Time Forgotten

By Ethan G.

Time

The gamblers walked out of Harrah's Casino with cash stuffed in their pockets. Drunks sat on benches down by the riverside hollering and singing elatedly. The French Quarter was chock-a-block as usual. Tulane students sat on their porches on St. Charles chugging beers and playing music while preparing to go to bars and parties. It was just a habitual but wild weekend in August of Nawlins.

Time

The meteorologists started reporting eerily what would be the end of our city.

Time

The lake was tranquil but for the miniature waves brought in by wind. They smacked the stairs of the lake almost systematically. But the sun was showing and it seemed like this was the short "calm before the storm".

Time

The traffic was unbearable with all of the procrastinators evacuating only when the waves got them wet. Cars were packed as if everyone were going on a trip to the beach. Some cars packed with four or five dogs and one person, some packed with ten people and one dog. Everyone in exile from the cat, the cat named Kat-rina.

Time

The area was more or less deserted. Yes, there were some reckless people tied desperately down to their houses, but for the most part, the government officials, superdome occupants, and the reckless ones were the only people left.

Time

The vista was apocalyptic, with murky clouds covering the whole city like a blanket trying to suffocate, enwrapping it from all sides. Rain came and dumped itself ubiquitously as if all of the people in New Orleans were really on top of the clouds, destroying their own city with buckets of rain, and then floating away. And it was only a matter of

Time before the waves from Lake Pontchartrain toppled over the levees and created an even bigger lake, adding the entire city to its content boundaries.

Time

The once bustling city was now fully suffocated and dead, sucked prune-dry from its fruitful life. The city was a bathtub waiting to be drained. The contaminated lukewarm water sat stagnantly until drained into the pipes that gushed back into the lake. The world and even President scrutinized from the window seat of his plane, letting chaos reign and unfold among the remaining people. But once everyone was gone, the city was even gloomier.

Time

The people had already forgotten and moved on to other things. New Orleans was antique and had no future. They were safer where they were. While many planned to go back, the majority left perpetually, displaced across America to someday come back to gaze at a better city and reminisce on the last one.

Time…