rika woke up that morning, the 26th of december, to the sound of people screaming. her thin ragged ten year old arms rubbed the sleep from her eyes as she ran outside to see what had happened. she could not hear the sea waves comfortingly spashing next to her house. the silence of the water worried her.

rika was a fisherman's daughter. she lived with her mother, her poor father, and her little baby brother in a hut by the seaside. every night her father would leave, in a small wooden boat, with two other fishermen and a large net, to catch fish. rika would always try to stay wake to watch her father leave. but a ten year old cannot stay awake till two o'clock at night, and then wake up on time the next day. so she was always fast asleep by the time he left, after planting a kiss on her little forehead. she would wake at dawn every day, and laughingly run to greet her father as he returned home at sunrise, tired and exhausted, with a meagre catch of fish in his boat. somehow she could always tell when her father would be coming,and would wake just before her father returned. everyday when her thin, dark mother would see her wake, she would say, 'look who's awake!' 'that must mean your father's coming!'

but that day her father didn't come. rika looked outside to see her mother frantically gathering their valuable belongings, the baby in her arms.

'there's a wave coming, we have to leave.' rika's mother told her. in the distance rika could see a huge wave rushing towards the shore. if it hit the hut, it would be destroyed. rika could see other fisherman families in the distance, rushing away from the shore. she asked if her father had returned. 'not yet.' her mother told her, with tearfilled eyes. she took rika's hand,and rushed to higher ground. rika left unwillingly, not understanding the great danger she was in, desperately trying to wait for her father.

bu the wave was faster and more powerful than they had realised. it caught up with rika and pulled her away from her mother. her mother, frightened and drowning, let go of her brother. the baby was swept away.

but rika lived. she had caught hold of a portion of a broken bridge, and held on to it. the waves released her from it's clutches and went to claim other victims.rika lay unconcious, clutching the brige for a long time. when she woke, she saw that the sea was calm. she walked along what was left of the shore, most of it had been swept away.

rika found her mother, alive and ill, being taken care of by some other fisherwives. her father's body had been found on the beach. her baby brother's body was never found.

rika's mother had thought that she was dead,she had wished that rika, like her brother and father, had perished in the ocean's embrace.

when rika came to her, it had not made her happy. everything they had, had been destroyed in the seawaves. rika and her mother lived together, first in a government shelter and then in a new shanty. her mother dressed like a widow, and started selling fish in the market. rika did odd jobs to add to their meagre income.

in the beginning it seemed like their wounds were healing. but soon rika realised that her mother did not want her. she resented the fact that rika, a girl child, had lived, while her husband and son had died. rika saw hate in her mother's eyes, and realised that her mother would much rather have had her son alive than her daughter. rika felt guilt, guilt for not being a boy, guilt for being alive.

so rika left her mother. she became bonded labour in a factory, and worked day and night for two years, knowing that the money she earned was helping her mother.

one day her mother died. rika left the factory, to collect her mother's belongings. her mother had noone else in the world.

rika walked the sea shore for the last time when she went back. the tsunami's wounds had healed, she could she other fishermen's huts, no doubt with other little girls like rika inside them, lining the shore where she had lived once. the tide was high, rika could not see land on the other side of the water. somehow she hadn't felt sad at her mother's death. she had already lost her father and brother, it was just one more victim.

it was then that she took her last decision.

the next morning her body was found on the sea shore. nobode recognised her. she was just,