Saving Grace

• Jessica Napoletano, Grade 7
• Short Story
• 2013

In the early hours of the morning, with the dazzling blue sky stretching as far as the eye can see and the happy birds chirping carelessly, crowds gather outside the cathedral, awaiting the Sunday worship ritual. The loud but majestic ringing of the church bell sounds and the cathedral doors are slowly pushed open by the public, waiting to get inside. They all push and shove to get the first row and leave all the other rows empty, untouched. The bells ring a second time and the ceremony begins.

The priest takes his seat and is watched by many eyes. Only a few look away as their gaze turns toward the stained glass windows, hand crafted with immense detail and beauty. The Lord's Prayer is spoken and people are chosen to read passages from The Lords word, the Holy Bible. In the middle of a reading, the ground shakes. Nothing further happened, so the ceremony continued. Only a few short minutes later, it happened again. Although this time, it didn't stop. It only got more intense. People started realising, they were in a hundred year old cathedral, in the centre of a bustling city with high rise buildings and homes, in an Earthquake.

Many tried to stay calm but it wasn't possible. You could hear the screams, the panic going on outside the cathedral walls. There was no way out of the cathedral, the doors were previously locked at the start of the ceremony. Strangers clung to other strangers, families huddled together, all trying to keep calm. The priest rises from his seat and begins praying. One by one, everyone joins in. They pray for safety, they pray for everyone in the Earthquake, they pray for anything they can think of. Very suddenly, the cathedral steeple collapses destroying the old oak doors and crashing down onto the pathway outside. The centre of the city, the cathedral square, destroyed. People run and scream in horror not knowing what to do. The stain glass windows then shatter and shards of glass fly like Cinderella's glass slipper crashing to the ground.

Outside, the cross that stands next to the cathedral collapses and is broken into tiny pieces of useless stone. Hundreds of people wait for something to happen. Soon the howling sound of the fire brigade and ambulance vehicles start and people hear them zoom up and down the main street. Then there is a scream coming from the other side of the cathedral, the voice was distorted and scarcely understandable. As the voice started to become clearer, it was able to understand that the person was checking to see if anyone was alive. The crowd inside the cathedral all shouted. Then the man left. The sound of a drill came. As the bits of rubble were slowly taken away, many ran outside to find their city destroyed. As time passed, many eyes were filled with tears while they began the rebuilding process.