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once in a while I was Ramon again to my parents, and most of the time it meant I was in big trouble.
    "Why?" Elizabeth asked.
    "Because we have a ship to catch, and it leaves in four hours."
    "A ship..." I stopped myself. I was going to ask where, but the answer was obvious.
    "Mother," Elizabeth said, "how can you think of packing at a time like this? We need to see what's –"
    "I can think of it because somebody had to take care of the details, Elizabeth, and because it was hard to get these tickets so quickly, I had to call in a lot of favors to bump a few tourists, and... shush!" She held out her hand and listened to someone she was talking to on her stereo.
    "Sell them," she snapped. A short pause, then, "I don't care if they're at fifty percent of what I paid for them. By the time the sell order gets to New York they'll probably be down another ten percent, and after that... well, who knows. I need to have that sale registered at once , in case..."
    For a moment I didn't get it, and then my jaw dropped.
    In case ...
    In case New York isn't answering the telephone in another few hours. In case Wall Street is ten stories deep in seawater.
    Mom was selling stocks. Too bad everybody on Earth had a twenty-minute jump on her. I wondered for a moment what stocks you'd sell if you knew a tsunami was on the way. Insurance companies, I guess.
    But maybe it wouldn't be so bad.
    "Mother, we want to see what's going on."
    "Elizabeth, that's what stereos are for."
    I went and stood beside my father. He put his arm up around my shoulder, absently, never taking his eyes off the screens on the wall.
    "Ten thousand remote cameras on the Florida coast," he was muttering. "Maybe twenty thousand... why can't I find...?" He looked down at the remote in his hand, and his shoulders slumped. He tossed the remote onto the couch behind him, and sat down. Actually, it was more like a collapse. He sat there with his shoulders slumped and his face in his hands. I was about to sit beside him and offer what comfort I could, when he suddenly leaped to his feet and shouted.
    "Dammit, Kelly, how can you do that at a time like this?"
    There was dead silence for a moment. Mom stopped moving and took a deep breath.
    "I'm sorry, hon, but there's not a damn thing we can do about what's happening there, except what I've already done."
    "I know, I know..." Dad didn't seem to know how to express what he was feeling at the moment. I didn't either, but I think I could feel it.
    "Manny, children... I don't want to seem cold, but you know we can't do anything about Betty's situation. But I know this. She's a smart woman. She's a survivor. If this is survivable, she will survive it. What we have to do as a family is get there as fast as we can. I've already arranged for that. And while we're waiting, I want to try to salvage what I can from some investments that are likely to be affected by this before they shut down the markets."
    "What would those be, Mom?" Elizabeth asked.
    "That's the tough part. People are unloading different things. I don't know. What I do know is, something this big impacts economies and affects people who are nowhere near ground zero. Banks and insurance companies fail under the kind of pressure this wave may represent. Governments may fall. I don't know how to protect us from that, but I'm trying to figure it out. Can I go ahead? Please?"
    She wasn't being sarcastic. Dad didn't say anything, and Mom took that as a yes, but when she continued she went to a corner of the room and kept her voice down. Elizabeth and I joined Dad on the couch, on either side. We put our arms around him.
    We didn't have long to sit. A computer-simulated wave was reaching Mayaguana Island, which they had calculated was the first place the effects of the tsunami would be seen. There was a reporter stationed on top of the highest tower on a resort on the easternmost point of the island, and she was standing in front of the camera with the blue ocean behind her. She