Writing Halifax Explosion Story

[Rancid]

I had to write a story about the Halifax explosion, I'm not sure if this goes here but here it is....beware, it's 2 and a half pages.


Here it is:

021026

Explosion at Halifax


I was a 13 year old kid loving in Halifax for as long as I can remember, my parents were raised here and so were their parents. I could make my way around the town blind-folded. I had never really gotten out of town much and loved to play outside. I still remember the day when the war came to Halifax.

It was a crisp, bright, and sunny morning and I had just woken up.It was 7:00 a.m. As I peered through my window without a care in the world my mother called me "Joe", she yelled "Are you dressed yet?", I replied no and started getting dressed. I knew this was a great day to play baseball with my friends. As I finished getting dressed my mother asked me if I wanted my breakfast, I replied "No", and whisked out the door as swift as the wind.

As I was walking down the street to get my friend Julian, I could see two boats on opposite sides coming in to the harbour. One ship looked much swifter and larger than the other. I could not see the names from where I was standing. They seemed harmfully far from each other and kept on walking. I arrived at Julian's house and walked up the stairs to knock on his door. His mother answered and told me he would be out in a minute. He walked out wearing his lucky hat, and we started walking to our friend's houses to ask them if they wanted to play baseball. We had no real baseball bats back then nor balls. We used broom sticks for bats, and what ever sphere shaped objects we could find.

We gathered up our crew and started walking to the baseball diamond. I looked over at the harbour, but I could not see the two ships from where I was standing. Something in my gut was telling me something was going to go horribly wrong today. we set up the teams and eagerly started to play but I could not focus because my mind was still on the two ships, something still didn't feel right.

The game finished in less then an hour and we won 5-3. I walked home and was staring at the two ships when I noticed they were heading right toward each other. I walked up my stairs and opened my door, I could hear my brother in the other room, he was in there with his girlfriend. I walked through the kitchen and saw a note on the table, it read:

[i]Me and your father are gone on a walk with the Cambell's from next door, I left some breakfast for you on the kitchen table, don't go anywhere else until we get back. Eat your breakfast then take a shower.

Love Always: Mother[/i]




As I finished up my breakfast I remembered the two ships that were heading toward each other. It was 8:00 a.m. now. Right when I was walking to the window I heard a CRASH! It was the two boats, they had collided. The names of the boat were visable now. The larger ship was called the "Imu", and the other smaller ship was called "Mont Blanc. I saw a fire burning freely as people started gather to watch the fire burn. It looked like nothing more but a mere fire. I wasn't worried at all anymore. I wanted to go down to watch the fire too but my mother had told me not to go anywhere until they came back.

15 minutes past, and I was still watching the fire when suddenly i heard a awful ROAR! and I saw the two ships explode. The anchor exploded in to the sky and landed what had looked like to be 3 kilometres away. Suddenly I felt little glass pieces go in to my eye like a million little daggers. It cut up my face so badly it was bleeding profusely. The explosion was so bad it picked me up and through me against the kitchen wall which was a goode 6 metres away.

It was so loud it had felt like it blew my eardrums out of my ears. I couldn't hear anything, and I was so shocked I couldn't think of anything. I was laying there when finally I remember my brother and his girlfriend were in the next room. I crawled through the hallway and in to my brothers room. I felt around to see where my brother and his girlfriend were because I couldn't see, when suddenly I felt a thick liquid dripping from my hands. I wasn't sure if it was my brother or his girlfriend. I felt someone tugging on my arm, I knew it was my brothers girlfriend because of the skinnyness of the arm.

I was trying to tell her that we need to get outside to see if there are any survivors but she couldn't hear me. I wrote it down on a piece of paper to the best of my ability's. She understood that and grabbed my arm and took my down the stairs by my arm. My hearing was slightly coming back, but my eyes were still bleeding from the glass pieces.

I asked my brother's girlfriend if she could see if anyone was alive, she replied no. She said she couldn't see with all the smog from the explosion. I told her we have to get to the hospital which was only a few blocks from where we were. She agreed and took me by hand and we started walking down the street.

I tripped over something and something in my gut told me it was a dead corpse. My brother's girlfriend told me it was and I quickly got up and brushed my self off. We started walking again, and she told me we were there. She explained to me that the building was completely destroyed and that it looked like the people inside were dead as well.

I dropped from my feet from severe blood lose. When I had woken up it looked like I was in some sort of a hospital. My brother's girlfriend was by my side and told me my parents were killed in the explosion. She also told me that they didn't find their body's yet and there was the chance that they might have disinegrated from the blast of the the explosion. Tears of fear rolled down my cheek as I started to cry, knowing that I would never see my parents again. She hugged me to comfort me but it didn't work.

I moved in with my dad's brother who lived in Newfoundland. The first few months seemed wierd because I hadn't really talked to them in about 3 years. After the 4th month it felt normal, but it could never feel like home. There was something about Halifax that just was different from any other place.

Now I'm 58 years old and living in Ottawa, I have 3 kids and a wife. Every year on the day that they died, I visit Halifax and reminisce about my dead parents and everyone who died in the Halifax explosion.


The End



If you managed to read all of that, you get a prize. Tell me wahat you think.