Erupted Away

I stared in confusion at the chaos in front of me.

There were twigs spinning around in all directions, and trees were being uprooted too.

I was not being uprooted because I was in my windproof shelter, and it was crazy to imagine what would be happening to me if I were to be out in the windstorm that was happening around me.

Then I saw the volcano that was nearby erupt as the wind blew twigs and trees and rocks and whatnot around, and then the wind started blowing the lava around too!

This was a sign that it was time for me to leave the window that I was looking out of so that I could dash into the underground part of my windproof shelter, because only the underground part was both windproof and lavaproof, and I didn’t want to be near the non-lavaproof window if any of the lava happened to be blown into it…

And so I quickly! went underground, and my wife Nalani said, “How’s the storm going?” as I entered into the part of the underground shelter where she was at.

“It was already crazier than usual,” I said, “but then the volcano erupted, and so now the wind is blowing lava around which is why I headed down here and didn’t continue watching the storm unfold.”

“Hmmm…” Nalani said with a frown, “That volcano hasn’t erupted for hundreds of years…

I wonder why it finally let loose…”

I shrugged and said, “I guess maybe it was due to let loose.

Either way though, I’m worried that this storm may be so destructive that we won’t be able to survive around here anymore, and so it might be good for us to start thinking in terms of planning where we might want to move to…”

“Only if we have to…” Nalani said in a determined tone of voice, “I mean, I haven’t stayed here this long to leave unnecessarily…” and I said, “Of course. Only if we have to.

I’m not intent on leaving, I’m just saying that we want to be open to leaving if survival around here becomes too unlikely for us.” and Nalani nodded and said, “Fair enough. I can’t argue with that…

It’s still so bizarre that it was so peaceful and populated around here for so long, and then suddenly the high winds and whatnot just turned everything upside down and scared almost everyone away except for us.

But this madness can’t keep up forever, can it?

Like, eventually things are bound to return to being calm and welcoming around here, I just know it!”

“Eventually, probably…” I said, “But will eventually be 2 days or 2 weeks or 2 months or 2 years or 20 years or 200 years?, I don’t know…”

“Probably not 2 days…” Nalani said, “And probably not 200 years…

But the other numbers all sound possible enough…” and I said, “That seems reasonable…

And now I’m wondering what sight will await us once we’re able to emerge from our shelter down here…

I mean, we could easily find that the lava has caused so much destruction that we’ll have to stay down here for a few months to wait for it to be safe to even return to the surface at all!”

“Well, if that’s the case then we might have to put our tunneling machine to work, because I think that we only have enough supplies to be able to live down here for a few weeks or so…” Nalani said, “Though one would hope that the destruction up there can’t be that bad…” and I said, “Yes indeed. The tunneling machine could in theory become necessary for us to use, though hopefully it won’t come to that.

Though, I dunno…, that volcano was pretty filled up with lava, and who knows how much of it has been wreaking havoc up there now that it’s gotten out and is being blown around everywhere?…”