory and then diminished to nothing but ruins.

  Sirens sounded in the distance.

  The people helped each other climb through the rubble. A frenzied man refused to go; he said his wife and son were trapped in the wreckage. A small child was alone, wailing; she could not find her father. An elderly woman who was seemingly unfazed by the happenings reached out for the child’s trembling hand.

  They gathered at a crossroads about a quarter of a mile from the church. They could vaguely distinguish the shattered façade of the remains silhouetted through the grey air, drowned in a sea of debris. The young girl began to cry. The woman who had led her to the crossroads whispered something to her and this appeared to comfort her. She was calm because she needed to be in a state of mind to pray. This was all she knew.

  The bride was clenching a fistful of her groom’s shirt. She was cut at her leg and the blood had seeped onto her cheongsam and dried. Her black, lustrous hair was tarnished with filth. She had been holding a finely decorated parasol that had belonged to her great grandmother, this was now lost beneath the wreckage. Her groom was still bewildered; he had been just outside of the church when it had happened. He had run, and had left behind the people who he had been with. He knew who was trapped. The scene he had left was persistent in his thoughts. Now all stability he had once felt seemed illusory.