Flooding First Draft

I wrote Flooding before I wrote Cold Wonder. Cold Wonder got me excited about writing and made me remember this blog so I posted it first. Flooding is part of the same assignment, which is a series of vignettes that follow the theme of place. It also needs a lot of work. Do remember that this is a first draft. I don't know if I'll post the revision, it depends on how much changes.

Flooding                                                               

            I was living in a tiny town called Aitkin, pronounced like bacon without the ‘b.’ I was living in an apartment with a friend of mine and two more of our friends were staying the night. It was a small apartment so it was cramped, but it was only for one night, so it was fine. That night I woke up several times to flashing lights. There was a lightning storm outside. The sky was lit up more often than it was dark. I didn’t think anything of it.

            We woke up to find that the storm had been far reaching. Duluth, a city over one hundred miles away, had flooded overnight. Entire parking lots were submerged, with only the roofs of cars visible. Huge sink holes torn away roads. All roads to Duluth were closed from every direction. The problem was that my two friends lived in Duluth. They looked up possible routes and found none. They were trapped in Aitkin.

            Aitkin was downriver from Duluth, and even as far as it was, it was still flooded. The river ran through a park that was now completely underwater. A campground on the other side of town was also gone. As the days wore on we measured the flood by using a bench. On the first day we could still see its seat. A week later the seat was underwater. Slowly after that the water went down.

            On the second day of the flood my two friends finally discovered a way to get to Duluth. They had to go at least eighty miles out of the way to get there. I was glad. I didn’t mind them being here, but my apartment was not meant for four people. It could barely handle two. I don’t like crowds nor am I comfortable trying to find things for four people in a small town going through a crisis with absolutely nothing to do.

            As the water rose over the next few days several businesses were in danger of being flooded. A garden shop was already completely water logged. The carpet place across the street were desperately trying to place a sandbag barrier around their building, but couldn’t do it alone. A local catholic congregation offered to help and my roommate and I heard about it and offered to help as well. We filled bags with sand and tied them off before handing them off to someone who would lay them down. After we had built a sizeable wall someone brought out boxes of pizza. After all the hard work, that was some of the best pizza I ever had.

            The leader of the group that had volunteered to help build the sandbag wall was impressed with my roommate and me. Not only had two twenty something boys offered to do a lot of hard work for nothing, but we also had an incredible work ethic. At least, that was how he saw it. To be honest, it had been the most fun I had ever had in that little town.

Cold Wonder First Draft.

So yes, its been a while, blah blah blah. I have a laptop now, so I should be able to post more. More than that, I am in a creative writing class now, so I will be writing more, allowing me to post more. Here is the first draft of Cold Wonder that I wrote for my Creative Writing class. It is a part of a group of vignettes that we are writing with the theme of place. What do you think?

Cold Wonder

            It was so cold. Why would anyone live here? I had heard, of course, that it would be cold. It made sense that it would be cold. I had listened to the advice I had been given and had brought a lot of winter gear. I like cold weather, I had told myself, so even if it’s bad for some people, it won’t be so bad for me. I arrogantly had thought that Utah has some pretty cold weather, I could handle whatever nature could throw at me. I was prepared for the worse, except I wasn’t. Why would anyone live in Minnesota? I couldn’t wrap my head around it.

                My car wasn’t even that far away, but it was taking an eternity to get there. Time was slowing down, freezing. I was wearing two coats, both too small by themselves, and only just adequate when paired together. I was wearing two shirts and thermals. I originally had thought that I wouldn’t need a scarf, I didn’t want to wear a scarf, but I was wearing my scarf. I had learned about myself that I can’t handle having my mouth and nose being covered at the same time, even by a scarf, so my nose was probably turning blue. I had a beanie pulled over my ears, but my glasses left a small opening which the wind seemed to target. I had heavy duty gloves on, but my fingers were still numb. I had boots, which worked to keep the snow out, but couldn’t stand against the cold. Why would anyone live here?

                I reached the car, looking forward to the heater within. As I opened the door and briefly looked behind me and stopped. It was dark and snowing. The snow covered the ground, making everything white. The sky was black and empty, but the ground, illuminated by street lights, was pure and defined. The trees lining the street, with their leafless branches stretched into the blackness, as if the light were fighting away the oppressive darkness, but could only do so much against its weight. I left the car behind, walked to the center of the road, and pulled out my camera. Maybe this is why people live here.