Another Quake

I am taking my son to school. For some reason, today we decided to walk. We've left the apartment and are walking toward our first turn. The morning traffic passes us by, all driving just a bit over the speed limit, as usual in dry, sunny conditions. It's nice out, warm but not hot, dry but not overly dry. It's sunny, too.

As we approach the corner, I see the sidewalk on the other side of the street ripple like a shaken ribbon, making waves. There is a grinding noise, and I feel the ground lift under my feet. I grab my son's arm and we hold onto each other as the sidewalk jolts sideways and pitches us into the "tree lawn," the bit of grass between us and the street. Afraid we're going to end up in traffic, I wrap my arms around my son and try to roll back toward the sidewalk .

I feel the ground drop out from under my back as I roll us, then the sidewalk slams into me and throws us both in the direction we're moving. We land on the grass, but it knocks the wind out of both of us. At the same time, I see cars bouncing around on the road. Brake lights come on, and I hear the sound of an impact, followed by breaking glass.

We are about ten feet from the sidewalk now. The cat who lives at this house runs to us and yowls, like we can fix the shaking ground. The sidewalk breaks, and one side of it rises a couple of inches more than the other side all along the new crack . I also see a crack in the side street.

The shaking stops. The people whose yard we're in come running out of the house and ask if we're ok . We are, but we're both really startled. Both of us are shaking, even though the ground has stopped. The cat leaps into the owner's arms and sticks its face into the crook of her elbow. She says, "She does that when she's scared" and I answer, "We used to have a kitty who did that, too." I am trying to act less afraid so that my son won't be so scared. It wasn't a big quake, but it feels like it to me.

I look up the street to see if the accident was bad. It looks like a small car pulled or rolled out of the last driveway of our apartment complex into the rear passenger side of a big pick-up truck . Everyone from both cars is standing around looking at the damage. The side of the truck bed is dented, but just a little. It's kind of folded down. The front end of the little car is scrunched up, as if in disgust. I hear the driver of the car say, "It just threw me. What the hell do I tell my insurance agent?" and I realize that the damage to the truck is too high for the car to have hit it while on the ground.

I hear a police siren. I look and see the patrol car weaving its way among the stopped cars. Everyone has gotten out of their cars and are all standing around, making it slow going for the officer.

The sound of the police siren was real, and as it neared my apartment, I woke up. The officer drove right on past, but it was kind of disorienting, to say the least. I did go back to sleep, but I don't remember what I dreamed after that.

Funny thing is, today stuff is falling for no reason. Four times in the last hour, various items that have been sitting in the same spot for weeks have hit the floor. I figure it's because of the weather changing (you know, air pressure, the apartment "settling" as the temperature changes, etc.,) but it's kind of disconcerting after dreaming about an earthquake. I'm kind of jumpy because of that, and I've been startled each time something fell.