earthquake

• This trip to my mother’s has certainly brought my daughter and me closer together. At least we’re both in the front seat! She with her IPOD attached to her ears text messaging some unseen friend while I drove and listened to the news. Another Amber alert has been issued, a local alert warning the public to be on the look out for two brothers who didn’t make it home after school. They were probably playing and lost tract of time. Scruffy, the family pet, (don’t call him a pet to his face) jumped up and growled. Boy, he was really stretching his little ten-pound body to get my attention, yapping in my ear at some unseen danger. Little dogs get excited over miniscule things.
• 
  The earth started to shake abruptly; it actually got Cindy’s attention. She dropped her cell phone and pulled the plug on her IPOD. The road shook some more. The trees on the side started to sway. Rocks started to slide down the hillside. Scruffy howled in my ears. I hit the brakes to push him back just as a large tree toppled on to the hood. If I had gone a foot further it would have landed on the roof and crushed us! Scruffy sat back and sighed with relief. How did he perceive these things? Some times he could be down right spooky.Cindy and I pushed on our jammed doors. Thank heavens I’ve been on a diet so we crawled out the windows, six months ago it would have been a tight squeeze. I gasped at the sight around me. The back road was blocked with rocks, and a two-ton tree was preventing me from going forward. I’ve lied about trees jumping out in front of me so often my insurance company will love this one.
• 
  Cindy tried to call her dad, my husband, on her cell phone but didn't get a signal. This was a little used back road with no prospective traffic. It looked like the best course of action was hoofing it, something Cindy was unfamiliar with, I informed her she would pick it up easily, just put one foot in front of the other, over and over again, until we see civilization. She gave me the look.
• I grabbed some emergency supplies I kept in the trunk, a flashlight-radio-toolbox combo, first aide kit, sneakers, snacks and water, and bundled them up in a blanket. Off we went through the woods, with Scruffy in tow. He was a tittie baby, no leash needed; he went wherever momma went.
• Up ahead between the trail to grandmother’s house and us several big ugly looking wolves crept into view. We stopped advancing, they started advancing, we commenced walking backwards, they kept coming forward. I scooped up Scruffy who was acting all Napoleon, (little dog syndrome), gave up caution and ran! The wolves were hot on our backs. I heard Cindy wail and turned to see a wolf snag her red cape, then a tremor hit and we tumbled, down a hole, sliding on an uneven rocky, dirty slope until we thudded on the bottom, several stories below. Everything I carried scattered over the floor. Thank heavens nothing broke, except the snickers bars. We were barely scratched, however I had a wet spot I suspected came from Scruffy who was performing some incriminating self-grooming. I had to think about this, walking through woods to grandma's house, a red cape, wolves. Why does that sound familiar?
• We found ourselves in a huge black chamber. It’s miraculous we fell down a slope instead of plummeting to our deaths into the center. Cindy began to trek into the cave on the heels of Scruffy who appeared to be following something. I advised waiting here for help until I spied the wolves leaning over the opening, growling angrily. They kept testing the gap with their enormous claws as though considering following us. I decided to remove temptation and leave the range of their sniffers.
• We stayed along the wall, leaving rocks piled on each other or marks here and there to retrace our way if necessary. Something started coming towards us in the total darkness past the range of our flashlight. It was another light! And it was moving fast, up and down like a roller coaster. It couldn’t possibly be a train: could it! The proverbial light at the end of the tunnel? Maybe we were in a subway! Keep dreaming. I aimed the flashlight and caught view of two kids on a bike! One pedaling and one perched on the handlebars, legs on either side of the single headlight.
• It seems they had been looking for the missing kids from the Amber alert when the seismic activity occurred dropping them into this cavern. The girl’s bike had been severely damaged so they had to double up on the banged up metal survivor. A boy, James, with tattoos and a girl, Vicki, with jewelry in her nose, brows and upper lips. Brother and sister. They were ecstatic to see other people.
• Cindy took one look at the girls facial piercing and said, “Mom….”
• “No!”
• “But mom,…”
• “No!”
• The newcomers to our afternoon outing informed us that the path they came down was a dead end, so we proceeded down another tunnel, on the advice of an inner voice. Yes, I hear voices in my head!
• Cindy lagged behind to apply lipstick and conceal the smudges on her face with powder. Thank heavens she had the presence of mind to bring her purse! I scowled at her and noticed for the first time the attention James was trying his best to not pay my daughter. He had offered to let Vicky ride the bike solo and was keeping pace a few steps ahead of Cindy. Teenagers! Keep on ignoring her, I mentally advised.
• We trekked on, leaving markers as we went and crunching on candy. I told you I had emergency supplies!We sensed a strong draft coming down a particular passage way and gambled in its favor. There were many little sub caves along this route. Scruffy got excited and raced off ahead, barking fervently. He found a way out! No. He found some more kids! Great. They were tied up and crying. It seems we found the two misplaced brothers. Their brand new wicked stepmother had plotted to get rid of them and stuffed them here, in a cave so dark you couldn’t tell if your eyes were open or shut, until she made better arrangements. We never would have found them if Scruffy hadn’t led us to them. He was sitting on his haunches wagging his tail and looking up at something only he could see. Like I said, spooky little dog. The way out had to be near! Unless of course with my luck it had been concealed by the recent earth-moving event.
• “Don’t ever complain about being grounded again,” I counseled Cindy as we loosened the rope on ankles and hands.
• The terrified young boys had been in the dark, alone, and crying for some time. When they were released from their bonds they clung to Cindy and me for dear life. Scruffy jumped up and greeted them with warm wet kisses eventually relaxing them with his winning ways. Thank heavens once again for chocolate, I offered them some with bottle water.I was beginning to feel like the pied piper. I was now hauling five kids and being led by a dog in pursuit of freedom.
• Cindy called out in pain, she had twisted her ankle and James bent over eagerly to examine it.
• Yeah, Cindy, that trick is pretty old, I thought, but said,” Let’s stop to rest for a minute. I’m sure you're okay but I’ll bandage it up.” I proclaimed, elbowing my way in front of Romeo. Extricating the first aide kid from our bundle I wrapped up a perfectly normal looking ankle, no swelling, no bruising. Hmmmm.
• As we sat and regrouped, James started singing, “Oh, God our help in ages past….”
• “Wait, you know church hymns!” I blurted out.
• “I play drums in the church band,” James informed me.
• I gawked. Tattoos, leather vest, head bandana, church band; didn’t compute. What kind of church, I started wondering, probably not a legitimate one.
• We all joined in the singing between sips of water and candy munching. Gradually we started hearing yelling. Looking up I noticed some light starting to become exposed overhead. People were up there moving tree limbs from a sheltered opening and calling out to us.
• Climbing up on a boulder I started lifting the younger kids up to reaching hands. Then James ascended, after hoisting his twisted but salvageable bike up, and stretched his arm down to grab Cindy’s wrist. A prominent ink sign on his forearm proclaimed, “True love waits”. I blinked. It was getting darker, I had definitely misread that.
• On the outside, a man praised me for shooting two flares up through the tiny opening. He added our singing helped them to pin point our location. I have no idea what flares he was referring to, but my singing should have been a warning sign not a beacon of hope.
• A crowd of saviors was at hand, having been nearby searching for the abducted boys. My husband was present; he’d been looking for me for hours after finding our car. He recognized it by the tree on top of it. He did not intend to call the insurance company again. He then had found Cindy’s torn red cape and feared the worst.
• One of the group, a woman, started retreating, inconspicuously. The kids we had liberated started pointing and bellowing, there went their abductor! Their dad hurled himself at her and she was heaved off screaming her innocence, tied like her victims had been. I’m guessing that was the end of this marriage. Imagine being on the search team for kids she had been responsible for hiding. I bet she hadn’t put her whole heart into the hunt.
• James and Cindy were off to the side exchanging cell phone numbers, I presumed. Oh, what the heck, the kid didn’t seem so bad now. True love had better wait!
• Up in the sky two shooting stars, the "flares" traced a path towards home. Mission accomplished, they had been busy guiding and protecting some of the human race, noticed only by the canine. Not bad for a days work. Now they had to file their reports before retiring for the night. Guarding humans was exhausting, but an angel’s work is never done. Well someday it will be.
• Back at home I just finished a soothing hot bath, laden with soap suds and aromas, when the door flew open. Doesn’t anyone here know what a closed door means?
• “Mom!” Cindy cried staring at me. I slapped my hands over my belly, but too late; my secret has been exposed.“
• Okay, just one!” I answered the unasked question, “But only in the navel like mine, no nose, tongue, cheeks or brows.” I’m really going to have to learn to lock the doors.
• Psalm 34:7
• Psalm 104:4
• Psalm 139:7-12
• Isaiah 30:21
• Matthew 18:2-7
• 1 Corin. 7:1-9
• Heb 1:14