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Darla
Farrell is an ambitious, young Creole woman in New Orleans, soon to enroll in a course as an EMT. Her
ten-year-old brother has been living with her while their mom, Rita Reynolds, lives and works in Chicago to save
up enough money to get an home there for herself and Zack. The love of their family kept them strong. Through all their
struggles, even when her second husband was killed by being at the wrong place at the wrong time. The owner’s great-niece
Ellyn Miranda has just completed a three-year RN course and taken over Darla's place of employment, trying to force her to
quit so she can bring in her two nieces and train them as nurse’s aides "herself"; having
a low opinion of ‘certified Nursing Attendants’. But the last week of August, 2005 turns
the world turns upside down for all of them as they wait for hurricane Katrina to made landfall a second time, having
strengthened to the fourth ever Category Five hurricane over the warmer waters of the Gulf of Mexico. By eight a.m.
on the on August 29th, the water could be seen rising on both sides of the Industrial Canal in New Orleans. But when
the air cleared and the actual storm had passed, leaving the neighborhood relatively unscathed, they all breathed a sigh of
relief, and it seemed all the warnings of impending doom had been anticlimactic. Then the levees gave way under the storm
surge and hell turned out to be in mud and salt water rather than brimstone and fire!
Alone in the two-story house with the waters rising and no one else to help her with four fragile and elderly people in her
care, the young woman finds herself challenged in ways she could never have foreseen or remotely imagined! As they struggle
against despair and the debris of shattered lives and house waiting for help that might not even come in time!
30
 If you were alive during
the days after Hurricane Katrina, you have your own memories of the shock and horror that followed in the storm's wake, as
do I. In the last six years they've floated like debris on the top of stagnant waters left by a storm surge and until now
were too sodden and empirical to sustain a story in their own right. Then the other day I found a gold colored thread
on top of my ice box. I knew where it came from, the 'Christmas skirt' I have around Cat's tree, I knew where it belonged,
but I saw it apart from the whole and in that instant I understood how I wanted to this book, and why. In all of my previous stories, people are defining and defending their beliefs.
But what about somebody whose never been exposed to anything other than the surface tension of what you hear in casual
conversation? What if - every single normal sound and influence was suddenly and completely struck mute in a single
instant? The strident voices dealing with life's pressures, the television, the radio, the Internet, chatting with your neighbor
on the way to work-everything? What would you be left with? What woul you discover in the stillness and horror of the aftermath
of Life being crushed around you? But who and what you care survives? That was the question that gave rise to the people and
the events in this story; and I hope, will in turn, give rise to hope. A flame that no deluge can put out!
A.R, Koheen 1/07/2012 Spokane,
Washington, USA
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Tuesday, January 10th, 2012 Dear Ones,
I wasn't as able to deal with the horrific memories as I thought. I hope thee enjoy this coming to faith short story until
such time as I am able to do a novel full justice. Respectfully,
A.R. Koheen
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