Alyvia's Audio Story

On her twelfth birthday, a girl and her father went fishing in Indonesian waters. Suddenly, they noticed the ocean growing and a giant wave approaching. They were swallowed by the wave and tossed around in a whirlpool. The girl ended up on the roof of a building and held onto a palm tree for hours. Eventually, she woke up in a crowded location with other children. She was moved to another place for better treatment and was reunited with her father, who had survived the Indian Ocean tsunami. It was nearly 6 a.m. on December 26, 2004, and she had just woken up. Her fatigue was of no concern today. In fact, today was the best day to be tired, as it was her twelfth birthday. As she peered outside the window eagerly, a smile crept upon her face. She came thundering out of her front door to find her father already packing the boat. A short hour later, she found herself and her father sailing off to the blue Indonesian waters. As she sat in the small boat, a fishing line in hand, and a gaze at the still waters, she felt a tranquility fill her lungs. This, however, did not last. At first it was a faint boom, much like the beginning of a thunderstorm that she had grown to familiarize herself with. The booming and rumbling grew louder, much, much louder. It seemed to be coming from behind her, or maybe below. As she studied her surroundings, nothing deviated from the still waters she saw just moments ago. But as she turned to her right, she noticed some disturbance in the water. A boom, a ripple, a louder boom, a bigger ripple. As the two of them began making their way to shore, she pointed out toward the ocean's horizon. She thought it was raining from afar, since the ocean met the sky quite harmoniously. This is not the case. The ocean grew, and grew, and grew. It began collecting more and more water, and it seemed to her that it was getting closer. She was right. Every minute that they attempted to get closer to shore, the giant wave seemed to be traveling at double the pace. She couldn't hear the rumbling anymore, but maybe that is because it was drowned out by her own lungs. She wasn't even aware that she was screaming. They made it several hundred feet from the shore before they got lifted and swallowed by the wave. What was once a tranquil, still ocean was now a whirlpool that tossed her around so riskily. She tried screaming, Papa, but her mouth kept filling up with salty ocean water. Swimming at this point was useless. She did her best to keep her head above water, but the direction of which she was going was no longer in her control. She was petrified. She couldn't see anything through her burning eyes that were welled with tears and ocean water. Her body was numb with terror. She was alone. Moments later, or maybe hours, she couldn't tell. She felt her body being thrown on something hard, something solid. At first, she thought she made it to the beach, but as she struggled to stand, she noticed she was standing on shingles. She was on the roof of a building, nowhere near the beach. She hung onto a palm tree that was adjacent to her. She hung onto it and never let go. Many, many hours later, she remembered waking up in a small cot bed. As she looked around, she saw many faces that were not dissimilar to her own. Children. Rows and rows of children, with adults caring for them. There was screaming. There was crying. There was running. There was chaos. She had many thoughts, her first seeing where her father was. This thought appeared every second of every hour for days and days. This thought presented itself as a solemn, thinking feeling within her chest. It was early into the new year, and she got moved to another location to receive better treatment. As they were moving her and many other patients, she got placed in a large truck to fight a man she thought she would never see again. Her eyes filled with tears, as did his. They embraced each other, and they never let go. It was as if nothing in the world mattered. The Indian Ocean tsunami killed 225,000 people, but her father was embracing her in his arms. He was alive. They both were. And that's all that matters.