Cliffhanger

Cliffhanger

The Wave That Changed Everything
A great person by the name of Karin Svaerd once said, “I was yelling at them to run, but they couldn't hear me.” It seemed to be like a normal Monday morning on the island of Maui, Hawaii for Alana, and her seven year old son Palani. Alana was about to head out to go to the grocery store on the outskirts of the island, which was at the edge of the seashore. If she only would have known that her day would never go as planned.
This was the first time that Alana was leaving her seven year old son alone since his birth. She had trusted him, and knew if something was to go out of the ordinary, he would know how to react. She thought wrong. As she headed out of the door, with her bag in her hand; Palani in the doorway waving, she said, “I’ll be back soon.”
As soon as he could not hear the ruffling of the motor, he knew she was gone. Palani ran outside to play. While he was outside playing, he heard the screams of terror off in the distance, and the sound of the siren. In Maui, there are yellow sirens on top of the telephone poles that alert the city when a tsunami is near. Palani had never seen a tsunami, but always heard about them from school, and his mother. The sirens were placed on the outskirts of the island, which is where his mother was grocery shopping. Palani lived in the mid-city, which was in the middle of the island.
He looked around to see if he could find someone, but all he could hear were the screams getting closer and, “beep beep beep,” the sound of the sirens getting louder.
When he looked to the sky off in the distance, towards the seashore, his eyes were astonished at the blue wave that was coming closer, and closer, getting taller, and taller. Once his eyes saw the terror of what was about to happen, he imagined the voice of his mother saying, “When you see the wave that is high above the buildings; you run, or climb to the highest point your eyes can see.”
All the fear, and doubt was immediately gone....