Beauty Through the Disaster


Mother Nature. She’s supposed to be kind, isn’t she? Well, maybe not always. She shouldn’t try to destroy the environment she created. The problem with that is, she didn’t create all of it. Buildings, streets, walls, cars, homes... all those things are man-made.

Natural Disasters. Simply put, a disaster of nature: earthquake, volcanic eruption, tornado, or hurricane. It’s sometimes hard to imagine that these things can cause such utter destruction and, yet, they can. They can cause unimaginable desolation to trees, buildings, riverbeds, hillsides... but mostly, to the lives of those who survive them and especially, those who don’t.

Some people know firsthand the horrors of this devastation: their homes destroyed, their belongings gone, everything in ruins. They’re lost, cold, scared and confused. They don’t know where to turn next or what to do; how to move on. But a few, a very lucky few, are able to find beauty through the disaster.

~*~

She wasn’t even supposed to be there; neither was he. But there they were, stuck; trapped. Just like all the others. The National Weather Service called it the worst hurricane ever formed. Category 5, right from the start, and only gaining in wind speed and power. If there had been a category six or seven, this would have been one. Wind speeds topped three hundred miles an hour. The storm, itself, was hundreds of miles in diameter and heading straight for the east coast.

Government officials were befuddled and horrified. How could they evacuate the entire east coast? Not possible. What could they do? That question unanswerable; unfathomable. Hours were spent researching, tracking and predicting the storm’s path. It will hit the coast of the Carolina’s first – they swore. They promised. Anything south of that was safe. Just some rain, maybe some winds. They promised.

They were wrong.

They had planned, people had evacuated after boarding up their homes and business and were hoping for the best. Unfortunately, they had evacuated the wrong place. At the last minute, the storm changed course and turned further south so it was barreling towards Georgia with all its strength and fury. It was too fast; they weren’t prepared. Everyone panicked, not everyone got out. The government estimated that by the time the storm hit, only one tenth of the coastal population would be a safe distance away from the storm. The rest, well... all they could do was pray.

~*~

Sydney Bristow went to the beautiful and historic city of Savannah, Georgia on business. She was from Charleston, West Virginia, born and raised. She went to university in the state and obtained a high paying position at the local chemical plant. She didn’t care about the jokes and stereotypes that emanated from her home state. She loved it anyway. Her trip to Savannah had been planned months in advance, but a few days before she was to leave, she confronted her boss about her trepidations regarding her trip and the hurricane. It was fine, he told her, nothing to worry about. They would only get rain and it was only three days. No big deal. Still, she had a sinking feeling in her gut.


Michael Vaughn had also traveled to Savannah for business that fateful weekend. He and his business partner, slash best friend, since kindergarten owned two restaurants: one in their home town of Philadelphia and the other in Baltimore. They were interested in expanding their chain further south, possibly to Savannah, so Michael volunteered to go down for a few days and check out some properties. He didn’t even know about the storm. He was always too busy to watch TV and only listened to rock radio stations. He knew of a hurricane, but nothing more.


She was only down there a day when the news came. Get out if you can; save yourself. Panicked, she tried the airport but flights were booked, over booked and there where hundreds already on standby, so many people, in fact, that the Fire Marshall had closed the airport since it reached its maximum capacity. The train station was the same way. Taking a bus or renting a car was out of the question. Traffic was backed up for miles with everyone trying to flee while they could.

Terrified, she weighed her options and decided that one of the shelters set up by the city was her best bet. After a tearful cell phone conversation with her parents and sister where they exchanged ‘I love you’s and well wishes,' she entered the convention center with the thousands of others seeking refuge from the storm.

Vaughn discovered the same problem: there was no way out. So, he too, had sought refuge inside the crowded convention center. Inside it was sweltering hot and loud with all the voices talking at once. People were everywhere: up against walls, tucked in corners, lying on the ground. Children were running around everywhere, probably having the most fun out of everyone. Michael made his way to the second floor and tried to find a spot to sit along the hallways. Finding no vacancies, he decided to just squeeze in where he could. “Pardon me,” he said to a brown haired woman sitting on the ground. “Could I squeeze in here?”

“Oh, sure,” she said with a sweet southern twang as she picked up her bag that was beside her and set it in her lap.

“Thanks,” he sighed as he slid down against the wall and set his bag between his legs while sitting with his knees bent and his feet flat on the ground. He flashed a smile at the brown haired southern woman beside him and saw her with a tissue clutched to her face, sobbing. Feeling slightly uncomfortable but yet, an overwhelming need to help at the same time, he cleared his throat. “Um, sorry, I know it isn’t my place but, are you ok?” he asked cautiously.

“What?” She sniffed as she looked over to him. “Oh... sorry, I’m just... scared, I guess,” she admitted rather timidly. She immediately saw sympathy and kindness in his green eyes.

“It will be ok. It’s just a storm, right?” He laughed softly as he looked into her warm, brown eyes, loving them instantly.

“Right, only the worst storm in the history of the world.” She sighed.

He just nodded. Then, he tore his gaze from her eyes and focused instead on the whole woman in front of him. He thought she looked to be around his own age of thirty, perhaps a few years younger. He also noticed her limbs were long, meaning she was, most likely, very tall. She was wearing a cream blouse, a knee length navy skirt and stockings with her high heels beside her on the ground, so he supposed that she was a business woman who had come straight from a meeting. “I’m Michael, by the way.”

“Sydney,” she said as she held out her hand to shake. When her skin touched his, she felt something electric and tingly all the way up her arm and into her heart. It was that giggly, butterflies in the stomach, act like an idiot-in-love feeling, or it would have been, had their situation been less dire.

“So, Sydney, are you from around here?” Michael asked already knowing the answer, since her accent was so different, but hoping to strike up a conversation with her.

“No, I’m from West Virginia,” she told him. “I know, I’ve heard all the jokes,” she added upon seeing the look on his face.

He laughed, slightly embarrassed that he had actually been going through his mental rolodex of West Virginia hick jokes. However, this woman was clearly no hick. “I’m from Philadelphia if you want to throw a few ghetto jokes at me, or perhaps some Pennsylvania Amish ones?”

She flashed him a dimpled smile as she laughed softly. “I won’t, I promise. Thank you.”

“For what?”

“Making me feel better.”


After a few hours of random conversation about their unusual situation, they were startled by the loud thundering of torrents of rain crashing down around them. “I guess the storm has hit,” Michael said quietly.

Sydney nodded as she stood. “Would you mind watching my bag? I need to use the ladies room,” she said while slipping her heels on once more. He nodded and watched as she walked away.

Fifteen minutes later the entire hall went black and a joint scream echoed through the building. A few moments later, dim lights kicked on. They had lost power and were now surviving by emergency lighting only.

Another ten minutes passed and Sydney had yet to return. Michael began to worry that she had gotten lost or something, but he sighed with relief when he saw her approaching, even though she was looking a bit more rattled than when she left.

“That was an experience.” She sighed as she sat down and dug in her bag for some hand sanitizer, gel which she applied to her hands in a liberal amount.

“Yeah, the lights went out,” he said.

“Oh no, that was the good part,” she assured him. “I feel very unclean.”

“That bad, huh?” He cringed. She nodded.


As the hours passed, people grew more and more restless. Sydney was taking sips from the bottle of water that she had, not wanting to drink too much, for fear of reliving her unpleasant ladies room experience. Around nine p.m., the rain was still pounding as hard as ever and the wind was still howling. Sydney shut her eyes and tried to get some sleep but it was no use, it was far too hot and uncomfortable. She looked beside her and saw Michael had dozed off against the wall. Sighing with exhaustion, she tried once more to rearrange herself into a comfortable position. Finally, by midnight, her body was so exhausted that it succumbed to sleep.

~*~

Screaming, panic and pandemonium in the halls stirred Sydney and Michael from their sleep. “What’s going on?” Sydney mumbled sleepily.

“I don’t know... I’ll go try to find out,” Michael said as he got up and walked off through the distraught crowd. Half an hour later he returned with grave news. Because of the intense winds and rain of the storm, the ocean water had swelled and caused a giant wave to wash across the city. The building was now surrounded by water that was flooding into the first floor and dangerously on its way to the second. Panicking people, who had been sitting down on the first floor, were now racing towards higher, even more crowded grounds.

“Oh god.” Sydney sighed. “Did it stop raining?”

“No,” he told her. “It’s still windy and raining like hell outside.”

Unfortunately, things were about to get worse. As the waters rose, people in the convention center became less and less agreeable. Now that they were entirely trapped, with no signs of the storm letting up, water and food became precious commodities and the area was only getting progressively filthier with time and use. Tempers soared and fights broke out in the hallway. Michael managed to pull a terrified Sydney out of the way before a man tried to attack another with a chair. They then retreated into a corner where they were less likely to be hit by falling chairs or people. Somehow, they had become companions in that terrible mess. They hadn’t even known each other twenty-four hours, but Sydney already felt safer with Michael by her side.


A whole day had passed since they had entered the convention center and the rains were finally stopping. Sydney, who was still in her business suit (minus the stockings which had been removed hours earlier), had reached a new level of discomfort. Michael, sensing her increasing agitation, asked her what was wrong.

“I want to get out of this suit but... there is no place to change.” She sighed.

“Well... you could do it here... we could get creative,” he said.

“Creative how?” she asked suspiciously.

“I dunno, you women just come up with creative things. Like my little sister... one my dad dragged her on this camping trip, totally roughing it out in the wilderness and she came up with some pretty interesting ways to keep clean,” Michael told her.

She laughed. “I’ll bet. I have a little sister too, but something tells me she wouldn’t be a huge fan of anything involving the term ‘roughing it’. I had to kill all the spiders in her room while she cowered in a corner,” she added with a wink.

Michael laughed. “Come on, I’ll stand in front of you so nobody can see you change, ok?”

“Okay, thanks.” She smiled.

“No problem.”

Once Sydney was changed into a t-shirt and sweats that she rolled up past her knees, she felt much better. Well, not much better, but better. She and Michael sat back down and exchanged some stories about their little sisters, who they found out were the same age, only a month apart. But as the day progressed, the only upside was their conversation with each other, for the situation around them was getting worse. Rumors were circulating that no assistance was coming, and they were almost completely out of food and water. To make matters even worse, the building had been so damaged by the storm that all of the windows were blown out and most of the roof was gone.

Sleeping that night wasn’t easy at all, especially since no one else seemed to be sleeping. Instead, they were milling around, stealing from others. Michael told Sydney he’d stay awake and watch their things, so she could sleep a few hours. So, she curled up with their bags protected underneath her and his arm resting on her back. She felt comforted knowing he was there and he felt happy watching over her.

~*~

“Sydney wake up.” Michael nudged her.

“What is it?” she whispered.

“We gotta go,” he said as he tried to lift her to her feet.

“Go? Where are we going?” she asked, still trying to wake up.

“They’re kicking us out. The building isn’t safe,” he told her in a grave tone.

“What?” she gasped, now fully alert. “Aren’t the streets still filled with water? What will we do?” He just shook his head, having no idea what the answer to her question was. People all around them were protesting the evacuation, so Sydney and Michael were able to make their way to the nearest stairwell without having to fight their way through too many herds of people. Walking down the steps, Sydney froze when she saw the water on the first floor was waist deep.

“Get on my back,” Michael told her.

“No, I can’t. I’m too heavy.” She shook her head in protest.

“Yeah, you look huge.” He rolled his eyes. “Come on,” he said as he stepped down on a step in front of her. She hoisted herself up on his back, locked her legs around his waist and her arms around his neck. He continued down the stairs, but once he reached the water, he froze. “It’s a little cold,” he managed through gritted teeth.

“Oh god.” Sydney shivered, along with a few other people also making their way down the stairs, as her legs became submerged in the icy water. Walking out through the first floor, they noticed a higher portion of sidewalk, where the water was only ankle deep, and a handful of people had already collected, so they headed that direction. Their first view of the streets was like looking into a different world. The water was everywhere and debris was floating so thick that it was all that could be seen across the streets that had become canals. “Look at this...” Sydney sighed into Michael’s ear.

“Yeah, I know.” He sighed.


There was no improvement once they moved outside, it only got worse. They were wet, freezing and surrounded by even more filth and angry people. Michael had his arms around Sydney to keep her warm but she was still shaking violently. They weren’t even sure how long they had been waiting, but finally some large army trucks arrived and the crowd began to beg for help.

“I’m going to go find out what’s going on,” Michael told Sydney, after waiting another half hour with no news at all. “Wait right here, ok?” he told her. She nodded through her shivering and leaned back against the stop sign they had been standing next to. Sydney looked around at the pitiful people surrounding her. Children were turning blue and clearly sick from the cold; elderly people were having trouble standing after so long, and everyone looked exhausted.

“Sydney!” Michael called as he ran to her, splashing through the water and angering people around him, after he had been gone for nearly an hour.

“What?” she asked.

“Come with me, I’m getting you out of here,” he told her.

“What?” she gasped.

He dragged her along with him, explaining on the way. “That truck was bringing supplies and national guardsmen. They don’t know how long we’ll all be stuck here, but I know one of the guys, we went to high school together, his parents are friends with mine. He said he’d take you back with them.”

“What? I um... what about you?” she asked, thankful to be getting out, but truly concerned for his safety, after his kindness to her.

“I’ll be ok,” he assured her. After a minute of wading through water, they reached the truck and Michael lifted Sydney up to his friend, who pulled her aboard and into the large truckbed, where other people were sitting, looking relieved to finally be leaving. “Goodbye Sydney.”

“Thank you,” she sighed, with a tear in her eye as the truck pulled away and she watched him until she couldn’t see him any longer.

~*~

-Three months later-

“Hey Eric, did you get all those orders processed?” Michael asked his friend upon walking into their restaurant office.

“Yeah, uh huh,” Eric mumbled distantly without taking his eyes off the TV.

“Oh, by the way, I’m marrying your sister,” Michael teased, checking to see if his friend was paying attention.

“Good.”

“You don’t have a sister, idiot!” Michael said, as he smacked Eric’s head.

“Wait, what?” Eric asked.

“Pay attention!!!”

“Sorry.” Eric sighed as he tossed the remote down on the desk. When it landed, it landed on the buttons and changed the channel on the TV.

“... it has been three months since the devastation in Georgia and people are finally beginning to pick up the pieces of their lives. Still, there are so many people who have lost everything and so much confusion. In the next few minutes, we’ll be looking back at some of our heart-breaking video from the days after the hurricane.”

“Ugh, I’m so sick...” Eric groaned, as he reached for the remote. Michael momentarily glanced up at the TV and his heart literally stopped.

“Holy shit...,” he breathed. “TURN IT UP!”

“What?” Eric asked in confusion. Michael grabbed the remote and focused intently on the TV where a brown haired girl was crying and being interviewed.

“Well, you’re safe now,” the reporter smiled.

“I know,” she sniffed. “I just wish I could thank him. All I know is that his name was Michael and he had green eyes so... Michael, if you’re out there, thank you.”

“I guess there really are heroes among us,” the reporter said into the camera.

“HOLY SHIT!” Michael gasped again as he caught a glimpse at the bottom of the TV screen and read Sydney Bristow, hurricane survivor.

“Mike... helloooo, what’s going on?” Eric asked.

“That’s her,” he breathed.

“Her, who?”

“HER.”

“Wait, that chick? That’s the Sydney chick? The one you’ve been talking about nonstop for three months straight?!!” Eric asked. Michael couldn’t speak; he just nodded his head. “Holy shit...,” Eric sighed.

“I know! So... so that’s her name. Sydney Bristow... and I know she’s from West Virginia.... Eric, how crazy would I be if I tried to find her?” Michael asked his friend seriously.

“Very crazy,” Eric told him. “But I think you should do it,” he added with a smile.

“Yeah?” Michael asked.

“Hell, yeah. Mike, you lead a boring existence. You need a little adventure now and then. Besides, all I’ve heard is amazing things about this girl you hardly know and I’m getting damn sick of the whining about how she was perfect, but you’ll never see her again. Go. Find her. Live a little.”

~*~

“Sydney...,” her sister, Nadia, sighed in an exasperated tone once she caught the distant look in her sister’s eye.

“What?” she asked, snapping from her day dream.

“You’re thinking about him again, aren’t you?” Nadia asked. Her sister looked away, but she already knew the answer. “You are, you always are when you have that look.”

“I can’t help it!” Sydney sighed.

“I know, I know, he was the perfect guy,” Nadia said, mocking Sydney’s tone. “I’ve heard nothing but Michael this and Michael that for the past three months. Clearly you’re, like, in love with him or something. Why don’t you try to find him?”

“How?!” Sydney asked. “There must be a thousand Michaels in Philadelphia and all I know about him is...”

“He has piercing green eyes and he owns a restaurant, yeah I know, I heard it on MSNBC and CNN, like, a million times,” Nadia said. Sydney sighed in defeat as she flopped down on her sofa. “Come on, try Syd, try to find him. What’s the worst that could happen? You find him and live happily ever after?”

Sydney laughed. “If only.”

“You never know until you try.” Nadia smiled.

“Yeah, yeah.... alright, I’m going for a run.” Sydney sighed as she grabbed her head phones and headed for her front door. Stepping down the stairs, she wasn’t paying attention to where she was going until from the corner of her eye, she spotted someone standing on the sidewalk in front of her house. Looking up, she almost screamed in shock, except for no noise came out at all. She took a step back in amazement, as he just looked at her.

For a few moments, they just looked at each other, in complete disbelief, before taking a few steps towards each other. “I.... I was thinking about you,” Sydney managed.

“I was thinking about you too,” he said quietly. Then, without another word, Sydney launched herself into his arms, wrapping her arms around his neck and running her hands through his sandy hair as they hugged each other tightly.

After embracing for a solid few minutes, Michael pulled back and looked at Sydney as he ran his hands through her hair, and smiled at her, smiling at him. “My name is Michael Vaughn, and for the past three months, I have done nothing but think about your eyes and the tiny little flecks of gold in them, and how they turn almost green when the sunlight hits them, like its doing now. I know this, because I memorized them the moment I saw you. I know nothing else about you Sydney, except for your name, but I know that I want to be your husband,” he told her with amazing honesty, having practiced that speech in his head the whole drive to her house.

Sydney was almost speechless at his perfect, perfect words. Using her hands at the back of his neck, she guided his lips to hers and kissed him with all the passion she had, receiving all of his in return. She broke their kiss and smiled. “My name is Sydney Bristow and I’d like you to come inside.”

-Fin-