NOVEL

Within minutes we were waist deep in the water. I removed my current season Fangini brogues from Isetan in Shibuya, as the water would have turned the leather into cardboard. It was a smart move saving my shoes but water was icy cold and made my feet feel like they were burning. It was unbearable.


The light globes started popping. It made a terrifying sound.


One of the glass cabinets shattered as water made the lighting circuitry explode. Glass cut my face and my new wooden glasses from Kawaii in Greenwich Village filled up with blood.


My young assistant Rhishannon made a vocalisation that sounded strangled and thin. Then there was nothing... just the sound of water rushing into the shop.


'Rhishannon! Rhishannon, where are you?'
It was pitch black in the shop but I splashed around looking for her. I found her upturned wheelchair, but she was nowhere to be seen. Suddenly I remembered her telling me she couldn't swim and a chill went down my back.


The other shop keepers in the subway came into Corky Saint Clair. My new shorts from Orlebar + Brown in London were soaking wet. I'm not a shy guy but they had gone slightly see through. However I didn't have much time to really think about that as it was total mayhem in the subway.


The SES  had declared the subway a disaster zone and were sealing up the area. The final roller door was being lowered. We had to decide if we were staying or leaving.


'Corky, please get out of here, you're going to drown!' Jo Jo from the weird 'vintage' shop opposite mine pleaded with me.


She had a saggy sack of stock on her shoulder. I looked at all the shop keepers laden down with bags and suitcases of merchandise, like rats fleeing Ground Zero after 9/11. Crises like this tell you so much about what people really value.


'Come with us!'
'I can't find my work experience girl!'
'It's too late, get out now!'
'You guys go...go on, get outta here! I am not leaving! Not without my assistant!'
I said with steely resolve.
'Corky, don't be a hero!'


I don't even know what a hero is, but I did know that I had to save that gutsy at-risk youth. The roller door was nearly down, in another five seconds I would be sealed in there. Even if I could find Rhishannon, how could we survive?


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