The 20-year old Thai girl walked along the concrete wall, trailing her fingertips on the grainy cement. Life happened on all sides, but since the tsunami, she could only witness the east. This east-bound small town, where she worked in a market, moved in a semi-circle around her.
It wasn't satisfying.
It made her ache for more.
The wall was four meters tall, a barrier after the disaster on the 26th of December 2004. Waves reached over 35 meters that day, so the logic of four never escapes anyone that questions it. It means we are helpless if it happens again.
She lost friends and family.
It still hurt two years later.
She wanted to scale it. If she had a ladder, a tub of adhesive, or springs on her feet, she would try. She could, however, see through a crack between two bricks which revealed ocean and seagulls. Her vision had cleared since the disaster. She thought she needed glasses, but it was only blurry from tears.
She had never been in love.
She wanted to be.
A salty breeze hit her nose and she inhaled. She remembered the people running to the ocean, scrambling for fish that were so ripe for the catch. It had been a trick from Mother Nature. Every person that caved was now dead, washed away by an ocean wave like a scream. She had been curious, too, but something about the receding water was too frightening.
Had she known it would be her last clear view.
She may have grabbed a fish.
Taking a risk might have made her view 360 instead of 270. There were times she regretted not stopping people, because she knew what would happen. Other times she felt jealous. They eyed hundreds of fish helpless to their fates and were very happy. She had turned her back and ran so she didn't see their looks when the wave came.
She should have looked.
To see the other side.
"My priest says, you ain't saving no souls... and here I stand, with a sword in my hand..."
Tori Amos Video Tribute (Take To The Sky)
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