The Wall Of Water

• A Hogg, Grade 5
• Short Story
• 2013

The Wall of Water

In the middle of the vast ocean, at the bottom of the sea, the tectonic plates were shifting to get comfortable.
A few miles away, the closest country to the shifting plates was Japan. There was a little girl called Lila in Japan, she was 10 years old and she was staying in Japan for a year because her dad had to do some work there. Lila lived in Australia, and went to a school called St. Mary’s in Melbourne. She had lovely friends there but her dad couldn’t miss this great opportunity.
Lila, her parents and her six month old baby sister called Allie, took a plane to Tokyo in Japan, then hired a car and drove down to the coast of Japan, to a little town called Yoco Tubi. Yoco Tubi had a pretty little bay called Yoco bay. Yoco bay had soft, yellow sand and clear blue waters. Yoco Tubi only had one small school with about 30 children attending, one playground and one bay. Yoco Tubi was a very small town…
Lila knew that Japan was famous for its natural disasters and at first, Lila was extremely scared, but her mum had reassured her that there wasn’t going to be any sort of natural disaster.
But her mum was still worried about her young family because she had heard on the news that in Hawaii there was a massive earthquake. Though it was a small island, a big earthquake had hit and the news reporters were saying it might come Japan’s way…


Up ahead skipped Lila in her wetsuit, with Allie in her arms and her parents walking about 15 meters behind her. They were going to Yoco bay to have a relaxing afternoon swim. There were lots of big waves at Yoco bay, brilliant to go surfing and boogi boarding. But strangely there was no one doing this, there was no one surfing, no one boogi boarding and no one swimming either. There wasn’t even anyone playing in the soft yellow sand… the beach was deserted…Lila ran back to her parents with Allie still in her arms and said:
“Mum, why is the bay deserted? And why are the waves so big?”
“I don’t know honey…”
Lila turned around to find a huge wave coming towards her very quickly. It was like giant wall of water…a giant MOVING wall of water heading straight for her… she only had enough time to turn around and see her parent’s horrified faces ”why didn’t we follow them?!” she thought as she saw the native Japanese people running for their lives. She squeezed Allie tight and got ready for the splash down…
The force of the wave was astonishing, it knocked Lila and her parents off their feet forcing Lila to let go of Allie! Lila opened her eyes to find the murky brown water gushing past her, violently pushing her along. Desperately searching for Allie, Lila swam through the murky water. Her lungs were aching, she didn’t have enough oxygen in her lungs because she didn’t have enough time to take a deep breath, and she needed to find the surface. Suddenly something hit her on the head … hard.
It gave Lila such a shock that she screamed letting out most her last precious bubbles of air … she saw it brush past her, a can! It was such a small thing but why did it hit so hard!? Then Lila realized that it was because of the force of the water!
She HAD to find the surface; her body could not stand it much longer. But she HAD to find Allie! Lila felt like she was going to die. She had made a decision she was going to find the surface.
Lila was starting to feel sick and the murky, polluted disgusting water wasn’t helping. Her stomach was tossing and turning and she was starting to feel dizzy and light headed because the force of the water had been pushing her and pushing her, making her do lots of somersaults.
Where was the surface? Where was the ground? How far had Lila traveled up and how long had she been under? Lila didn’t know the answer to any of these questions, all she knew was that she was going to die.
A gush of hope surged through Lila’s veins as a shadow loomed over her, it gave her courage and strength to swim upwards… she busted through water’s the surface and gasped for air. A huge sigh of relief plumaged into her body…she wasn’t dead… she had survived a tsunami! But then she realized that the tsunami hadn’t stopped yet! She was sill getting pushed around violently. Oh no!!!! A car was heading straight for her…well it was more like a VAN heading straight for her! Tossing, tumbling and turning, going at a tremendous speed (well Lila was going at a tremendous speed too!)
“Here, give me your hand!” said a loud, manly voice, coming from above her. She looked up into the face of a man on a boat, with his hand out stretched. Lila didn’t know this man, her mum had always told her to not talk to or go with strangers, but she had no choice, she was in the middle of a tsunami and a van was heading straight for her. She had no time to think more about this. She grabbed the man’s hand and he pulled her into the boat just when the van went by. If she hadn’t grabbed his hand she would have been completely knocked out…or even dead.
She suspected he would have company but to her great surprise his company was her MUM & ALLIE!! Lila squealed with delight as the girls hugged each other.
“Are you ok Lila!” her mum said hugging her again as well as kissing her.
“Yeah, I’m all right…I felt like I was going to drown though! I was so scared mum! I didn’t know where you were or Allie was or dad was! Wait where is dad!?” Lila said worryingly.
“We don’t know honey, we don’t know…I am very worried about him…”
“The wave is losing its strength now… but it will come back bigger and stronger because it sucks back out” said the man.
“When the wave gets as small as it will get, I will signal you and that’s when you three will get out of the boat and run as far away as possible… maybe to that hill over there.” The Japanese man said, pointing to a hill about half a kilometer out of town.
“Ok… thank you very much sir, we really appreciate it.” Lila’s mum said gratefully.
“GO, GO, GO!” shouted the man about 5 minutes later, when the wave died down.
“What about you?!” asked Lila’s mum.
“Doesn’t matter about me… just go!” he screamed
“Ok thank you so much!” as they started running.
After three more hours of the horror of watching a tsunami coming in and out of the town killing loads of people it stopped, (luckily!) So they got down from the hill followed by other survivors that joined then on the hill.
The town was a dump…an absolute dump! There were bits of houses, and building everywhere. And there were even dead people lying on the ground everywhere. It was a dreadful site to experience, especially for Lila and Allie (well Allie was too young to understand what was going on, but she knew something was wrong… someone was missing in the family and they needed to find him)…
The next devastating hour had gone very slowly for Lila. They hadn’t had much luck tying to find Lila’s dad, through all the mess…a lot of dead people were buried underneath piles of wood, metal and al sorts of rubbish.
Suddenly, Lila noticed two feet sticking out from under a pile of dirty, rotting wood. Lila recognized the shoes that the feet were wearing… Lila looked closer, the shoes were the exact same pair her dad was wearing to the beach!
“MUM, LOOK!!!” shouted Lila at the top of her voice (because her mum was a few meters away)
“What, where?!” asked Lila’s mum in surprise.
“Here look! Could that be dad because that’s the pair of shoes he was wearing! Is it mum?! Oh I hope it is…please be him!!!!” Lila said pointing to the pair of shoes.
“I don’t know honey… I hope so too!” picking up one of the pieces of dirty, rotting wood.
“Can you please hold Allie, Lila?” asked Lila’s mum politely.
“Sure” Lila replied taking Allie from her mother’s arms.
Lila’s mum took another piece of wood off the pile revealing not one, but TWO blank, emotionless faces. One face was extremely familiar; it was the face that belonged to someone that said goodnight to Lila every night and good morning every morning… it was Lila’s dad! They were so pleased to see him they screamed with delight as they hugged and kissed each other. The second blank, emotionless face belonged to a little girl! She looked like she was about 6 or 7 years old. Lila didn’t recognize the girl but she had seen a lady crying as she looked for her little girl… this might be the girl the lady was looking for!
“YES WE FOUND HIM!!!! YAY I HAVE MY DAD BACK!” shouted Lila.
“Wait is he still alive?” Lila asked her mum, anxiously.
“I hope so...! He better be! And I wonder who that little girl is.” replied her mum
“I saw a lady crying and asking people if they knew where her little daughter was… this little girl might be her daughter… I’m not sure…” said Lila
“Ok… let’s take he rest of the wood and stuff off them so we can check if they’re alive.” Her mum said
“Ok”
Her mum took all the wood and rubbish off the two bodies, as Lila stood and watched with Allie in her arms. Lila’s mum lent over and put her ear against her husband’s chest to see if his heat was beating… a few seconds later her mum shouted:
“HE’S ALIVE!!! HE’S BREATHING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! YAY, I HAVE MY HUSBAND BACK!!!”
Lila squealed with happiness as she jumped up and down. Then she noticed that although her mum was extremely happy Lila saw a tear in her eye…
“Why are u crying mum?” she asked
“I’m not, honey, they’re tears of joy!”
“Oh, ok… I thought you were crying at first!”
Lila’s mum checked the little girl’s…and yes she was alive too!
Suddenly, Lila’s dad coughed and sputtered…he opened his eyes to see his wife and his daughter scream with delight.
“YAY!!!!!! YOUR ALIVE!!!!!!!” they both yelled at the same time.
“Are you ok honey are you alright?!” asked Lila’s mum
“Yeah I’m alright…” he said slowly.
It was a like a chain reaction, Lila’s dad’s awakening caused the other little girl to wake up. The little girl coughed and sputtered then opened her eyes (like Lila’s dad did) to see four unfamiliar faces staring at her.
“Hi what’s your name honey?” Lila’s mum said sweetly.
“Laura” the little girl replied in a soft, scared voice.
“Oh, that’s a pretty name, are you ok Laura?”
“I want my mummy, where’s mummy?” she said as she started to cry.
“We don’t know, honey…we will try and find her, ok?
“Ok” she said wiping her eyes.
“HAS ANYBODY LOST THEIR DAUGHTER!?!?!?!?!? BECAUSE WE HAVE FOUND A LITTLE GIRL CALLED LAURA!!!!!!” shouted Lila’s mum at the top of her voice.
“How old are you Laura?” she asked
“Six” she replied
“AND SHE IS SIX YEARS OLD!!!!!!!” she shouted again.
“I HAVE!!!!!!!! HAVE YOU REALLY FOUND MY DAUGHTER?! WHERE ARE YOU I’LL COME STRAIGHT OVER!!!!!!” answered a distressed voice
“WE’RE OVER NEAR THE TALL, BROWN, POLE!!” Lila’s mum shouted back.
A few minutes later a woman appeared, she had dark brown hair and blue eyes… she looked exactly like Laura but older. She screamed with delight as Laura ran and gave her a big hug.
“Thank you so much I really appreciate it thank you! You saved my daughter thank you!” the lady said
“That’s ok… we found her with my husband…I think she’s ok…maybe a few cuts and bruises but not badly hurt” Lila’s mum replied
“Ok, that’s good…THANK YOU SO MUCH AGAIN!!!!”
“That’s ok!” Lila mum said again as Laura and her relieved mum walked away…


The End


By Audrey Hogg