As she walked, careful always to land on one
of the many steps set for the tourists not to fall into the floodwater, she
thought of the whole thing as very funny. Well, it wasn’t really funny if you
thought about it, but there was some humor in seeing a bunch of people that
looked like tourists (flip flops, maps, binoculars and big backpacks included),
crossing a large square at five in the morning, all in their version of a
pajama. To the native, the people from Venice, Jean knew all of he situation looked
funny as hell. I mean, they had been staying in a hotel that wasn’t very good
and now the hotel was slowly decaying into the lagoon. That was the part that
wasn’t so funny and maybe the one that worried the neighbors and the people in
general more.
Jean tried to stop smiling like a fool and
asked her brother Peter to take her hand, as they finally reached the other end
of the square and waited behind a long line of people to continue their journey
through Venice. It was a late tour of a city that Jean hadn’t particularly
loved. She had noticed how many lovers and people who adored romance could see
all the beauty of the place but she had founded boring after only two days. And
she had to stay there with her brother for a week until their parents arrived
to Europe. They would meet them somewhere and share a city, most likely Paris,
and then go back home. Jean at least thought the midnight tour to the
replacement hotel was the best thing that had happened in a while.
Her brother wasn’t of the same mind. He was
very worried about people that were older that them and had to be at the end of
the line, being helped by the people from the hotel. He was one of those people
that care about everyone but himself, which is always seen as a very good thing
but his sister thought it was his worst trait. He cared about others so much he
wasn’t able to see when his own family or even himself was on trouble. For a
time, he had been in a very difficult financial situation but he had failed to
address it as he was using the few bucks he made to help a poor family. His
family had to intervene because he was about to lose it all because of his
kindhearted nature.
When most people had finally crossed the
square, the people from the hotel indicated with lights the way they should
follow to get to the replacement hotel. Apparently, according to a map Jean
had, the place was crossing the side of Venice they were on. So they started
walking and thought it wouldn’t be long until they had a bed to sleep in, as
the city wasn’t so big. They thought, initially, that the city would be asleep
and quiet as the roamed around, but the truth was just the opposite. They could
her people talking in Italian very fast, some people going around the streets
and disappearing with ease. Something was wrong, they could all feet it. Maybe
the news about their hotel had spread.
But it wasn’t about their hotel. At one turn,
they heard a woman screaming at the top of their lungs from a building. Peter,
savior to all, was about to run and save her but she was just an older woman
being dramatic. Her building was fine and if she could scream like that there
was nothing really bad going on. The explanation to her screaming came in the
form of a gossip, which came from the back, where an older man had been hearing
the radio since he had gotten out of the hotel. He wasn’t very good at Italian
but he could easily understand from what he was hearing that other buildings in
the city had started to sink like their hotel. When the news reached the front,
people just stopped and some even fell to the floor, causing a small chaos when
people got pushed and stepped on.
But the people from the hotel ignored the news
and just asked people to keep on walking. Eventually, they reached Campo de la
Maddalena, a very small open space were they could feel a little less trapped
and were people were able to just sit down on the floor and have something to
drink and eat. The hotel people still weren’t talking about the news but they
were talking amongst themselves and they looked very worried. Their hand
gestures were enough to confirm the news. Then, screaming some more news, the
older man told the crowd that tram and train service had been cut off and that
the bridge to the mainland was only open to buses getting people out of the
islands.
Some
people checked their maps with haste and realized that the train station wasn’t
that far away, and as the road ran alongside of the tracks, maybe they could be
able to walk to the mainland or at least reach on of those buses. They formed a
little committee and send a person to talk, which happened to be Peter as he
was deeply concerned for everyone around him. He talked to the people from the
hotel and tried to convince them to go to the train station or the bus station
instead of the other hotel. They heard what he had to say but then explained
they couldn’t do anything that wasn’t approved by the company. So they had to
ask first.
One of the staff, a very young man, called on
his cellphone and started speaking a very fast Italian, trying to get as far
from people as he could. Everyone could see him gesturing and trying to convey
every thought in what he had to say but then he turned to everyone. He was one
of those very pale people but now he seemed to look even paler. He hung up, walked
towards the crowd and demanded their attention. He had received orders to get
them to the replacement hotel as some areas of the city were beginning to
flood, namely the train and bus stations. He had also received news that their
hotel had fully collapsed into the water, as it was located just at the Grand
Canal.
People stood up to keep on walking but others
thought it wasn’t a very good idea to stay. Their best chance, they said, was
to get to the mainland by anyways possible. But it has to be explained that
those who said that were young tourists, people that could walk and run if they
needed to. Most of the people that wanted to do as the hotel said were older
and they couldn’t afford to go hopping around without a real plan or a real way
of doing nothing. Peter intervened, saying the most important thing for
everyone was to be safe and that the elderly were first. Then a battle of
voices ensued and Jean was bothered now by the fact her brother always needed
to be a hero instead of trying to worry for his own.
She was decided to leave that place. As people
argued, she took a look at her map and realized it was all very near: the bus
station was probably only fifteen minutes away, less if they made good time. So
she decided that she would walk and try to get into one of the buses. Then, a
very loud sound interrupted the voices and the thoughts. Something was doing a
very haunting noise, like of something about to snap. Some people even felt the
environment move a little, like shaking beneath their feet. Then, they knew
something bad had happened because the sound was awful and it seemed like a
thousand people screamed at the same time. Some people fled, others couldn’t.
Jean grabbed Peter and ran.
He fought her initially but then stopped
opposing her and just looked over his shoulder from time to time. Some others
were running, and then walking with them. They crossed a canal and noticed
there were many bricks and pieces of walls and roofs floating on it. They
reached the train station and were amazed to see it partially collapsed. That
may have been the reason why the closed it, and not for just safety. They
crossed the square in front of it, crossed another bridge and then reached the
bus station. The place was full of people and they were all complaining.
Apparently, there were no buses there to get to the mainland. Some policemen
could be seen on the rooftop of a building, possible trying to control what
couldn’t be controlled.
For Jean, the response was simple and it got
simpler when people started screaming because they started to fill the puddles
of water grow larger beneath their feet.
Again, Jean grabbed her brother and pulled him through the crowd
following the road. People were so scared they were barely moving, others had
taken the route Jean had thought to be the only way out: just follow the road
to the mainland. They started walking, being joined by many people, but they
didn’t get too far as another one of those horrible sounds broke the chaos of
the march towards the mainland. The sound, however, was much stronger now. People
felt it inside, in their hearts and all other organs.
Then, the ground just started to collapse and
people just ran like crazy. Many died there, been trampled by other people that
were as scared as them. Jean took Peter’s hand hard and they ran too, trying no
to lose each other in the process. The sad thing was that the police had failed
to tell people the bridge had collapsed in its middle part. So running was of
no use. They had to find another way to live.
