It was a simple, general day. The kids woke up late, their Mom was cooking delicious food, and their Dad, as usual, was running around as fast as he could, getting late for work. The house was a general messy jungle that really needed a clean up. Saturday morning wasn't nice for the 3 kids. It was too busy.

''Gem~'' The mother nagged, staring at Gem as he stumbled into the room, landing on a kitchen chair. ''Here, your food.'' She smiled happily, serving the plate across the table to Gem's place. Gem nodded lazily back as a reply, closing his eyes, almost drooping his face into his food. He had a English breakfast. It was very fattening. It consisted of bacon, eggs, beans, mash potato and toast. Gem turned to face his older sister and brother; Mizuri and Akiyo. Both of them were J-Rock obsessed and wore the craziest clothing ever. Well, it was normal as long as you were in Harajuku, Tokyo. They, on the other hand, were in Nasushiobara. Their father had to travel through 2 trains to get to his work in Tokyo.

''Aki, Miki, please, take your food. I've told you aswell, countless times...'' Their mother began, stopping her cooking and placing an arm on her hip, her face scrunched up into frustration.

''Yes mom!'' Mizuri quickly added, making her mom stop. The mother sighed and turned around.

''TOMOYAAAAA!!'' She yelled at the top of her voice, calling to their late-as-usual father. Her lazy husband. ''YOU'RE GOING TO BE LATE!''

The three kids were sat at the table and their eyes flickered towards the door as they heard the familiar thudding of their father coming down the stairs, and as always, he ended up tripping over something or another. This time, it was his own shoe he failed to put on properly when coming down the steps.

''Inazuki! Stop yelling at me now, you know when I come down now!'' Tomoya moaned, sitting in his normal seat at the head of the table. Inazuki, their mother, placed his food the table. He had the usual: Miso soup, fried rice and fish. He only liked this in the morning.

''Akiyo, Mizuri, Gokuro.. how many times must I ask you to eat normal Japanese food rather than all this fatty food.'' Tomoya sighed, shaking his heads at his children who totally blanked him. Gem stared blankly at his plate, almost falling asleep as the only normal kid. Mizuri was stuffing her face with food, and she was making her bright-blue lipstick go everywhere, and her neon-green hair didn't look right. Tomoya dreaded looking at his beautiful-womanly-looking son, Akiyo. He grew his hair to his shoulders and dyed it bright orange. He wore heavy eyeliner and he dressed like a character from a manga. He looked beautiful like a princess. It made Tomoya feel annoyed.

''Miki, Aki...'' Tomoya began, looking at them properly. They looked back, waiting for a response. ''Just please stop or cut down your style...'' He pleaded. This, like everyday, turned into a great argument.

''NO! I can do whatever I like to my body.'' Mizuri growled at her father, glaring at him with her red contacts in her eyes.

''No, you can't. You're my daughter and you do what I say as your Father.'' Tomoya contradicted, getting really annoyed.

''Oh shut up. Father?! I wouldn't care if you wasn't here at all! You are NEVER here.'' Mizuri roared back, hitting her fist against the table.

''I do all I can to make sure you kids have a good life. Do you think I hate not seeing you, my kids, my own children, all the time?!'' He explained, trying to be calmer and make her understand his point of view.

''Get a better job, you lazy .'' Mizuri sighed at her father angrily.

''Mizuri!'' Inazuki intervened angrily. She turned to her husband. ''She has a point. You truly are never here. For all I know you're having an affair!'' Inazuki growled.

Tomoya stared at his family who glared back at him with piercing, hateful eyes and felt extremely sad, but hid his true feelings. He loved his wife more than anything in the world, and she didn't trust him. His kids were rude, when they were innocent before.

''You don't trust me.'' Tomoya said in a quiet voice.

''I... Yes. Of course I don't. I bet you are having an affair. You can be so secretive.'' Inazuki said, childishly, not really meaning what she was saying.

The arguments in this morning were harsh and wrong. They ended with Tomoya losing his patience and getting up from his chair aggressively, heading to work. He was late anyway, and needed to hurry up.

''Even if you are a , I love you.'' He said in a harsh tone to his wife. Inazuki shook her head and pushed him away.

''Tomoya, I hate you.'' Inazuki screamed at him, shoving him towards the main door. Tomoya turned around and glared at his wife.

''Inazuki.. I've had enough of you.'' He sighed simply, shaking his head sadly. Inazuki stared back with menacing eyes. ''And enough of my silly, ignorant kids.'' He called out angrily towards the main room.

''Well I'm tired of you! You know what?! I wish you were dead.'' Mizuri screamed from the kitchen. Tomoya heard the sound of her chair drag across the floor, and then watched her run up the stairs crying angrily. Her make-up was running down her face.

''Inazuki... We are having a divorce.'' Tomoya roared angrily in Inazuki's face before walking out of the door, sitting into his car and speeding off.

***

It was 30 minutes afterwards and the remain of the family were in the sitting room, watching the television.

''An Earthquake is expected to hit today within the next hour. Please brace yourselves as we wait for yet another Earthquake. Make sure pets are safe, and children are supervised at all times. Travelling is not advised, but public transport is allowed.''

The news was on, and all the regional headlines were warnings of a Earthquake- on every channel and every radio show, none-stop. There were also police officers knocking on every door to make sure everyone know.

''. Another one this month?!'' Gem roared after one of the officers left their house finally, simply expecting everything. Inazuki hit her son angrily and sat down.

''Miki, Aki, Gem...'' She began, cuddling into the sofa, feeling extremely aggravated. ''I think a divorce is likely. How do you feel?''

''I don't give a as long as Dad isn't having me. all if I end up with that er.'' Mizuri muttered darkly, staring at the mute news on the TV. Akiyo sighed.

''I'll stay with you, Mom. I don't care about Dad either.'' Akiyo sighed, leaning back and closing his eyes. Inazuki looked at her last son, the son who was close with Tomoya.

''I'll stay with Dad.'' Gem stated, glaring at his mother angrily.

''Why the would you do that? That man is a prick.'' Akiyo opened his eyes and glared at his younger brother.

''I believe Dad, that's why. He's my father and I'd never live without him. Or you, Mom, but I love Dad, too.'' His voice began to crack as tears formed in his eyes. ''Dad tries to do the right thing, and you guys don't give a damn. How can you guys put Dad on edge like that?'' He asked angrily.

At that point, the ground beneath them shook gently at first, but it went gradually worse and worse until everything in the house was vibrating. Everything was safe, and secured. They made sure of this. They were sitting with eachother, waiting for it to stop.

The Earthquake lasted about 3 minutes and the aftershock came about 10 minutes later, was 10x stronger, but lasted 4 seconds. Then, that was it. No more Earthquakes. They all breathed out happily, and switched off the television.

''I'm sorry, Gem.'' Inazuki sighed, her eyes watering. ''I'll never divorce your father. This Earthquake scared me, and all I wanted was your father to be here with us.''

Mizuri and Akiyo nodded. Everyone, at that point, had a lump in their throat and suddenly they felt without their father in the room, nagging and making silly jokes about anything, and going on about Japan...

RING RING. RING RING.

Akiyo jumped up and ran to the phone. He picked it up and put it to his ear.

''Hello?'' He waited for a reply, but all he heard was static and something... eerie.

He put the phone down.

''Who was that?'' Inazuki asked smiling.

''No idea. No one.'' Akiyo shrugged, sitting back down.

''When Tomoya, your father, comes back... We'll make up. We'll all apologise.''.

The phone rang again. This time Gem grabbed it and answered it.

''Hello, this is Yurimashi Gokuro'' Gem answered.

''GEM... GEM, GIVE IT TO YOUR MOTHER... QUICK... OH GEM...'' Sakura, Inazuki's best friend wept through the phone.

''Mom, it's Sakura. She's crying!'' Gem cried. Inazuki ran to the phone and answered immediately.

''Sakura?!....... What?! ..... Okay.... Okay..... No...?.....'' She put the phone down, her eyes streaming with tears. ''Mizuki, switch the telly on.''

''THE EARTHQUAKE DAMAGED THE NASUSHIOBARA TRAIN LINES GOING IN AND OUT. IT HAS BEEN REPORTED THERE ARE NO SURVIVORS. THE ACCIDENT HAPPENED EXACTLY 7 MINUTES AGO....''

Mizuri switched off the telly. In an instant she rang her father's number, her hands trembling and her eyes watering. She couldn't get through. The phone was completely disconnected.

''MOM!'' Mizuri shrieked, falling onto the floor, weeping.

That second, the phone rang. Mizuri jumped back up to answer it.

Nothing replied but static. Long, eerie static.

Mizuri put the phone down and dialled the service to see which number had phoned. When she put it on loud speaker, the whole family stared at horror at the number. It was their father's number.

Mizuri wiped away her tears.

''Oh! Oh!'' She grinned. She dialled his number, trying to get through to him, but there was no connection available to his phone.

The family collapsed on one sofa, all crying worriedly.

***

They had had 87 calls from their father, all of them being static, over a period of 11 hours. It was now late at night. None of the family had eaten at all, and were all crowded around the phone, waiting for the next call. They all knew he was alive, and they missed their father dearly, wondering where he was. The hospital? Lost? Coming home? Trapped? They had concluded that wherever he was, there was no signal at all. Gem wanted to tell his father how much he loved him. Mizuri wanted to apologise and hug her father tight and always love him. Akiyo wanted to get rid of his style and eat like his father to please him, to make his father feel happy. Inazuki wanted to tell her husband that she couldn't bare the idea to live without him, and she loved him more than anything in the whole wide world. They wanted him back so badly.

The phone rang again and Inazuki answered it, weeping.

''TOMOYA?!'' She screamed down the phone.

''Is this Yurimashi Inazuki?'' A very stern voice asked.

''Yes?! WHERE IS MY HUSBAND?!'' She was now crying hysterically.

''Please tell me your husband's name to confirm.'' The harsh voice asked calmly, dismissing her weeps.

''Yurimashi Tomoya. He is 41 years old. He's my husband. I love him.'' Inazuki wept into the phone.

''I'm sorry to announce your husband was found dead at the Train accident earlier today.'' The man said, as if he was simply talking about the weather. Inazuki shook her head and laughed.

''YOU'RE WRONG YOU MORON. HE CALLED ME 87 TIMES ON HIS MOBILE!!!!!!''

''No, I'm afraid you are mistaken. His phone was found on his person, but was not at all in working condition. I'm sorry about your loss. Goodbye.'' The man cut the line, leaving Inazuki utterly speechless and confused beyond her wits. She felt like the air was going to drown her. She couldn't stand because her legs were jelly. She couldn't bare to look at her children. She refused to believe it.

The phone rang and Inazuki instantly answered it.

''TOMOYA?!'' She wept crazily.

''Inazuki. I love you. I'll always love you. I'm sorry. Goodbye.'' This was all she could make out from the over-laying static over her precious husband's voice. Inazuki wept.

''I love you too.'' She sobbed, kissing the phone. The line went dead. Inazuki, crying, checked the number. It was her husbands.

It was then she knew it. He was gone.

Thank you for reading.