my family, including my mom, and my friends, were all in japan together. it was the end of our trip. we were lost in the airport and couldn't figure out which gate to go to or when to board because all the signs and announcements were in japanese. then my mom figured it out and that we should have boared like a half hour before, and that the plane was leaving. she totally ditched me and my kids (liam was only about 3, and laurel was an infant) to run on the plane while i was trying to decide if i should wait for leon to come out of the bathroom and my friends to come back from the food court. i spotted one of my friends, and was yelling at him to hurry so that we could all get on the plane, when suddenly the japanese authorities grabbed him and told him he was under arrest for possession of marijuana. they were dragging him away as he was yelling at me to tell his wife where he was and what was happening and i started trying to fight with the cops to let him go but they pushed me just as they were getting in an elevator with him and i fell, holding on to baby laurel. as i lay on the ground, stunned, a strange man came up to us and tossed a little black gadget with different coloured buttons on it and some flashing lights and i realized it was a bomb detonator/device thing. i panicked and threw it as hard as i could away from me, got up, carrying a kid in each arm, and started running for the doors outside. but before i could get out, a huge explosion erupted from the gate where my mom had just got on the plane. i was thrown out through the plate glass windows, just as three more huge explosions rocked the airport. glass and chunks of cement were raining down out of the sky on us. i found myself laying on a cold, rocky beach with sparse patches of snow all around. i was cut on my hands and face and bleeding but my kids were okay. i was terrified that more explosions were going to happen and we'd have nowhere to hide, so i got up and tried to find a good place to cower. there was a rickety wooden boardwalk running along the side of another building near the airport. it was about a foot and a half off the rocky, snowy ground, so i squeezed under there with both kids and lay there, waiting for whatever was going on to pass. i guess i was in shock. i saw lots of people wandering around on the beach, bleeding and crying. i started crying too, as the realization that my mom and my friends and husband were probably all dead now and i was alone with my kids in a foreign country with no idea of where to go for help.

then suddenly i saw leon! he was walking along the beach, totally unscathed, yelling my name. my tears turned from grief to relief and i scootched out from under the boardwalk, yelling for him, too. he saw us and dashed across the beach towards us and picked up both the kids and kissed me a million times. i was so relieved and happy and tearful and upset. leon said that it was no big deal, we'd get to the canadian embassy or consulate or something, and they'd take care of us. we just had to find out how to get there. we saw a public transit bus pull up to a stop near the beach and ran towards it, yelling. the bus driver let us on and before we could even ask where his bus was going, he started pulling away and going up this HUGE mountain road. leon said, "hey man, can you let us off, please? we don't want this bus after all." the driver totally ignored him and kept going up this enormous cold mountain. leon started yelling, "come on! don't take us to the top! this is NOT the way we need to go! we don't want to have to walk all the way back down with our two little kids in this weather!" still the bus driver ignored him. leon went apeshit and started swinging around on the bars and kicking at the windows while i attacked the driver, punching and kicking at him. then i realized he was a crazy japanese android with no emotions or even the capability to discuss anything with us. he took us to the top of the snowy mountain, opened the doors, and ejected us, totally impassionate about it. we all sat down in a snowbank, me still bleeding everywhere, and cried.