The 6th Sense

On a quiet evening at Cal Poly Pomona in 2000 Deece, Marissa, and Tony took a walk through the rose garden and up to the second floor patio area of the CLA building. Not too long after they arrived, Deece felt a strong urge to leave. She pleaded with her friends to take the elevator instead of the stairs, although in hindsight she realized the stairs would have been the better choice. Just after the elevator began to descend, Deece panicked. She frantically tried to escape and yelled for her friends to get her out of the elevator. After what felt like minutes, but were in fact only seconds, the doors parted and the friends stepped out of the elevator. After walking two steps Deece stopped abruptly and asked, "did you feel that?" "What?" Her friends asked. And the ground began to shake beneath them.

Deece, an island girl who could brave super-typhoons, had always been afraid of earthquakes. Her knees buckled as the friends walked back to their dorm. "You're like a dog", Tony told her. "Dogs can sense earthquakes before they happen." Deece had never heard of this...it couldn't be true. She thought back to the incredibly scary earthquake that happened a few months before that had all the girls on her wing cowering in their doorways. She could picture Sandy's face as she called Deece into her doorway, Deece only shook her head in fear and stayed put; she wasn't going to risk running down a third-floor hallway in a cement building. When that earthquake happened Deece didn't sense a thing. In fact, when it began she was under the impression that her rum and coke had finally gone to her head.

Cal Poly felt several more tremors in the weeks following the elevator incident. Deece sensed every one of them. She would wake up in fright in the middle of the night and call to Marissa, "did you feel that?!" Sometimes Marissa would answer, "no". Then the room would shake. Sometimes Marissa wouldn't be there...and Deece would grab on to the rails of her raised bed as the room would begin to shake.

...

In 2005 we felt a stong earthquake. I was very pregnant with Katelyn when it happened. I held on to my belly and in lightening speed I ran from the second floor of our house out the front door and into our yard, calling for James the whole way. Once I was outside I started calling for my mom and sister who soon made their way out into the yard. I had no inclination of this earthquake.

For about a week now I have been paranoid. Each night while I would lay on our bed and nurse Jacob to sleep, every time James's arm would touch the bed and send vibrations my way I would panic and ask, "did you feel that?" "It was just my arm", James would reply. On several occasions I felt the bed move and would hold my panic inside and simply look up to see if it was only James bumping into the bed. About two or three days ago I held back from telling James that I felt like we were going to have a big earthquake soon. He would have thought I was crazy, right? I was crazy, right? I mean, I've only ever sensed earthquakes right before they happen and I don't even sense all of them.

Today I was scared. I looked at Sheila across the lunch table as the room began to shake. In my heart I said a prayer for my children and the rumbling got stronger. We closed our take-out boxes and headed out of the building. My knees remained weak for a few hours afterward. I am still not settled. Pray that God will keep us safe.

Details of today's earthquake can be found here and here.