The posttraumatic experience of weathering through the biggest earthquake in the history of Taiwan back on September 21, 1999, how the effects of the earthquake stayed in you, even to, this, very day…translated…

Upon reading the article "The Alarms Sounding Off in the Ruins" on September 21st by the writer, Yen, it got my imagination running wild.  That deep autumn night of twenty-two years ago, the moon was with her gentle glow, but, the people who'd become, separated by life and death became, like those wounded wolves, howling aloud in pain up at the moon, and that twisting and winding mountain and river, I simply, can't put out of, my mind.

My pops at age seventy-five, longed to see the beautiful sceneries of Guguan, and since he was discharged from the services, he'd, returned back to his hometown, and returned back to life of that simple farmer, with the hoe, he'd gone to his field by the day, and he got a perfect view of the seven heroes of Guguan.  On the evening of September 21st, there was total power outage across the entire island, the communications got shut down too, I couldn't get in touch with pops who lived in the mountains, worried for the entire night.  Early the following morn, my younger brother and I drove into the mountains to find him, as we drove from Fengyuan toward Dongshih, there was this huge breakage on the roads, the roads were elevated three stories high, broken.  There's nothing for us to do but to turn back around, and instead, we took out our dirt bikes, headed up another alternative mountain pass, and, went toward Dongshih by way of Daohsingshe, back then, the Dongfeng Bridge was about to break off, but, our motorcycles ran across it, barely.

As soon as we entered into the local streets of Dongshih, I could still remember what it'd looked like right now: the houses fallen down, the tall buildings, broken in half, the dead bodies covered in white clothes, with the legs showing only, those who are waiting for rescue, with the wrapped bandages on their heads, the mothers with eyes so hollow, holding tight to their own young…………I couldn't, take a second look, just, stepped on the gas, and, pass through fast as I could.

【看當年】九二一大地震 - YouTube

My brother and I dodged the fallen rocks along the ways, the fallen trees, by the time we got to the tunnel, the tunnel was already, collapsed, no more roads up ahead we can drive into.  wed parked the vehicle, and, the two of us, sister and brother, went down to the river valley, all the way upstream the Daja Creek, and, we'd, cut the passage open ourselves, and on the way, we'd bumped into the younger generations of the local natives who are headed down the mountains to get help, after we'd exchanged intel, we'd called out to them, "Luka" (meaning, keep moving forward, this was, the only Atayal word remained, inside my memories), and, wished one another, a safe passage, then, I'd, handed the keys to my vehicle to the man, hoping it'll help him get down the mountains to get the help quickly enough, he'd asked me, how he shall, return the keys back to me, I'd told him that it wasn't, necessary, that the dirt bikes are a necessity, for his life in these parts.

We'd walked for five whole hours, arrived at Guguan, just before sunset, our ancestral home was, half torn down, the sweet olive tree, the persimmon tree, rooted up completely, thankfully, all the elders, the children all found their way at the springs hotels, and the springs hotel served its function of a temporary shelter, with foods and water, and a place to stay.  Nobody was injured in the valleys, only two dead hens that got crushed, thanks to the blessings of, God.

Seeing how pops are without a scratch on him, after we'd had our instant noodle with an egg that was heated, then suddenly, I'd, let the worries, fall off, my shoulders then, I'd, broken down, started crying like hell, and I can, no longer, contain myself anymore, the townships of Dongshih was hell on earth!  And I'd, just, walked from the hell on earth, out!

For the many years following, I'd often waken up in my dreams, and scared to sweating like crazy, that long street, became the River Styx, and who's, the ferryman there.

Awhile ago, at 6:41 in the evenings, I felt the land shaking underneath my feet, the cabinets started, clinking and clanking around, I flew into, a panic then.  Every year at Mid-Autumn Festivals, I'd always, felt tightened up, more so this year compared to the previous, and I'd worried about the crowds gathering up too.

And so, this earthquake that's, occurred just a while ago, it'd, triggered the memories of your fears of the earthquake back in 1999, and that's, expected, after all, the one that occurred back in 1999, was totally with, too many fatalities, especially when you'd seen death, all the way, to find your father, it left that, deep impression inside of you, and this recent one, it'd, triggered everything, brought everything you'd felt back in 1999 back again.

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