Living Beneath the Atomic Cloud
Mother
It was a clear day without a cloud in the sky.
I was playing house with my sisters upstairs.
Mother had gone to the field to pick some eggplants. As she was going out, she said to us, "Make a fire in the stove at eleven. But we were having so much fun that even when the clock struck eleven times, none of us got up. We were completely absorbed in playing.
I happened to glance at the window. Just at that moment, there was a lightning-like flash.
"Oh ... " My body staggered. The next thing I knew I was pinned under the house. I couldn't move at all. The harder I tried to escape, the more painful it was. There was nothing I could do but keep still and wait for my chance. Then I saw my two older sisters outside. I was so glad. I cried, "Help me! Help me! " My voice reached them.
They immediately came running and tried to pull me out. But the bamboo frame which supported the earthen wall separated us. Pulled or pushed, it wouldn't move.
My oldest sister encouraged me in a faltering voice. "Be patient, will you? Mother and Father will be back soon. I'll bring someone to help us. All right? " Then she ran off.
I could see a little bit of the outside world through the bamboo frame. I stared hard at it, waiting for Mother and Father.
Sometime later, my oldest sister came running back with four or five sailors. With their help, I was rescued. Standing outside, I was astonished. Although it had been such a beautiful day, it was now terrible. Black clouds were twisting and writhing all over the sky.
I tottered and tried to walk towards the air-raid shelter. Then a low cry came from under the house. "Help me! " It was the voice of my younger brother.
My oldest sister seemed to be the first to notice his cry. Right away she ran to the spot and finally pulled him out after removing a lot of roof tiles.
Then a baby's cry came from the opposite direction. It was the voice of my two-year-old sister, trapped under the house. I hurried to the spot and found her crying desperately, her legs pinned under a huge cross beam.
With the sailors' help, we tried to move it, but it was made of four huge, connected cross beams and would not give an inch. From the pain in her squeezed legs, my sister was crying and thrashing her arms. What in the world should we do?
The sailors began to give up. "We can't do it, " they said. Some of my neighbors came to ask for their help, and they went running away to rescue other buried people. We children were left behind.
What in the world was Mother doing in the field? Please, please come back soon. Why didn't Father come back? My little sister's legs would be torn off. I was completely at a loss, and the only thing I could do was to look around on my tiptoes.
In the distance, I saw someone dashing towards us. The person had disheveled hair. It was a woman. She looked naked. A purple-colored body. She called out to us in a loud voice. Oh! It was Mother.
"Mother, " we cried. We felt then that everything would be all right.
Here and there, the houses began to burst into flames. One of our neighbors appeared from nowhere, and pulled up the beam with all his might, trying to free my sister's legs. But it remained as firm as a rock. He drew a deep breath of disappointment and said in a sad voice. "I'm sorry but we must give up. " He bowed and went away.
A fire started quite nearby. Mother's face went ashy pale. Father hadn't come back yet. Mother was looking down at my little sister. Tiny eyes looked up from below. Mother looked around, studying the way the beams were piled up. Then she got into an opening under the beam and putting her right shoulder under a portion of it, bit her lower lip tightly.
"Uhhhhhh ... " She strained with all her might. We heard a cracking sound, and the beam was lifted a little. My little sister's legs were freed. My eldest sister quickly pulled her out. Mother leaped out and hugged her tightly to her breast.
After a while, as if we suddenly realized what had happened, we children burst out crying. At
that Mother sank weakly to the ground. Then I realized for the first time how my mother looked. She had been hit by the blast as she was picking eggplants to feed us for lunch. She was almost stark naked. Her coat and trousers were burnt and torn to pieces. Her hair had turned to reddish-brown and was frizzled and torn as if she had had too strong a permanent. She was burnt all over her body. Her skin was red and greasy. The skin on her right shoulder, where she had lifted the beam, was gone, revealing raw flesh and red blood, which was constantly oozing out.
Mother fell exhausted on the ground. At that moment, Father ran up to us, staggering as he came. He had been seriously burned, too.
Mother began to feel pain. After groaning and struggling in agony, she died that night.