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By Root 830 0

outside, past the front door and beyond the doorstep. I began to think then that perhaps it wasn’t only the attic that had been affected, or even only our hallway, or kitchen, or even only our house, perhaps, I thought, my thoughts stretching to allow several houses in now, perhaps Veber Street was affected also. And then I very slowly heaved myself up and I saw the piece of Entralla University equally slowly collapse onto the floor, in a converse motion, and I gradually journeyed towards the window, moving with such unnatural slowness, as if I were one of those foreign men who, on occasions, are sent up into space. And as I trudged towards the window I stepped upon a building by mistake. It was, I think, I can’t be sure, a building from Market Square. I squashed it quite completely. And then I pulled away the bin liner that covered the window and looked out through shattered glass.

SOMETIME BETWEEN the end of the noise of the buildings and the commencement of the noise of the people there was a silence. All clocks were stopped. Time too needed a little rest. People now were getting up over so many different floors considering this: it’s stopped, it’s over, we’ve somehow made it through. But they could not speak. Not quite yet. Many others tried to call out but no sound came, it was too soon, there had to be a silence. Around the city, dust clouds began to thin a little. Peace, peace, it’s over.

Now everyone could move under their own will, nothing else commanded them, they were learning how to use their arms, their legs, their heads all over again. But they moved with heavy, unhurried gestures as if in slow motion. They were not yet able to comprehend what it was that had just been done to them, why their homes no longer resembled their homes, why their entire world had been turned upside down. How long did the silence last? A second? Ten minutes? More? I cannot say exactly, it’s impossible to really say, and some people found that this silence was for them a continuous silence.

Then, finally, perhaps under the struggling determination of the minute hand on the miraculously still functioning clock of the City Hall, a measurement was possible. That minute hand moved from seven forty-nine to seven fifty, and beneath it there was a mounting rush of wind that was really the wind of sound being put back inside us. And immediately we found ourselves moving at more natural speeds and we opened our mouths to call out, some people called out for help, others called out people’s names, others still called out in frustration at buildings, buildings that had moved, without permission, to places they shouldn’t be, or they called out in blame, in rabid blame because a building, which looked as if it belonged in Market Square, had been mistakenly stepped upon, had been defeated by a foot.

‘A BUILDING! A whole building!’ As my sister screamed at me for my carelessness, I turned round to her and said, ‘Irva, it was an earthquake, there’s been an earthquake.’ ‘I don’t care,’ she said, ‘look what you’ve done.’

‘Irva, we have to get out.’ ‘A whole building ruined! Hours of work! Such clumsiness!’ ‘We have to go outside.’ ‘Fix it now!’ ‘We must go out now.’ ‘What are you talking of? Get to work!’ ‘Listen, Irva, there’s been an earthquake. We have to get out.’ ‘I don’t go outside, Alva, you know that.’ ‘But that doesn’t count any more, don’t you understand?’ ‘We made a promise.’ ‘Come out with me, it’ll be all right.’ ‘No, Alva. Draw the curtain and we’ll forget all about it, even about that building you stamped on.’ ‘Out you come.’ ‘Seal up the window!’ ‘Give me your hand.’ ‘I will not.’ ‘Give me your hand, Irva.’ ‘I can’t. I can’t, Alva. Stop it now. Stop it and get back to work!’ ‘Your hand, Irva, your hand!’ ‘Never, never, never, never, never, never!’

And then we heard our home humming to itself and then wheezing and then moaning in its unhappiness. And then there were snaps about us, strange shrieks of wood.

‘Irva, quick now, don’t fuss.’ ‘I can’t. I CAN’T!’ ‘You can, Irva, you will.’ ‘THERE IS NO OUTSIDE!’ ‘Come on, girl, come on