[ WP ] `` It 's just the rain ''

The earthquake came at 2:30PM on a Tuesday. The network of highways that fed through the heart of Los Angeles was choked with rubble, cars, and people. Thousands were trapped in the city as emergency workers made makeshift field hospitals. The National Guard had been rallied. Emergency Workers from as far as San Francisco and Portland were being flown in. Billboards were already covered, two layers thick, in missing persons flyers. 
 
 
 Trapped in the rubble that had, that morning, been a kindergarten, a Mr. Mallory comforts his students. `` Mister Mall'ry I ca n't see.'' `` I know,'' he strains to say, `` Do n't worry, children. Help is coming.'' His class had twenty children, now he only heard three voices. `` Mister Mall'ry, Martin keeps touching my face.'' `` I am NOT!'' `` He's touching my face too!'' `` YOU TOUCHED MINE FIRST!'' 
 
 
 `` Children please,'' Mister Mallory strained, `` Please calm down, children.'' He felt something dribble across his cheek and drop from his chin. He felt the weight of the school shift around him. *Surely help was coming. * `` Please stay calm.'' He felt something press through his chest, the air strained through his lungs and had since the school collapsed. `` Why do n't we hum a song, children?'' 
 
 
 `` Mister Mall'ry, where is everyone else?'' He did n't speak... `` Mister Mall'ry? Are you okay?''... 
 
 
 `` Yes,'' he coughed, `` I'm sorry, children.'' He started to hum a song, `` Come on, children.'' He felt the building against him, but he had already lost seventeen children. That was weight enough. One by one, they began to hum. When one song ended, Mister Mallory started the next. Hours passed and it was harder to hum, but then the children took turns picking songs. 
 
 
 When the emergency workers made their way through the rubble, they found the three children huddled together, still humming. Above them they found Mister Mallory. The table they had sought shelter under had given way during the earthquake. His bones had given up long before his spirit had. A pipe had driven through the teacher's lung and as he bled he suffocated. 
 
 
 Medic pulled the children from their dark shelter. `` I feel wet,'' said one of them. The medic looked at the child with dark red streaks on her face and the drained body of Mister Mallory... `` It's just the rain, child... just the rain.''
