by Bobby Akart
There was no answer.
Chapter Forty-Six
Sunday, December 23
Harahan Bridge
The Mississippi River
The numerous swells had now reached heights of fifteen feet. They easily obscured the smallish, one-hundred-eight-foot-long barge that had broken free from the Vulcan Materials facility located a mile to their south. The deck barge, with a sideboard measuring sixteen feet high, was filled with crushed stone.
Jack didn’t see any good options. He tugged at Tony’s shirtsleeve to get his attention. “We have to go under. We’ll use the steel truss supports to pull ourselves along. We’ve got to get out of the way of this thing.”
“We won’t be able to see anything in this crap,” said Tony. “Just stay close to my feet. I’ll pull my way along with my arms.”
The swell lifted the barge higher in the water, giving them a view of its approach. It was floating aimlessly on the river and getting closer.
“After you,” Jack said with a nod. He took a deep breath of fresh air, held it, and dropped below the surface simultaneously with Tony.
Arm over arm, the two men began to pull themselves along the collapsed steel truss system of what used to be the Harahan Bridge. The murky waters afforded little visibility, and the sediment stirred up by the fast-moving current caused specks of sand to enter their eyes. They’d only dropped fifteen feet below the surface, giving them ample opportunity to rise for air when necessary.
Most of the dead bodies had become buoyant, floating out of the underwater graveyard to the surface, only to be carried upriver, odd as that sounds, by the current. The only trace of humanity in the murky water was earthquake-created litter carried by the swiftly moving current. There was more debris in the water than when the bridge collapsed. Large trees from a timbering operation floated beneath them like matchsticks, fighting their way to the surface but held back by the bridge trusses. Sheets of corrugated metal floated in all directions like the pieces of paper carried by the wind outside the Met. Occasionally, the men’s bodies were bumped by suitcases, Christmas packages, and car parts that managed to float.
The most surreal aspect of their escape from the coming barge was the noise. Underwater, there was a deafening rumbling sound. Jack could hear the faint release of oxygen bubbles as he moved along behind Tony. But the thunderous roar of the earthquake was magnified underwater compared to what they heard topside.
The men pulled themselves along, glancing upward at the sunlight of morning. Occasionally, they held their breath, hoping to see the barge pass. Yet it never did.
It had been a minute.
Tony had stopped and turned to Jack. He put his face in front of Jack’s and gave him a thumbs-up sign to surface. Jack nodded and looked upward as he prepared to kick his legs.
Gradually the sunlight disappeared. A total eclipse as the day seemingly turned to night. Then an angry force tried to dislodge their grip from the remnants of the Harahan Bridge.
The barge had crossed directly over them and was now battering the trusses.
The sound of steel rubbing and scratching joined the groaning of the earth. Jack’s eyes grew wide although he was almost blinded by the lack of light. The bridge trusses were being slammed repeatedly with every swell that propelled the barge upriver.
Tony’s body had turned horizontal at the same time Jack’s did. The current had picked up, and the two men were now holding onto the steel support to prevent being swept away. Jack’s grip loosened, and he desperately struggled to hold on. His air was disappearing, and he knew he was getting near his two-minute limit.
The truss slipped out of his grasp, and he was whisked away twenty feet until he crashed into the next truss support. The impact almost knocked out what little air he had left, but he managed to hold onto it.
He grabbed the support and looked back toward the darkened water of the barge. A shadow. A mass of some kind was hurtling toward him.
It was Tony.
Jack reached out and grabbed him by the wrist, nearly dislodging his grip from the truss. He held on, even as the barge was battering the other side of the truss system. The momentum of Tony’s body continued to tug him away from the support, but Jack held tight. They were in the sunlight now. The barge couldn’t get past the exposed trusses. But it wasn’t for lack of trying. The swells, which were growing in height and frequency, heaved the barge without stopping, bashing it continuously into the bridge truss.
Jack and Tony were close enough to make eye contact. Tony’s eyes were wide and his cheeks were puffed out. He was shaking his head vigorously from side to side. Jack understood what he wanted to say.
He was giving up.
No! Jack was shouting in his mind. Do not let go. You’ll die!
He gave Tony a stern look and gripped his wrist harder. He refused to let Tony go. He thrust his head closer to Tony’s face as if to say, Fight!
The bridge shook with the most force yet as the hulking barge, aided by the Mighty Mississippi, which had reversed course, tag-teamed the old warrior in a concerted effort to put it down once and for all.
Jack pulled and furrowed his brow with determination.
The bridge was slammed again. Harder this time. He instinctively gripped the steel I-beam and Tony’s wrist.
A glimmer of light found its way beneath the surface. The shadow had shifted as the massive rectangular barge began to turn ever so slightly. It was not running parallel to the shore, and as another swell lifted it out of the river, it surfed past the fallen bridge.
Then it happened. Tony found his will to live.
He swung his right arm around and gripped Jack’s forearm. With a slight smile and a herculean effort, Jack pulled Tony against the current until he could grab the bridge truss for himself. The two men squeezed one another’s arms in a show of support. They rapidly pulled themselves up the steel truss, hand over hand, until they broke the surface.
They gasped for air and wrapped their arms around the remains of the Harahan Bridge. It had held firm against the onslaught of the Mississippi River battering it with the weight of the seventy-thousand-ton barge.
Without saying another word, Jack nodded toward Memphis. The guys filled their lungs once again and dropped below the surface, where they pulled their way across the river, which was now flowing backwards.
Chapter Forty-Seven
Sunday, December 23
East Bank of the Mississippi River
Memphis, Tennessee
The battle between the barge and the fallen Harahan Bridge raged on, periodically knocking the guys’ grips off the steel supports. They were within a hundred yards of the new shoreline when a second barge joined the fray. The swells powered the barge’s attack, walloping the bridge until it started to sink farther beneath the surface. The guys were losing their ability to stay above water, and then with a final crashing sound that carried across the river, the bridge lost the fight. Jack and Tony lost their lifeline.
The two men struggled in the swift current as they frantically tried to swim toward what used to be Martyrs Park, a landscaped area honoring those who helped others during the 1878 yellow fever epidemic that ravaged Memphis.
They continued to swim toward their next landmark, the fifteen-story River Tower condominium complex. However, for every twenty feet of progress, they were carried upriver another fifty feet by the swells. Their bodies were near exhaustion, but they stuck together, encouraging one another as they came closer to Tom Lee Park and the crumbling high-rises of Downtown Memphis, some of which were on fire.
The water levels had risen at least twenty feet, and the swells had forced water over the lower half of the park. Waves lapped over Riverside Drive and covered most of the Riverwalk. The paved trail that ran from the south end of downtown, across famed Beale Street, until it moved north toward Mud Island on the other side of Interstate 40, had been sitting on top of a levee overlooking the river. Now it was mostly submerged or destroyed as the levees began to fail
.
Many of the eight-foot-tall floodwalls that had been built as part of the levee system at Memphis were now threatened by the rising water. Several breaches in the levees had occurred just north of downtown, allowing water to rush into the city streets, causing massive flooding. The lower levees were still intact, but the floodwaters inside them were clawing away at the earthen dams to join with the rest of the river that had previously eroded the banks.
Tony was the first to reach land by grabbing a handrail bordering the levee. He waited for Jack to swim by and extended his hand to lend an assist. He pulled Jack toward the rail until both men were able to swing their legs over. They collapsed on the levee, panting for air and allowing the warm sun to bake their shivering bodies.
Jack was the first to speak. “Well, let’s try not to do that again.”
The men laughed. Tony added, “You know, as I was swimmin’ my ass off, there were several things I swore to. One was to move someplace where they don’t have earthquakes. Two, never go on a bridge, in the water, or up a high-rise ever again.”
Jack leaned up and untied his shoes. He removed his shoes and socks to reveal his swollen, bloodied feet. He looked inside his shoe and tossed it to the side.
“You can add never wearing these things again to the list.”
“Oh, yeah. We’re wearing Reeboks or Adidas to all of our seminars from now on. Folks will just have to understand.”
Jack chuckled, then buried his face in his hands. He ran his fingers through his hair and then looked at their surroundings.
“Our business is screwed. The markets are probably as destroyed as the cities up and down the Mississippi. And we’re probably broke. God only knows what’s gonna happen to the markets tomorrow.”
Tony stood and retrieved Jack’s shoe. “You’d better put them back on before your feet swell too much. Otherwise, you’ll be walking barefoot twenty-some miles to the house. Besides, Jack, don’t worry about our finances. I’ve got our backs.”
“What are you gonna do, go into the money-printing business?”
“I already did, sort of. Here’s the thing. I got a little spooked on top of the Gateway Arch the other day. The markets have been blah anyway, so I decided to make a couple of moves.”
Jack was intrigued. He winced as he forced his shoes back on over his wet socks and battered feet. He was barely able to tie the laces.
“Like what?” he asked as he rose to his feet, his face scrunching as he shifted his weight from one foot to the other.
“Like, um, I moved all of our family and business holdings into gold or foreign currencies in the Zurich and Hong Kong markets.”
“Really?”
“Yeah. All I could think of was where should we park our investments if a quake hit the middle of the country. I thought, you know, for a week or so, we’d just play it safe.”
Jack laughed and grabbed the shorter man by the shoulder. “You know what this means, don’t you?”
“Yeah. Good news is an understatement. I bet the value of our gold certificates doubled ever since the first quake hit.”
Jack wrapped his arm around Tony. “You’re a genius. Thank you.”
Tony’s shoulders slumped and his head drooped. Jack noticed the difference in his demeanor, so he stepped away to get a look at his face.
“Hey, what’s up?”
Tony looked at the sky and sighed. He began to tear up, so he turned away from his brother-in-law and watched the barges work their way upriver.
“I’ve been a shit husband, but you know that already.”
“Hey, listen. Marriages are tough. They require work.”
Tony laughed. “That’s psychobabble from Dr. Phil or some crap. Either you wanna be married and a good husband or you don’t. If you do, then do it right.”
This was a conversation Jack had wanted to have with Tony for years but never could find the right opportunity to bring it out in the open. This was apparently the time.
“Do you wanna be married?” His question was blunt and to the point.
Tony wandered away and stuck his hands in his pockets. He pulled out a handful of sopping wet dollars and chuckled. He symbolically tossed them in the river and watched the current carry them away.
“Yeah, at first. I loved Beth, and we had fun together. She was my best friend. We traveled. Went out to eat. Partied with friends. You know what it’s like.”
“I thought you guys were happy,” added Jack, who’d never had that kind of relationship with Jill. After they fell in love, he was plugged into a built-in family. He wanted to keep his side of the conversation to a minimum. This was Tony’s moment. “What changed?”
“I feel like an asshole for saying this,” he began in response. “We had Anthony. Don’t get me wrong. That was exciting at first. You get a lot of attention. You watch him grow and develop. You dream of playing ball with him and stuff.”
“You can do all those things,” said Jack.
“Sure. But in the process, I feel like I lost my wife. Beth began to focus her entire existence on Anthony. I know. I know. I’m being a selfish prick. I wish I wasn’t. Over time, our family became Beth and Anthony, not Beth and Tony.”
Jack took a deep breath. He wasn’t sure this question was necessary or appropriate, but he had to ask so Tony could let it all out. The man was releasing his burdens, and there was no sense in stopping now.
“Have you cheated on her?”
Tony furrowed his brow and looked upward. “No, thank God. I hate to admit it, but all of my messing around with young girls was some kind of way to prove I’ve still got it, you know what I mean?”
“The mojo,” said Jack, trying to lighten the mood. In the moment, under the circumstances of what they’d just been through together, he believed that Tony had been faithful, to an extent.
Tony laughed. “Yeah, the mojo. You know, the ability to make a move on a woman and have her show interest in return. But, eventually, the more I felt sorry for myself, the more I considered actually following through with it. You know, if a girl made the first move or something.”
“But that never happened.”
“Nope, I swear.”
“Then you’re still good. That is, if you wanna be. You’ve got another kid on the way.”
Tony leaned against the rail and watched as the two barges got hung up on the remains of the M-shaped supports of the Hernando de Soto Bridge to their north. The swells were subsiding, but the water continued to rise.
“Having another baby was Beth’s idea, of course. She thought it would bring us closer together. She totally misread my feelings.”
“Have you ever told her how you feel?” asked Jack.
“Nah, man. Are you kidding me? She’d lose it if I said I’m falling out of love with you because of Anthony and the baby on the way.”
Jack walked up to him and put his arm over his shoulder again. “Tony, this has been eatin’ you up. I can see how you immerse yourself in our business. You always jump at the opportunity to travel. It’s just an escape mechanism.”
Tony hung his head again. “I know.”
“All right, so let me say a couple of things. First, Beth loves you very much. You and I can never understand about a mother’s love for her children. It’s something innate within them that we can’t completely relate to. Second, I know she would do anything within her power to make your marriage better. She’s seen the strain between the two of you because she talks to Jill about it.”
“She thinks you guys are the greatest. She’s commented more than once about how great your marriage is.”
Jack nodded. “It is great. I won’t lie to you. Earlier, I said it requires work. Maybe work isn’t the right word. Sacrifice and compromise might be better ones. You learn to do the things she likes that you might not. If she has a bad habit or tends to get under your skin about certain things, you ignore it or blow it off. But if you aren’t going to address it, don’t let it fester and eat at you. In that case, you gotta rais
e it and talk it through. She should be able to do the same with you.”
Tony understood. “Beth wanted to see a marriage counselor, so I agreed. We went through two sessions, and I’d had enough. All she did was beat me over the head, and the counselor agreed with her the whole time. I came out of there madder than when I went in.”
Jack didn’t say anything because he felt Tony wasn’t finished. He was right.
He sighed and turned back toward the river. “Something happened to me when I was in that water. My mind weighed the options of living or dying. If you had let go of my wrist, I would’ve floated off and died. In that moment, I realized I didn’t want to die. I saw Beth’s face next to mine on a pillow. I saw myself sitting on the family room floor, playing with Anthony. I saw our new baby in a crib, swatting at those mobile things like they were the greatest invention known to man. It was their faces that gave me the will to fight for my life.”
“Are they more important than having a wife freed up for Friday night dinner dates or Saturday day-drinking?”
“Damn straight. There’s nothing more important.”
Jack wrapped his arm around Tony’s neck and squeezed it. “Let’s go home, shall we? I think we both miss our families.”
Chapter Forty-Eight
Sunday, December 23
USGS
Golden, Colorado
The NEIC in Golden was frenzied. The first earthquake along the New Madrid fault got the juices flowing. The second, with an estimated magnitude of 8.6, coupled with aftershocks as far north as Illinois and all the way to Natchez, Mississippi, absolutely caused their heads to explode. The seismometers delivered information on the compression and shear waves of the earthquakes faster than the geophysicists could process the data.
“It’s tearing us in half!” hollered one of the geophysicists. “We have fissures opening up along the Reelfoot Rift, the Mid-Continent Rift, and even in part of the Southern Oklahoma Rift.”
