After the Bomb

          “We need to cross this river,” Zammie told Miss Hayata.

          “How? The bridge is destroyed and these people are too sick to swim.”

          “I’ll figure out a way. You stay here, Kyla. Keep an eye on Misses Nakamura and Toshio.”

          “Where are you going?” she asked.

Zammie looked around for any clues to salvation. “I just wanna check along the shoreline. There has to be a way across. I’ll be back soon.”

          “Okay. But hurry, Zammie!”

          Zammie walked quickly past the growing throng of injured people and continued along the sandy bank of the bending river. He stepped down into a gulch. Next to a small dock he saw a flat-bottomed boat called a punt that was about the size of a pickup truck. The boat was maroon in color and had a square-cut bow. It had been pulled up onto shore. The bodies of six badly burned dead men were lying in the sand around the boat. The awful stench of burnt flesh permeated the air. The men must have been getting ready to push the boat into the water right as the bomb exploded.

          Zammie carefully stepped over the men. He tried his best not to look at them, but he couldn’t help it. Their faces were charred red and black. Their eyes melted out. Their skeletal mouths frozen open in eternal screams. Zammie noticed one of the men was missing his front two teeth. Their fingers and legs were roasted away. Zammie wondered how old they were and if they had any children who were waiting somewhere for them to return.

          He pushed the heavy boat into the water. A tall bamboo pole was inside the punt so Zammie used it to steer the boat up the river by pushing the pole against the river bottom. The boat moved slowly along the lazy river passing through schools of orange and white koi that were swimming near the surface. Zammie was a little surprised they were even alive. I wonder if they have any idea what has happened, thought Zammie. How simple a goldfish’s life must be.

         

Gray smoke hovered over the water and a canopy of ash and fog still blotted out the midday sky. A thickening film of gray dust and powder began to settle on the leaves of the trees along the shoreline. There was a spooky quietness surrounding him even though he knew there were hundreds, maybe thousands now, of people waiting up in the park. As the punt rounded the bend he saw his cousin and the Nakamuras still waiting near the trees.

          -- from Time Trip #4: Killing for Country 

TIME TRIP ADVENTURE 4

KILLING FOR COUNTRY  

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TIME TRIP ADVENTURE 1

THE JOURNEY TO ANCIENT GREECE 

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TIME TRIP ADVENTURE 2

A RIDE ON THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD

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TIME TRIP ADVENTURE 3

WITNESS TO THE FIRST THANKSGIVING 

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