He remembered the afternoon it had all started.  He had just gone home from church and had eaten a snack. Just when he was leaving the house to go play cricket with Kenny from across the street, the entire area had begun rocking gently.  Then came the deep rumbling sound.  When he had looked up, instead of the huge top of the Soufriere hills there was a huge column of ominous gray clouds of what he thought was smoke.  Instead of the usual bright yellow disk of the sun, there was just an orange glow in the sky.  At first everyone stood frozen with mouths agape and eyes staring up to the hills. Then people began running to and fro and mentioning the word “volcano.” 

    The other boys came onto the street and stared up to the top of the mountain where the giant grey cloud of dust was spreading even wider and faster. More dust was swelling from where the top of the hills was supposed to be. 

    Then the ash started falling like snowflakes. Jacob ran back into the house when he realised that the ash was stinging his eyes.  He washed his eyes with water and it felt a little better. But the ash was coming into the house too.  There was a strong terrible smell like that of rotten eggs in the entire house and it was even stronger when he went back outside. 

     Jacob's parents were not home then but when they did come home fifteen minutes later, they were very upset by the event. At first he had thought it was all very exciting.  But then he heard how concerned the grown-ups were and after a couple of weeks they all seemed to realise that the volcano was getting worse.  Some people Jacob had known all his life began packing up and moving away.  They said they were leaving the island until the Volcano stopped erupting.  Kenny was the first friend to go.  He had told Jacob that his family was going to the neighbouring island of Antigua until the volcano "went to sleep again."

    After a month people were told they should move away from the volcano and to the northern end of the island.  That part of the island was hardly populated since it was dryer and unsuitable for farming. 

    One Friday night after yet another eruption, for the first time Jacob saw bright orange liquid flowing down one side of the mountain. It flowed slowly as if it were syrup.  The very next day his family moved to the northern part of the island.