Catastrophe.

I couldn’t believe it! My whole suggestion that the abrupt onset of Vengi’s temporal non-linearity was something to be forgotten and put in the past didn’t seem to matter now. The memory of time had a permanent place here with the discovery of the sundial. I’m sure Eo realized that as well, and that’s what caused him to have such a astonished reaction. Why would I have been wrong about that? I mean, what other conclusions could there have been? Why was I even here if it wasn’t to help Eo or this town? I must have been missing the bigger picture, and I became extremely frustrated and angry at the whole matter.

“What?!” I screamed at the top of my lungs. “What’s the point?! I helped Eo! He was moving on! How is anything supposed to move on if reminders of the past prevent it…unless…” Then I thought that maybe moving on was not the important thing here – that accepting impermanence and change as ruling factors was.

Right about that time, another quake began shaking everything in Vengi. This one was much more violent than the first one that obliterated the clock tower. I suddenly felt that the spot where we were standing was not a safe place to be. I grabbed Eo and helped rush him back to his house, but his weight and catatonic state were too much to bear. I could no longer carry him with me. He fell to the ground like a rock, lying motionless in the fetal position with a frightening expression of shock etched into his face. Looking ahead, I saw Eo’s house collapse into ruins. At that point, I knew I was alone in my situation, and I had to find shelter fast.

One of the only nearby structures still standing was the “Public Records Office” where I had first met Eo. I ran quickly to its door, which was now locked. Out of sheer distress, I kicked out the window and let myself in. With the quake still happening, I hurried to the back where the pictures and town archives I saw earlier were still strewn across the table. I then recalled something I’d heard about quakes; that standing in a doorway should provide the best protection. I raced back to the entry of the room and propped myself between the side walls of the doorway. The shaking and rattling kept getting stronger, and I closed one eye to protect it from dust and debris. The other stayed open to watch the office fall apart. Pieces of the ceiling came crashing down on the desk and the floor. A shelf had fallen over, tossing volumes of books at my feet. Looking back up in front of me, I watched the opposite side of the doorway crack open, and a large section of one wall dropped toward me, pinning me down. “What next?” I thought pessimistically. That comment was followed by a creaking, buckling sound over my head. I looked straight up just in time to see the support beam fall directly on me.

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