The Wall

I finished building, The Boat, in January. My house boat because I’d live on her. I met Denice when I launched her and we were a couple in three weeks. By mid August she’d agreed, neither of us had family, and we were 1,200 miles west of Midway Atoll.

“Denice, can we talk?”

“Shoot.”

“We’re going to have an occurrence in eighteen hours. You know about the boat, how it’s built and powered and the stores we carry.”

“An occurrence oh master of understatement? I don’t know the why.”

“It’s a survival boat, an arc if you will and it’ll save you and me. I think. You know I research oceans and plate tectonics and two years ago I calculated a rupture of the mid Atlantic rift. No one believed me. It’ll start a hundred miles south of Iceland and generate a tidal wave that’ll flood the entire Great Wall. I’m hoping South America and a few thousand miles of deep ocean will allow us to survive.”

“How many will die?”

“98%.”

“What’ll it come like?”

“A monstrous wall of water.”

“Crap! There goes my hair.”

*****

“Ohh ... My ... God! A hundred foot water wall as far as I can see. What chance do we have?”

“This thing is so over powered it can almost fly, right now I wish it could. Belt in and ask fate for all the help it can provide.” The boat was shaking and quivering like it was coming apart, the two 4,000 HP jet turbines were screaming like tortured daemons.”

But we were climbing that wall! Thirty minutes later we did fly as we crested it.

We couldn’t speak for minutes and Denice was first, “I guess I’ll have to do my own hair now! Will you help?”

“Sure.”

The world would be different now.