I saw my parents to their hotel room, dropped off my stuff and quickly made my way back into the centre of the destruction, camera in hand. In one of the town squares a crowd had gathered, a large crowd. They seemed to be mostly students, but on closer inspection, there was really a cross section of ages. Open air drinking has a way of making any street party seem good and people were consuming in abundance. I got a few good pictures but the crowd was simply too thick to make a serious go of it. Finishing my double gin and tonic, a drink which isn’t quite as enjoyable as it used to be since I created passion fruit ginses and tonicses, I began to explore the most heavily damaged parts of the city. The narrow streets and alleys were completely abandoned with chains and padlocks on each door to keep the unwanted out. No wonder this has become a party town, there were no neighbours left to complain about the noise; it was like living next to a cemetery.
Returning back to the action, I met Aurora after she asked me to send her the picture I had taken of her and her friend. She said it wasn’t always as wild as this, but school was starting on Monday and this was essentially the last weekend of the summer. She and her family lived on the outskirts of the city and weren’t affected personally by the quake; but many of her friends and family had moved away.
I took one final walk down some narrow streets with only silence and moonlight to guide my way. I was truly in a ghost town.
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