It all started with the ominous and innocent text from a friend
"Did Craig get impacted by [the] earthquake?"
huh?
Luckily, my first instinct is to think that an earthquake can be mild, and since it's Vancouver, it's probably not that bad. After all, the last earthquake I remember being a part of was in Washington during the 8th grade, and it was more of a story than a devastation.
When I received that message, my instant response was, "naaah, he would have told me"
Then, I looked up "2014 Vancouver earthquake" and saw a picture of a hotel-like structure that was utterly demolished. The initial news report said that it was a "great" earthquake, according to the Richter scale. He couldn't have told me if he was affected if he was injured or dead. Of course, I then thought, "no way"... Yes, he was up there. No, I had no idea where he was, let alone the location of the earthquake in relation to the hotel... But...
Doubt caressed me too eagerly. I distinctly remembered emailing him in the morning, wishing him a good day. So, after seeing the picture of the demolished hotel, and remembering he hadn't responded to my email, I texted him. After all, he was supposed to be at work in a different country and I was in math class, so the non freak-out version of myself decided texting was the most practical option. I was a cool cat. Because if I freaked out already, I wouldn't be able to take it if something went really wrong.
He didn't text me back.
**Side note... it's always good practice to text your woman back. INSTANTLY. Otherwise, she thinks zombies/vampires/ghouls/earthquakes/tsunamis/instant-jump-from-a-ledge/random-gunshot is the cause of your death without any evidence. Seriously. Text back. If you aren't able to continue a dialogue then your only choice is to text back to the initial text and ignore the rest, until you can address them. Or, if she's becoming a bit cray cray, tell her you're in a meeting and hope she's a normal human being. I hope it goes without saying that you shouldn't tell her you're too busy to text right then. That would be a very consequential action.**
So, I called his cell phone when I didn't get a response from the text.
No response.
I called a friend to see if she'd call her husband to see if he's been on work's chat service. She didn't answer.
Then, the sweetest of texts comes through, and I have the largest flood of relief sweep through me.
"Do you need to talk? I can find another phone, it would cost too much for me to answer"
It was the best text, ever. Seriously, EVER! Though my body couldn't stop from shaking until about an hour afterwards, I was so relieved. I was about to hop in my car and buy the first plane ticket to Seattle (since I figured Vancouver would be too hard to fly into) so I could drive to Canada and search for him. Screw school, I was not going to sit idly by.
Luckily, I was able to finish out my school day without any troubles. The new reports coming out said that the earthquake was only 6.5-6.7 on the Richter scale; considerably lower than what I remember the middle school earthquake being.
But those 5 minutes of the thought that I could never speak to, hear or hold Craig, were the worst of my life so far.
