We were camping when the bombs hit, and not even to try and escape them. It was a last minute decision.
"What should we do this weekend?"
"I dunno. Maybe we should go camping."
"In May? Won't that be a little cold?"
"A little, but we'll take our warm sleeping bags. It'll be fine."
I checked my email before we left the house, updated my facebook status.
"Going camping with my wonderful wife. See you all when we get back."
Sometimes I wish I'd known what was going to happen. Maybe I would have tried a little harder to get my buddy and his wife to go.
"Hey, Cindy and I are going camping this weekend, do you two wanna go?"
"Nah. I think we're just going to stay in this weekend. Do a movie marathon, or something."
"Okay. Well you two have fun with that. See you when we get back."
"See ya."
But I didn't. I didn't say goodbye to my family, or my friends. I didn't tell them how much I loved them, or how much I'd miss them if anything happened. I didn't think anything would happen. I was at work on Friday. Cindy packed us up because she had the day off. We barely took enough food for the weekend.
We went to our favorite spot: A little meadow that we'd gone to dozens of times. It had great ground for setting a tent on. Almost no rocks and softer grass than you'd ever find in the city. Almost no one knew about it too. I don't think there was ever a time when we saw someone else. Funny, that. We wanted so badly to get away from everyone, but now we'd give anything to find some civilization. What I wouldn't do for a coffee. What Cindy wouldn't do for a dress.
The spot was so far out in the woods that we didn't recognize the bombs for what they were. We thought there was a small earthquake, or maybe lightening booming over the mountain. We didn't even think much of it, just put the rain tarp on the tent and kept on with our pick-nick. Of course, I'm not sure what we would have done if we'd known what they were. We couldn't have saved them. We couldn't have saved anyone.
wow maybe it was better you didn't know until after the fact
ReplyDeleteHaha, true enough. I'm really kind of excited about this start. I may make it into something more.
DeleteI know where there's life there's hope, but sometimes it can feel like surviving something isn't the better option.
ReplyDeleteVery true. I'm not sure what I would do in a situation like that. It'd be a tough place to be.
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