The Menopausal Woman and the Tsunami

by Dawn Tasaka Steffler

The Menopausal Woman is finally visiting her sister in Hawaii when an 8.7 earthquake rattles Russia, and now a goddamned tsunami is heading her way. Meanwhile, in California, her husband is freaking out, which, as newlyweds, would’ve been cute. But at her age, all she wants to do is lie on a swan floatie in her sister’s pool, and balance a third gin martini on her squishy tummy. Also, her sister isn’t worried; she has lived through plenty of tsunami warnings before, all of which led to nothing. But her husband, on the other hand! Texting readings from remote ocean buoys and maps of tsunami inundation zones, to which her sister’s house isn’t even close. Texting: Make sure you girls fill up gas, GPS shows highways = parking lot. Texting: Hello? Why is your phone still at the house? 

And now her sister, who had gone inside to pee, is poolside again, waving a cell phone and rolling her eyes, “It’s Eric— ” The Menopausal Woman steers her swan to the edge of the pool. “Shouldn’t you be headed to higher ground?!” her husband says, panicking. Just then, emergency sirens go off in the mountains; the wave is now four hours out; her sister reenters the pool; over the phone, her husband is sobbing.

The Menopausal Woman takes in her surroundings: the bay is calm, the sky empty of clouds, and her sister is floating next to her. If today’s the day, this isn’t a bad way to go. But she can’t tell him that. Instead, she reassures him they’re being careful and gently extricates herself. Meanwhile, her sister, who is also menopausal, drains her glass and says, “Shall we have another?” But she doesn’t wait for an answer; her wet footprints trail into the house.

About the Author

Dawn Tasaka Steffler is an Asian-American writer from Hawaii who lives in the San Francisco Bay Area. She was a Smokelong Quarterly Emerging Writer Fellow, winner of the 2023 Bath Flash Fiction Award, finalist for the 2025 Lascaux Review Prize in Flash Fiction, and selected for Best Small Fictions 2025, and an Anthology of Rural Stories by Writers of Color, 2025 (EastOver Press). Her stories appear in The Forge, JMWW, Sundog Lit, Fictive Dream, Ghost Parachute, and more. Find her online at dawntasakasteffler.com and on BlueSky, Instagram, and Facebook @dawnsteffler.