The roar of the shower drowned out the first cracking sounds the west wall made as it started tumbling down, not unlike the nursery rhyme about London Bridge. Kathy Santos did not realize anything was wrong until she shut off the water, slid the shower curtain back, and reached for her hotel issue white undersized towel. She was looking at a very panoramic view of the lake, which was quite all right since she was in the last room on that end of the motel. The big problem was she didn’t have a window on that side of her room, especially in the bathroom. Trying to hide her nakedness behind the skimpy towel, she darted toward the main room of her suite when the room buckled like a roller coaster. Losing the towel, no big deal at this point she thought, she grabbed the bathroom door frame and rode out the sudden shaking of the room. Regaining her wits, which she had always been very good at, she crawled over to the open closet and grabbed a pair of Levis and tee shirt which piled together on the now quite littered floor. Pulling the shirt hastily over her head and squirming into the very tight fitting jeans, she regained
her feet and headed toward the door determined to find out exactly what was going on.
Steve Sidel was about twenty feet away from the central sidewalk that bisected the lavish green courtyard, when he heard the scream. Turning back toward his room he saw a very attractive lady outside the room next door to his. She had her right hand on her mouth as if suppressing the scream that had already escaped her lips. Her long brunette hair was dripping wet and plastered to her forehead giving her an exotic look, like she had just stepped from underneath a tropical waterfall. The very tight denim jeans and bright white tee shirt which also was plastered to her body gave him the feeling that this woman just won the Miss International Wet Tee Shirt Contest. She was looking down at something at the west side of what was left of the room she was in front of. The entire side wall of the room was laying in a pile of rubble and it was at the base of this that her attention was focused. He started to trot in the direction of the woman when she turned her back to the object she had been staring at and lost what must have been her breakfast. Rushing up to her side he placed his arm on her shoulder and led her a few feet away to a concrete bench which somehow was still standing.
Once he had her seated on the bench, her shivering like being caught without a coat in a blizzard, he turned his attention back to what she had been staring at. At first he could not believe his eyes at what he was seeing but then reality sunk in. When the wall collapsed apparently, a man had been on the end of the building, doing what, he had no idea, but now the man would never have another idea. The man’s face had been completely skinned, caught supposedly by the aluminum gutter that fallen off the roof above him and just his eyeballs, nostrils and an open hole representing his mouth were left. The skeletal look was bad enough but the worse part was the flag pole that had adorned the crest of the roof had came straight down through his mouth and out the back of his head still in a vertical position displaying the crest of the resort in a full color spectrum.
Patrick Ramsburger was a very competent bartender. He had been making drinks for his
customers for over twenty two years and he was quite good at it. His customers, over the years had always relished the fact that as soon as their drink was low or their cigarette needed to be lit, Pat was there. He had an uncanny sense of when one of his customers needed something. It was almost as if he had eyes in the back of his head. He was mister efficient in the bar business.
The corporation had heard of Patrick Ramsburger’s reputation and had written several letters trying to entice him to come to work in their new resort. After several weeks of negotiation, they hit on the right amount of compensation and benefits and Pat packed his meager belongings and headed for the sunshine state. He was tired of the cold weather in New York and he decided he would like to lounge around by the pool on his days off soaking up the Florida sun. He had arrived four weeks before the grand opening and ordered all the necessary equipment and alcohol in order to stock the resort lounge for the big grand opening and a surplus to handle several weeks after. He was on an unlimited budget, due to his explicit reputation and he wanted to make sure everything ran smoothly.
He hired two extra bartenders, one part time, and four cocktail waitresses to handle the expected cliental and the waiters and waitresses that worked for the restaurant would fill in the rush at the grand opening. He was prepared, as always, for any emergency that could arise, or so he thought. He had never heard of sinkholes in New York and now Patrick Ramsburger started to experience one first hand.
It started pretty simple. The glasses behind the bar started to rattle. He was a little perplexed at this but, he thought maybe a large truck was driving down the driveway, even though they had a delivery road. When the glasses continued rattling, he thought maybe Florida had earthquakes, even though he had never heard of that but, he was a new resident and he didn’t know that much about the area. When the bottles behind the bar started toppling over he realized he might be in deep trouble and he looked around to see where the other employees were. He saw a look of sheer terror in the eyes of one of the cocktail waitresses and before he could say anything to her the room fell in.
Patrick held on to the edge of the bar and rode it down like an elevator until the floor settled. The bottles and glasses that had been neatly stacked were scattered on the floor behind the bar and the big mirror behind the bar had fallen and smashed with a shattering explosion. The emergency lights came on when the power died and most of the lights were dislodged from their near ceiling mounts and were scattered haphazardly around the room. There was a lot of screaming and cries of pain coming from the guest who had filled the lounge area and total confusion seemed to prevail. Being of quick mind, he yelled for everyone to try to stay calm and help would soon be there. This worked briefly until, the room fell another ten feet and the ceiling caved in.
Pat again tried to calm the patrons down but, panic had by now set in and utter chaos reigned. He again looked around for any of the other employees but, by now he could only see frightened guests. He walked around the edge of the bar, crunching on the broken pieces of glass and made his way to where he thought the emergency exit door should be. A large section of the roof was laying directly in his path and he turned back toward the people lying on the floor closest to him and began helping people stand on their feet. He wanted to open the emergency door and see what was happening outside the room but, this being cut off from him, he tried to calm as many people as he could. He realized that whatever happened would not be isolated to this room and help was sure to be there as soon as possible. He began gathering the people that were obviously in a state of shock into small groups and he finally located one of his cocktail waitresses who, looked no worse for wear at this sudden disaster and he told her to keep saying calming words to the people he had gathered into small groups, until help arrived.