[The following is comprised of journal entries made in the days following the quake.]
June 23
June 23
10:15 pm
I am trying to read the atlas in the
dark; we have no safe light source. The streetlights are out again. I
keep falling asleep, in spite of the pain. V doesn't know my leg is broken. I haven't told her, will not tell her. I'm trying to stay awake, but waking and dreaming
are blending and it's getting weird. There is so much smoke, it's almost
impossible to tell what outside is real. I thought I saw someone
standing out there in the dark, looking at us, beckoning frantically for
us to come out, come out, and pointing up, up the hill. So frantic. I
was going to wake V, but whoever it was, if it was in fact anyone,
disappeared.
Shortly after we turned onto Norris Canyon Road, the lights went out. All streetlights, all house lights. It became very difficult to see anything. Smoke has been getting thicker all night. I found some dryer sheets in the glove box, a fresh package. I shoved a bunch in each air vent of the car. Now it smells like someone put a barbecue in the dryer.
A landslide blocked Norris a short ways in; we got lost trying to find our way around it. There was a way that people had been driving, but it took us back into residential streets that went toward Bollinger, so V turned around and I think we were on Derby (?) when she took a dirt road we drove past a water tank and then ended up here in this really nice neighborhood.
I can't remember the streets Nadine told us. I am recharging the iPhone so that I can listen back. It died sometime after crossing the gorge.
That gorge is terrifying. Deep like Indiana Jones would need a rope bridge to cross. Deep like Depak Chopra would have Seven Spiritual Laws of Vagueness to share.Deep like donkey vagina for Thanksgiving dinner. ?? That's the Morphine talking, Ma. I'm cuckoo for coca puffs, I'm morphing from Morphine. I'm meh, moving back to the gorge:
It really is a river of fire. The smoke and sky above it are lit from below, it looks like the Balrog might summer there. And it's not just smoke, there's steam -- probably more steam than smoke. What I saw, looking down into the gorge, was flaming water and what looked like fresh lava. Which is impossible, if it came from Mt. Diablo, because that only just erupted. Was there already lava in the gorge? I hadn't heard that anywhere. So we turned on KQED before we found Norris. From all reports, the lake of fire in Pleasanton is only spreading Eastward, not a word about the lava in the gorge. Pleasanton burns. Too bad, lovely homes. Dublin is mostly under burning water. No great loss. Horrid architecture. Sad for people, unless they all became Mean Greenies.
There were Mean Greenies (MG's) in the streets off Bollinger when we found ourselves there. That's why V just drove straight instead of heading back to the landslide on Norris. We could see their green lights bobbing around, it looked like they were looking for something, spreading out in very organized ranks. Little weird. How did they get acrossBollinger? 680? They must have been going up Norris on foot while we were turned around by the landslide, we saw some when we were
There's one outside. Across the street. I see the glowstick. Can't tell man or woman. Moving slow, seems to be looking back and forth, I think hands outstretched as though feeling its way in the dark. Weird.
We are hidden behind a tarped pile of dirt or somesuch in a driveway. These driveways are long. Set back from the road. We are facing out. Did I already write this? I feel like I did.
11:22 pm
I must have slept. The MG is gone. I hope. V still sleeps. Can't remember when to wake her. Afraid to sleep, if I snore they might hear me.
It feels so still outside.
But I feel as though I was awakened by sound.
Light is changing. It's nowhere near dawn ...
Oh. Shit. Fire getting bigger from Diablo, from flaming river, houses must be burning near the gorge. I can see some details outside the car.
And there are trees -- no, not trees.
Looks like people? Can't see any green, though.
I think there are four of them. Spread out. Standing still. Are they watching me? Two on a neighbor lawn, one near the end of this driveway, one near mailbox of house across street.
If they are MG's, there will be more around. We will have to escape but I don't want to be followed again.
Orange light growing brighter.
I have a sinking feeling.
Trapped. If so, why are they so still? What are they waiting for?
Are there thousands just beyond that corner of the house? Is there any point in running?
I have to be imagining this. One just moved. Trapped, or am I freaking out? I feel freaked out. I feel like I ate an entire 10x pot brownie. I'm afraid to move. Afraid to wake V.
Afraid to write.
Shortly after we turned onto Norris Canyon Road, the lights went out. All streetlights, all house lights. It became very difficult to see anything. Smoke has been getting thicker all night. I found some dryer sheets in the glove box, a fresh package. I shoved a bunch in each air vent of the car. Now it smells like someone put a barbecue in the dryer.
A landslide blocked Norris a short ways in; we got lost trying to find our way around it. There was a way that people had been driving, but it took us back into residential streets that went toward Bollinger, so V turned around and I think we were on Derby (?) when she took a dirt road we drove past a water tank and then ended up here in this really nice neighborhood.
I can't remember the streets Nadine told us. I am recharging the iPhone so that I can listen back. It died sometime after crossing the gorge.
That gorge is terrifying. Deep like Indiana Jones would need a rope bridge to cross. Deep like Depak Chopra would have Seven Spiritual Laws of Vagueness to share.
It really is a river of fire. The smoke and sky above it are lit from below, it looks like the Balrog might summer there. And it's not just smoke, there's steam -- probably more steam than smoke. What I saw, looking down into the gorge, was flaming water and what looked like fresh lava. Which is impossible, if it came from Mt. Diablo, because that only just erupted. Was there already lava in the gorge? I hadn't heard that anywhere. So we turned on KQED before we found Norris. From all reports, the lake of fire in Pleasanton is only spreading Eastward, not a word about the lava in the gorge. Pleasanton burns. Too bad, lovely homes. Dublin is mostly under burning water. No great loss. Horrid architecture. Sad for people, unless they all became Mean Greenies.
There were Mean Greenies (MG's) in the streets off Bollinger when we found ourselves there. That's why V just drove straight instead of heading back to the landslide on Norris. We could see their green lights bobbing around, it looked like they were looking for something, spreading out in very organized ranks. Little weird. How did they get across
There's one outside. Across the street. I see the glowstick. Can't tell man or woman. Moving slow, seems to be looking back and forth, I think hands outstretched as though feeling its way in the dark. Weird.
We are hidden behind a tarped pile of dirt or somesuch in a driveway. These driveways are long. Set back from the road. We are facing out. Did I already write this? I feel like I did.
11:22 pm
I must have slept. The MG is gone. I hope. V still sleeps. Can't remember when to wake her. Afraid to sleep, if I snore they might hear me.
It feels so still outside.
But I feel as though I was awakened by sound.
Light is changing. It's nowhere near dawn ...
Oh. Shit. Fire getting bigger from Diablo, from flaming river, houses must be burning near the gorge. I can see some details outside the car.
And there are trees -- no, not trees.
Looks like people? Can't see any green, though.
I think there are four of them. Spread out. Standing still. Are they watching me? Two on a neighbor lawn, one near the end of this driveway, one near mailbox of house across street.
If they are MG's, there will be more around. We will have to escape but I don't want to be followed again.
Orange light growing brighter.
I have a sinking feeling.
Trapped. If so, why are they so still? What are they waiting for?
Are there thousands just beyond that corner of the house? Is there any point in running?
I have to be imagining this. One just moved. Trapped, or am I freaking out? I feel freaked out. I feel like I ate an entire 10x pot brownie. I'm afraid to move. Afraid to wake V.
Afraid to write.
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