Thomas loves the beach. He can hardly believe when his parents tell him they will visit Bali for their holidays this year. Three months before they were even set to leave, he packs his suitcase and has it sitting by his bedroom door. Two weeks before, he can’t concentrate in school; his friends are sick of hearing the word “Bali” except when the topic of gifts arises. The night before he doesn’t even sleep. He lays awake in bed, staring at the ceiling. No matter how many sheep he counts, sleep continues to elude him. At five am, he wakes up his parents and hurries them through showers and packing all the way to the taxi waiting to take them to the airport.

Sleep takes him before the plane even pulls onto the runway.

Buried up to his knees in white sand, Thomas feels joy surging through him like a tidal wave. Each ocean wave that comes in laps at his thighs. Occasionally a larger one pushes him onto his butt in the sand, eliciting delighted laughs from the young boy.

Nearby, his parents both recline on beach chairs.

Nancy lays back without the umbrella above her, soaking in each drop of vitamin D she can. After only three days, her skin is already bronzed. Large, tinted sunglasses protect her eyes, but her bikini exposes much of her skin with only some consideration to modesty. This vacation is hard-earned, and she intends to savour each second they have on the beach before returning to their frigid, white winter.

Jeffrey reclines beside her, his umbrella strategically placed to block most of the sun from his eyes. A book lies open and upside down on his chest while he gazes out over the pristine aquamarine ocean before them. Out of the corner of his eye, he can see Thomas playing in the sand. The beach is exquisite. The vacation is divine.

But it is all a sham.

Turning his head from the ocean, Jeffrey observes his wife. Fifteen years together and it has all gone to shit. As divorced couples are wont to say, the only good thing that came out of his marriage is his child. Thomas is perfect. This is their last adventure as a family. In the afterglow bliss of their vacation, they plan to tell Thomas they are divorced. Not divorcing. Divorced. The papers are already signed. Everything is divvied up. They even purchased an apartment (no skimping on that either, thank you!) for him. All that remains is to move out.  

“Nancy,” he ventures, his brow furrowing. “I think we should tell him here. At least he’ll get to have some fun and maybe forget about how upset he is.”

Nancy yanks off her sunglasses and glowers at her _ex_-husband. It is a look only a mother can achieve, one laced with disappointment, exasperation, and anger.

“No. We talked about this.” Nancy retorts. “We don’t want to ruin his last vacation with us. We’ll tell him when we get back, just like we planned.”

“But, Nance-“

“Don’t ‘Nance’ me,” she seethes. “We. Talked. A. ‘Bout. This. We had a plan. Don’t go fucking with our plan because you feel guilty.”

“Mom… Dad… The water’s gone…” Thomas’s voice pulls both his parents’ attention from their argument.

“What do you mean, baby?” Nancy sits up, her voice changing to a nurturing, motherly tone.

Thomas half turns, pointing towards the receding ocean. “The water’s gone.”

“Where is everyone?” Jeffrey rises to his feet, scanning the beach. Once crowded, the beach now stands nearly empty. A few patrons look around with confusion, a few gather up their belongings and begin running inland, the majority are already well inland, their feet carrying them as though they are sprinting for an Olympic gold. The thread of a thought tugs at the back of his mind. Something that was said to them on arrival to their resort…

“Run.” He grabs both their wrists and begins tugging them along.

“Jeffrey, what-?”

“Just run!”

“Daddy, you’re hurting my wrist!” 

“Really, Jeffrey… Ouch…”

Their complaints fall on deaf ears as Jeffrey looks over his shoulder. Looming on the horizon, blotting out the sky, a wall of water thunders towards land. Distance and size mask the wave’s speed. Within seconds, the wave swallows the chairs where Nancy and Jeffrey had been reclining. The wave devours those who didn’t leave their sandy paradises quick enough.

With less resistance now that they see the growing wave, Jeffrey tugs his family toward the nearest building – a three-storey office building with a café on the main floor. Jeffrey reefs the door open and ushers his family inside. Nancy leads the way up the stairs. Before they reach the main landing, Jeffrey hears the unmistakable sound of shattering glass coming from the foyer they just left. The building shudders. Wave and building meet at last.

“Go, go, go!” He pants, chasing his ex-wife and son up the stairs.

Fresh air and salty spray reach them as they burst through the rooftop door. People mill about the roof, most standing near the centre. A few foolish ones lean over the edge as the wave licks at their feet. Despite its best efforts, the wave is just barely unable to reach the refugees taking shelter atop the building.

“I think we’ll be safe here…” Jeffrey nods, herding his family to a place not too close to the centre of the building.

Nancy gazes at her husband with an appreciation and kindness he has not seen in her face for the past five years. She doesn’t say anything, but she nods slightly. They are safe.

Subsequent waves batter at the building in a futile effort to dislodge the people sheltering from its wrath. Each wave causes the building to shake, but the building never gives way. Feeling confident in their safety, people relax. Even Jeffrey, Nancy, and Thomas settle down to wait out the disaster or wait for aid, whichever comes first.

Beneath the gathered bodies, the building begins to protest.

The protests are soft at first, mere grumblings. Under the relentless pounding of the water, those grumbles turn into screams.

“Do you hear that?” A man’s voice calls above the din of waiting people. “Shh. SHH! LISTEN.”

On cue, amid the quieted voices, the building gives one last mournful complaint before the cracks appear.

The first screams come from the centre of the roof. The weakest part of the structure collapses inwards and those who rested there have a second to shout their surprise before water and rubble buries them. Screams bounce among those who didn’t get swallowed, as they scramble away from the void in the centre of the roof. There is nowhere to run, as the dilapidated building finally succumbs to the water completely.

What used to be a solid piece of roof breaks apart into several smaller pieces. Some pieces cling to the structure, refusing to be swept along by the raging water. Most of the pieces are rent cleanly from their foundations. They bob along the murky water, vulnerable to the force’s whim. The churning water upends most of the slabs of roof. People try desperately to cling to safety, but they are soon consumed by the water’s turmoil. 

Jeffrey’s slab of roof lilts and tilts, threatening to upend. Two other people share this piece with his family. A particularly rough thrust from the water nearly tosses them all into the murk. One of the young men does fly off, his voice and body gone before they can react. The other young man clings desperately to the inclined roof beside Jeffrey and Nancy. Thomas’s only grip is to his father’s hand.

“Try to climb up,” Jeffrey shouts to the other two as their floating sanctuary tilts beyond its 45-degree angle.

Their combined weight is enough to start lowering the piece to a flat surface until the other young man slips. With a cry of surprise, he scrambles to grab anything to prevent the ocean swell from swallowing him. What he manages to grasp is Nancy’s leg. Her scream is far worse as she too slips, struggling to support both their weights.

“Let go!” She screeches, kicking at the young man with her free foot. “Let me go!”

The young man screams up in a language that is not English. Jeffrey doesn’t need to speak his language to read the terror in his eyes.

“You’re going to kill us all! Let go!” Nancy continues to shout down at him. She feels a satisfying crunch as her foot connects with its target. The weight releases from her ankle, and she doesn’t look down to see the young man grab his nose as the water closes in around him.

Their safety slab slams back into the water, level and safe once more. The young family scurries to the middle, wrapping their arms around each other. In their relief, they do not hear or see the cracks forming underneath them.

“We need some way off here…” Jeffrey says as he looks around. They are still at the wave’s mercy, but there must be some way off.

In the direction they are floating, he spies a building a little taller than the wave’s crest. Atop it people gather at the edge, not unlike on their building. It is a little way off to the side, but he thinks they can reach it. If they just…

“Let’s paddle for that building,” he points it out to Nancy. “Maybe we can climb on top. We’ll be safer up there than here.” She looks dubious but doesn’t question him. Together on their bellies, using their arms as paddles, they make their way slowly towards the building.

Their raft hits the building on target, joining a pile up of junk.

Jeffrey stands up and reaches towards the top. He is just a little too short to reach the top. Suddenly a face and arm appear over the edge and his face brightens. Stretching up, he can reach the other man’s hand and provide some stability to their roof piece.

“I’ll hold us steady, you lift up Thomas.” He tells Nancy as more faces and arms appear at the edge, ready to help pull up the survivors.

“Okay, baby,” Nancy picks up her five-year-old. “I’m going to hand you up to these people, but mommy and daddy will be right up after you, okay?”

Thomas has been brave this far. He silently nods his head. In his mother’s hands, he stretches for the strangers, but he can’t reach them. “Mommy, I’m too short.”

“A little more!” An accented voice calls from above. 

Summoning all her energy, Nancy stretches the boy who is much too old to be held like this up towards the waiting hands.

As Thomas’s hands brush against their saviors’, a loud crack rings out from beneath them. Their roof breaks apart into smaller pieces. Nancy stumbles, unstable on the smaller piece, which bucks beneath her shifting weight. It throws her to her knees, and Thomas tumbles from her hands. For a brief moment, the young boy holds on to the broken edge of the roof, but his legs are no match for the power of the water. It sucks him beneath the surface to a blood-curdling scream from his mother. 

“Nancy, don’t!” Jeffrey manages to yell before she jumps in the water after him.

Jeffrey stares at the water. His small piece of roof rocks back and forth. His is still steady, still safe. The faces above him are silent. What could they say? Part of him wants to throw his own body into the water. Let the ocean consume him with his wife and son… But self-preservation wins out.

He climbs onto the roof and waits for the tsunami to end its destruction or for help to rescue them.