Afterward
written by: Ingrid Bruck
@bruck_ingrid
Hurricane Ira makes landfall on Friday
it hits with fury on Cape Cod and Fort Myers
when we’re on vacation at Windswept in Point Pleasant Beach in New Jersey
chained to the boards, a ghost rocker rocks
wet sand snakes through dune grass
sand needles scour our faces
horse-size waves rear and lash the 22’ man-made dune
grounded by the hurricane with active little kids,
beach chairs, buckets, shovels, scooter & bike, locked in the car
bathing suits for the outdoor heated pool, shut in a suitcase
we spend rainy Saturday at Jenkinson Pier with the girls
we dash to the car, raindrops pelt art on Amy’s purple hoodie, she buckles in the girls
a one-block drive on Ocean Ave to the aquarium, Aili (age 3) chants, No good weather
we spend an hour with penguins, eels, seahorses, stingrays, clown & lion-fish, sand shark
stop by the gift shop on the way out: Wrenna (age 6) picks a rubber snake, tubbie hippos for Aili
noon stop for kid-food: pavilion pizza, hotdog, fries in a yellow plastic bucket with a shovel
for dessert: sweet shop fudge-M&Ms, chocolate, vanilla, maple walnut, caramel with sea salt
play arcade games: hungry hippo, skee-ball, air hockey, Peugeot car-race (Aili cries), bowling
3,500 game tickets later, the girls reap toys: ball, fan, paddle board, parachute man & bracelet
for three days, the riled Atlantic pounds the shoreline
rain, sand and wind cut the visit short
before we leave Sunday morning, three dolphins leap off the boardwalk
half an hour afterwards, a whale swims by
NOTE FROM THE AUTHOR:
There are ripples in people’s lives when the environment is disrupted by natural events like hurricanes.
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