The Great Flood

This afternoon my cousins came over with their children. I found out their children are called my second cousins, I did not know that. I did not know there was a name for them like that. Stupid, I know. Anyway, my mom promptly became the good hostess she always tries to be, showing them here and there around the new house. They opened the glass sliding doors in the back room, padded down the stairs to the basement while everyone else hung out in the living room, oblivious to what was going on. In a bit, they returned up from the stairs, and my mom says in largely a factual tone, tainted with a little bit of anxiety: the basement is flooded. My dad has been in a bilious mood recently and when I looked at him I was afraid, my heart was beating faster and faster. He has been under a lot of stress lately. Teething problems with a new house, work things, etc. I always try to think of ways I can help him and I come up with nothing. There is nothing I can do.

Thankfully he kind of chuckled to himself, gave a little sigh and proceeded downstairs. And so did I, together with my sister, Gus, my uncle, my cousins, most people who were over at the time. I entered behind a few people but already I could hear the slushing sound of the water, steps being cushioned by a body of water that rose to cover my feet completely and a little bit of my ankle, the effects of heavy rain over the past few days. And the destruction could be seen immediately. Cardboard boxes with water stains creeping up their sides, shelving units sitting in the stale water, a farrago of boxes and containers somnolently biding their time in the flooded room. The basement is not small, just to be clear. It would be perhaps 1.5 times the size of a normal classroom in school, with low ceiling. And everywhere you walked it was flooded, water churning around your ankles, ripples moving from you, an epicenter, ricocheting off the walls on the other end.

Immediately the situation had the potential to become so inadvertently disastrous. People could've started being angry, frustrated, imploring why why why. But, I will just thank God for this, we managed to turn it into a really fun day. An adventure -- I've never experienced anything like it. We formed human chains and hauled important artifacts towards dry land. We turned plastic containers and boxes into boats and floated them through the water to be delivered. We laughed about all the things that were gone -- old ovens, microwaves, (sadly) the xbox and its controllers. Stupefied at the weight of some of the suitcases we had to move, pulling open their buckles only to see water pouring out indignantly. Everybody chipping in, moving and moving, hauling and shifting, climbing up those stairs, climbing down again. Towards the end we discovered a cardboard box that had taken the brunt of the soaking (being at the bottom of three stacked boxes) labelled 'keepsakes'. Ripping it open we found old photographs, of us as children, scrapbooks with holiday memories reduced into two-dimensional pictures and yellowing ticket stubs. I felt so sad when my mother turned up this photo frame that housed many 8 or 9 pictures, black and white, my parents on their wedding day, smiles becoming disfigured from being waterlogged.

Still we worked and worked. I felt that my parents might have found the whole incident to be laced with ignominy. They were supposed to be letting everyone see, look at this new house we bought! It's really great, it's really great. And then this happens. But my cousins, my uncles, everybody was happy to roll up their sleeves and jump into the mess. Whatever it was, it was an interesting event for sure. And I have this to show for it!

BIG SMILES! You can see the water swirling around ankles and one of the "boats"

A lot of my brother's stuff got wet. Because he isn't around we temporarily stored his things downstairs while we worked out the rooming and renovation. Thankfully it was mostly clothes that got wet though, we managed to salvage a lot of his memorabilia from school, army, etc. 

The grand denouement to this very strange episode -- everybody diving headlong into the swimming pool in our clothes. Tired, sweaty and hot bodies hitting cool, refreshing water. Feeling happy, feeling accomplished... feeling content. Feeling wholesome, perhaps, a whole day of togetherness with my parents, my siblings, my extended relatives and of course, with Gus. Despite all the logistical crap this flood is going to cost us it was a really, really great day and I'm so thankful for it.