More Than She Bargained for

Against all reasonable expectation, the tumult continued to grow ever more fearsome. The wind was a bellowing tempest. Would it never stop? The twins stood arm in arm, looking out the west window, their red hair gleaming in the flickering lamplight. Cap. and Mrs. Hand and I stood near the door while Viney hovered near me, fearful and protective.

“Jes listen at dat wind,” she moaned, “I aint never heard nothin like that before.”

“It is bad, Viney, but I believe this house will stand against any ordinary storm wind or flood. The water is very high now but it is still not getting into the house.”

This was no ordinary storm. The raging tempest had swept up the waters of the ocean, piling them fifteen to twenty feet or more high….a mountain of water rushing on toward the island. Even as we listened, a deeper howl entered into the voice of the storm. With a roar like a thousand freight trains, the monstrous wave struck the Fort. The massive oak doors were torn from their hinges and rushed in on the crest of the wave. With supercharged strength, Captain Hand seized his wife and me. Throwing us and himself onto one of the heavy oak doors, he locked his hands and feet to the edges of the door and held on for dear life. Instinctively imitating, Viney threw herself onto the second door and clung there like a leaf on a limb. The wind seemed alive with fury. Its irresistible force swept everything before it, water, wood, flesh and stone. The force of the wave drove the doors with a crash straight through the Fort’s back wall and out and away into the dark and pitching world. Faintly, I heard the grinding crash as the Fort collapsed and it’s remains swept away on the rushing flood. A terrifying interval followed, compounded of motion and sound and black heaving water. The wind shredded our clothing, tore hair from our heads, snatched away breath and fought to tear us from that door on the churning, pitching, flood. The black air was full of rain, spray, wind and water. We hapless humans battled for breath and life. There was no thought, no speech, just roaring blackness and everlasting violent motion. Pressing instinctively, we struggled to became one with that tossing door. Eventually, our senses could stand no more and blackness deeper than night, overcame us.