Daniel Keohane - Margaret's Ark

Jack staggered back as another flash punched him again; then the kid’s chest turned red, like it was in the hospital – Jack remembered him, now. So long ago...

Both fell, the kid to the cobblestones and Jack backward over the chains. He tumbled once against the slime-coated harbor wall before landing on his back in the muck below.

He felt nothing now, only a sense of hovering above the filth. Michael stood on the edge of the park, looking down, hand held out.

“Come on, Jack,” he said. Then he smiled. So beautiful, that smile, erasing the scars and lines on the angel’s face. Jack was standing on the wharf beside him. Police forced the crowd back, back, but Jack found nothing of interest here. Michael held his hand. Together they rose above the chaos and the pain, flying like Peter Pan into the bright, bright morning sky.

* * *

When she could move again Margaret tried gathering Holly into her arms. She needed something, some one to feel beside her. To this woman who was no more than a stranger, she said, “Stay close.” She could not hear her own words. Holly had apparently not heard either, for she freed herself from Margaret's grip and crawled away. Behind, what had begun a few seconds earlier as a low rumbling now overpowered all other sound.

The ramp still led up to the ark from the grass. Carl pulled himself up using the railing. When he'd fallen to the deck, he'd tried to hold himself over the baby to shelter it. Knowing it was useless he'd roughly slid Connor aside to avoid crushing him. Though the baby now wailed in his arms, it didn’t look hurt. Carl held him carefully and stared down to the grass below.

Margaret shouted as loud as she could. “Drop the ramp, Carl!” Wind blew with a panicked force against her back. Traveling with it, or perhaps pushing it along, the roaring din sounded like a freight train storming out of control behind her.

Hoisting the baby in one arm, Carl knelt by the bolts holding the ramp in place. He looked again at Margaret, then slowly beyond her. His face lost all color. Margaret's continued pleas were lost in the wind.

A few feet away, her back to the ark, Holly turned and saw what was coming towards them. She screamed, the voice only a distant keening.

In blind unison, people on the common raced towards the ark. The heavy man who a moment before was storming in that direction fell under the rushing mob. The sudden motion around the perimeter broke Carl’s paralysis. He didn't have time to think about what filled the western sky. Only that it was coming towards them really fast. He pulled the first wooden dowel free then skittered sideways and yanked loose the second. Connor squirmed and wriggled in his grip but Carl held fast, no longer caring if he hurt the baby.

The ramp fell with an unheard thud to the grass the same moment Carl swung the hinged section of railing closed and set the latch.

The mob slammed against the hull. Men in suits tried to scale the sides, only to slip on the thick coats of grease and fall onto three others waiting below. Everyone looked behind them at the monster rising over the town. The woman with the sandwiches raised one of her children towards the deck. There was no one there to pull him on board. The boy squirmed, and someone grabbed his foot as if to pull himself up. Both came crashing down.

* * *

“Everyone stay in the Lord's house for these final moments! God is pleased you came to him and we must continue the Mass!” Some of the parishioners, mostly those near the front, calmed a little and knelt in the pews. These people were safe from the chaos at the back of the church. There, the crowd pushed in claustrophobic mindlessness towards the exit. One of the glass doors shattered. The jet-plane roar from outside shook the building.

Nick held one hand flat against the altar and tried to remember where he'd left off. The Host and Chalice were prepared, but he didn’t think it was time for the benediction. He looked at the front row, at the young couple huddled close with a small boy between them. Others stared back at him, oblivious to those who fought and struggled to get outside. The daylight drew away, dimming the brilliance of the stained glass windows.

Father Nick Mayhew closed his eyes and whispered a blessing for his congregation, both here and elsewhere. And for Margaret and her girls, that they would be safe aboard God's vessel. When he opened his eyes, raised his hands in blessing for the community, the front of the church ripped apart. Bodies flew towards the vacant front pew and altar moving too fast to see. Everything blew apart then was gone completely.

* * *

Carl slammed the bulkhead and bolted it with one motion. He jumped the last three steps and stopped. In the morning light streaming through the eastern portholes, he found Margaret's vacant harness. Beside it, Katie lashed out with both arms, screaming as if what was bearing down on them had already hit. Beside her, Robin was silent, staring ahead of her. It almost seemed as if she was singing, but the sound went unheard in the approaching freight train roar.

Carl ran to Margaret's harness. He didn't think, just hoped the relentless rehearsals weren't for nothing. He dropped Conner in, grabbed the two straps and pulled. The baby swung back and forth as the harness closed around it. The baby's head was below the harness line. That was good. Less room to bounce around. Carl tightened the straps further, ignoring the baby's wails. As an afterthought, he pulled off his t-shirt and stuffed it around the back and side of Connor's head. He didn't re-check the straps, only ran blindly in the direction of his own berth, past the shouting and crying passengers. His chest heaved with sobs he couldn't hear. The boat shook. He saw his harness hanging a few feet away. The deck of the ship tilted. Carl knew he wasn't going to make it.

* * *

The sound, reflected in the screaming face of the woman beside her, was the sound of surf magnified a million times. Margaret momentarily considered going to the young mother, holding her close, then decided not to. She was alone, and it now seemed she was destined to be so. Margaret closed her eyes and wrapped her arms around her chest, imagined her girls with her. She leaned forward, pushed by the unrelenting wind. Two strong arms wrapped around her from behind, held fast. She wondered who was kneeling there with her, the angel or maybe Marty emerging from his self-imposed exile. It didn't matter. She opened her eyes but did not look back. The roaring of the wind faded in this invisible embrace.

The ark tilted sideways. The people outside hadn't noticed, so mesmerized were they by what loomed behind the fire station – a wall of uncountable leagues of salt water rising over them from the western horizon. The sun reflected off its face in immense ribbons of swirling color. Ahead of it all came the wind like a trumpeting angel, and the deafening sound of a thousand million high tides rolling towards shore but never cresting.

As Carl ran for his harness and the ark began to roll, a shadow passed over the town square. Then, like so many chess pieces, the trees and buildings and people of Lavish, California, were swept away forever.

* * *

The ocean rose higher across the western shore and beyond. The front of the growing wall tore across the landscape without thought to borders or property, continued to rise out of the deep bowl it had so long filled. The more the sea tore from captivity, the higher the wave became. Horizon to horizon, it reared up and across the United States, Canada, Mexico. Everywhere.

Eventually, gravity won over the heaving mass. The wall began to fatten, then fall. By the time the ocean reached the Rocky Mountains, it was a mile higher than the tallest peak. When the wave rolled across it, its underbelly tore open.