This, That, and The Other

“I told you that you shouldn’t build your house on this particular site,” the architect told Frank as the two of them were assessing the damage to the partially sunken house. “This area is known to be a liquefaction zone.”

“I don’t know what that means,” Frank’s said, “but I have a feeling you’re going to tell me and I’m not going to like it.”

“Liquefaction occurs when saturated or partially saturated soil substantially loses strength and stiffness in response to an applied stress, such as shaking during an earthquake. When that happens, the soil, which ordinarily is a solid, behaves more like a liquid,” the architect explained. “Because this area is prone to earthquakes, which cause the ground to oscillate, the land is unstable.”

“You never told me that my house would fall into what amounts to a giant sinkhole in the ground,” Frank. “I’m going to sue the shit out of you.”

“Good luck with that Frank,” the architect said. “I sent you a written report in which I did warn you that this property was in a liquefaction zone and I recommended months before you started to break ground on your house that you needed to find a different piece of property, one that was not in a liquefaction zone,” the architect said, “but you rebuffed my recommendation and insisted on building here on this site because you liked the view. How do you like it now, Frank?”

“So what am I going to do?” Frank asked. “My beautiful new home is ruined.”

“I think you need to call your homeowners insurance company, Frank,” the architect said. “Good luck with that.”

Written for Sadje’s What Do You See? prompt. Photo credit: Lance Anderson @ Unsplash. Also for these daily prompts: Fandango’s One-Word Challenge (particular), The Daily Spur (feeling), Ragtag Daily Prompt (oscillate), Word of the Day Challenge (month), and Your Daily Word Prompt (rebuff).