DELUGED

Let me tell you what brought my family to this bridge;

"I woke up this morning in a puddle of water on the dirt floor of the hut. The lower part of my body was soaking in water and mud as I was lying down while my face and chest were still dry. Mother of God what filth in the water, an effing rat the size of a house cat was paddling furiously toward a hole in the wall. The rat rushed with the current of the water through the hole. The smell was unbelievably foul. I struggled to get up out of the sucking mud and felt trapped. The water was warm. In other circumstances, I might find it comforting, but then the shock came. As I continued to struggle with the mud and my footing, something bumped my shoulder. Fear and horror froze me in place from my head to my testicles. It cannot be. This is a nightmare. Help me. God is good, but cruel. Reality slipped away from my feeble grip.

The screaming started as I watched the body of my lovely wife of twenty years flowing back and forth in the rippling current. Her face was bloated in the water, her eyes bulging from the sockets, no longer able to berate me, to encourage me, or to laugh at my stupid jokes. To the swirling waters was added some new fluids as I alternatively cried and then vomited what was left of a meager meal we had eaten. A frozen moment in time loosened its hold on me. I was starting to breathe normally, but my chest and heart felt leaden. I rose out of the water and spat a bolus of blood and mucus.

I wanted to cry anew, my sweet Jesus, the thought arose, the children. Horrible thoughts sped through me, my head pounding with the pulse of my heart. I stumbled to the children's bed-room sloshing in the muck and was immediately rewarded. Sunlight shone through the torn frame of the window, it's rays lighting on the stirring bodies of Hector and Maria . I felt like a drowning man reaching the surface of an abyssal sea and clutched the children tightly. We have to leave now, I cried, the water is
rising. We'll go the the bridge and wait for help. Once at the bridge, we waited. A speck arose in the western sky that became larger and larger. The object flickered with movement and I realized it was a helicopter.
Thank God for the Coast Guard".