Editing History

When Katrina loomed on the horizon, Jake's boss insisted that he stay until the last possible day or he would lose his job. Already poor as they were, he had no choice.

On the day that they were to leave his wife, Becky, ran out to grab some last-minute supplies. She never came home. Jake waited anxiously, pacing back and forth, as the darkness on the horizon grew closer and closer, but she never returned. He couldn't imagine what could have happened to her. His heart was torn--they had only one car, which she had taken; if he wanted to search for her, he would have to do so on foot with his children, bringing them into harms way in the storm. But what if she didn't return? She could be stranded on the side of the road when the storm hit.

In the end, he painfully decided to stay. He knew that he could protect his children at home, what he didn't know was whether he could even find his wife if he searched for her.

When Katrina hit, it turned out that it didn't matter that there were four walls and a roof around them. The waters rose and swept away his home in her raging waters, forcing Jake to climb out through the attack with his children and cling desperately to a tree. The winds howled and the waters raged for what seemed like an eternity, but Jake refused to let go. His children were now all he had in the world, and he would not lose them, too.

Once the storm was over and things settled down, he carried his son and daughter through disease and corpse ridden waters to safety, taking no share in the food or clean water they found so that his children might have more. When they arrived at the shelter, he began the desperate search for his wife. Days went by, turned into weeks, but still he could find none who had seen or heard of her. Nevertheless, he never gave up. He couldn't give up hope that she was alive; couldn't give in to Loss.

It was then that the Power of Ties That Bind enNobled Jake. Instantly, he became aware of the tie that bound him to his wife. Not stopping to wonder what had happened to him or what he now was, he followed the trail straight to the shelter where he knew his wife would be...