t was a beautiful day at the beach. The sun was shining, the water was warm and there wasn\u2019t a cloud in the sky.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Everything was perfect, until there was a gruesome scream from the water. Then I saw what was happening. People were running towards the higher land, screaming. There was a big wall running towards us\u4e00the gentle waves were no longer gentle but a frightful monster.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\u2018It\u2019s a disastrous tsunami again!\u2019 People were shouting. \u2018Run for your lives!\u2019 Some of them screamed. I heard people screaming and children squalling everywhere. Everyone was running for their lives. But the waves were much quicker. \u2018Swoosh!\u2019 Everything was then sucked into the sea. Everything, trees, houses, people\u2019s kayaks and sailboats, and \u2026 human beings\u2026! Lucky ones might be able to cling on a piece of wood or two in the nick of time to save their lives. I should have enough time to escape but my mind was wandering somewhere else. When the waves came, I was then washed away with the others.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Salty seawater was entering my throat, and also my nostrils. This time, I could not only smell the seawater but actually taste it. I could feel that the seawater was filling my lungs, too. I could not breathe\u2026<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Before I lost my consciousness, my memories came back… The tsunami that time was so familiar, so familiar with the one that happened four years ago\u2026<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
It was a beautiful, starry night. I was walking along the seaside with my dearest parents. We chatted and played. We built a huge sandcastle with the Sageras next door. Although it was nighttime, the soft white sand was still warm and the crashing waves were still cool. I loved the tickly feeling when the water lapped at my toes. The adults suggested we kids got home and got some spades and buckets. They were going to teach us to find some crabs, clams and lobsters between the cracks of rocks. We kids shouted \u2018hurray\u2019 and ran off to my house – it was much nearer to the beach compared with the Sageras\u2019 house. I went off with the Sageras\u2019 youngest two children, Andy and Ashley, who were only five and three that year. I was only ten by then. The largest son of the Sageras who was twenty-one stayed with our parents.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Who would have thought that it had saved my life?<\/p>\n
When I entered my house with Andy and Ashley, finding my bucket and spade, there was a sudden shake and the whole house started shaking. Ashley went out crying with fear.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\u2018It\u2019s an EARTHQUAKE!\u2019 I shouted. I hugged them both close to me as I was the oldest and needed to protect them. We hid under my bed. Ten minutes after the house had stopped shaking, and we were about to leave, then there was a loud, thunderous sound. I told Andy and Ashley to stay under my bed and peeped out to see what\u2019s going on. It was a stunning sight. Seawater was pouring into the house. Everything outside was sucked into the stomach of this sea monster. I immediately realized that it\u2019s a tsunami attacking our village. I quickly got hold of both Andy and Ashley\u2019s hands and ran off to higher land. But we failed to do so. The seawater was too strong and in one second, my home collapsed. Seawater poured in and all three of us were washed away. Luckily, I got hold of a chair and held it tight with Andy and Ashley, we had hope against hope to survive and be saved.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
After three days and nights, finally we were saved. I was yet informed that my mother and Andy and Ashley\u2019s parents had died during the tsunami. My father and the kids\u2019 elder brother were reported missing. I couldn\u2019t believe that in 72 hours the kids had lost their parents and I had lost my beloved mother. However, I knew that I had to face the music and act strong because the kids needed me. Crying over spilt milk was useless.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\u2018Where\u2019re mommy and daddy?\u2019 Ashley asked me one day after the quake. Her big, round, watery eyes were full of fear.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
I still couldn\u2019t forget those eyes full of tears. She looked so miserable… \u00a0I didn\u2019t want to know how many cases of death there would be this time and a strong smell of salty air came to me\u2026, so familiar.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Cindy Chong Mei Sze\u00a0\u00a0 2C 2014-15\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"t was a beautiful day at the beach. The sun was shining, the water was warm and there wasn\u2019t a cloud in the sky.Everything was perfect, until there was a gruesome scream from the water. Then I saw what was happening. People were running towards the higher land, screaming. There was a big wall runnin.........Read More<\/a>","protected":false},"author":25,"featured_media":8474,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4190","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","language-en","classlevel-s2","schoolyear-37"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.carmelss.edu.hk\/buddingwriters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4190","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.carmelss.edu.hk\/buddingwriters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.carmelss.edu.hk\/buddingwriters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.carmelss.edu.hk\/buddingwriters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/25"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.carmelss.edu.hk\/buddingwriters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4190"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.carmelss.edu.hk\/buddingwriters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4190\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4191,"href":"https:\/\/www.carmelss.edu.hk\/buddingwriters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4190\/revisions\/4191"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.carmelss.edu.hk\/buddingwriters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8474"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.carmelss.edu.hk\/buddingwriters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4190"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.carmelss.edu.hk\/buddingwriters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4190"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.carmelss.edu.hk\/buddingwriters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4190"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}