ALLUSIVE AFTERSHOCK (13 page)

“Isn’t there another
way? There’s not even a path.”

“There’s a trail. It’s
small, but still a trail.”

I stopped walking when
Max turned into what he considered a trail. “That’s not a trail, that’s a six-inch
gap in the weeds. It’s still rattlesnake season. I don’t want to walk through
that stuff. They love to hide in that brush.”

“Really? You’re afraid
of a rattlesnake? You just survived one of the most powerful earthquakes in
history and you won’t walk through a patch of weeds because of rattlesnakes?”

“Shut up, Max. I didn’t
rag on you when you didn’t want to walk across the narrow beam. Why are you
being so cruel to me?” Okay, that was a cheap shot, but he deserved it. “You
know I hate snakes.”

“I’m sorry.” Max took a
step toward me, placing his hand on my arm reassuringly before he perused the
area. He walked to the side of the road and picked up two large sticks. “Here,
take one. We can use these to knock against the weeds and warn any snakes to go
away. They don’t want to see you any more than you want to see them. Trust me.
Everything will be fine.”

I’d trusted Max most of
the day, but this time? I glanced down at my skinny jeans and flat black shoes
with no socks. I didn’t think everything would be fine, but reluctantly agreed
to climb up the weed-covered hill. At least we had our sticks ….

We trudged up the hill
with Max taking the lead, whistling as if everything was hunky-dory. We had no
business walking through this stuff unprepared, wearing regular pants and no
hiking boots. Thistle after thistle of thorny little spurs scraped against my poor
unprotected ankles.

As Max promised,
everything seemed fine and I began to relax, when Max suddenly stopped and
turned toward the left. His eyes focused on something in the grass. At the sound
of rustling, then a rattle, I froze.

Max pointed his stick
in the direction of the sound. The tall dry grass rippled, and up popped the
head of the largest rattlesnake I had ever laid eyes on. I opened my mouth to
scream but my throat tightened like a stretched-out rubber band and nothing came
out. My legs turned to cement and wouldn’t budge.

The snake hissed at Max
and braced its head, ready to strike. Max kept his body still, his staff steady
and pointed at the snake’s eyes. The rattler inched its three-foot-long body
backwards across the wimpy trail, bottom half coiled and long upper body poised
to strike. The serpent’s long forked tongue hissed out of its two-inch
diamond-shaped head as the venomous reptile focused on Max and his stick. All
the while, it retreated, slithering sinuously and smoothly until I heard a
thump as the creature’s heavy body hit the ground after dropping off the side
of a cliff.

My heart pounded in my
chest and my knees rattled about as much as the end of the snake’s tail had. I
clutched the stick and would have demanded we turn around, except I realized by
that point it was just as far down as it was up. We continued up the hill,
taking slow cautious steps. The stick I held shook in my white-knuckled grasp
as I swayed it back and forth through the tops of the thorny brush, looking for
any undesirable movement. Somehow, I managed to hold back sobs, but not the
tears already sliding down my cheeks.

When we finally reached
the top, I jumped onto the road, turned toward Max and shoved a hand against
his chest knocking him backwards about two feet.

“Don’t you ever, ever
make me walk through rattlesnake-infested weeds again!”

“Okay, okay. Sheesh. I
just didn’t want to walk up the hill the long way. I’m tired and upset about
our folks and now I need to put up with Courtland for the next who knows how
many days. We’ll stay on the road on the way home if you want. Come on.” He took
my hand in his and we walked up the long curvy driveway to Cooper Murdock’s
place.

***

Cooper sat in front of
his barn on a bundle of hay with his face in his hands. I was surprised to see
the stable still standing, considering mine wasn’t. A pang of jealousy pierced the
back of my mind, but was immediately squashed by sorrow as I glanced over at
his house. Red chunks of tile lay scattered in and around the house where the
back part of the roof had caved in, covering three-quarters of the building.

“Coop, you’re okay!”
Max shouted and we ran to him, excited to find an adult close by. I worried
about Courtland’s burns and the idea of a grown-up around to help gave me some
hope.

Cooper raised his head
and watched us walk closer. Dark streaks stained his cheeks and my heart sank
in my chest again. I looked around for his wife and baby but they were nowhere
to be seen.

“Cooper? Are you okay?”
Max asked.

Cooper just stared at
us as if he didn’t comprehend the question.

“Lisa and the baby?”

Cooper shook his head.

“I’m sorry,” Max and I
said together.

“They were in the house
when the quake hit. Lisa had been giving Annie a bath at the time. Maybe they’d
finished. Maybe they never even started. I don’t really know. I was outside
tending to the horses when the rumbling started. I figured the shaking was only
another aftershock and wouldn’t do any damage until I realized it wasn’t
stopping. I ran toward the house as the hillside slid into the back wall. The
entire back of the house is under dirt and the ceiling caved in. Lisa and Annie
never had a chance.”

Cooper’s voice choked
on a sob and he wiped his hand over his eyes. I glanced at Max who stood stock
still as I inched my fingers into his palm and he squeezed his hand around mine.

“I should be dead with
them,” Cooper continued. “Lisa wanted me to stay inside and take pictures of
Annie’s bath for the baby book. She was so tiny, only three days old. I told
her I’d come in a minute after I checked on the animals. They’d been making
some strange noises and acting antsy. I figured they still had the jitters from
all the aftershocks we’d been having after last week’s quakes. I told her to
wait. Maybe she did, but they were in the back of the house by the nursery when
the roof collapsed.”

“I’m so sorry, Mr.
Murdock,” Adela said.

He wiped the palms of
his hands over his entire face and glanced up at me. “Cooper. You’re Adela Castielle,
right?”

I nodded.

“Your mom helped with
Annie’s delivery. A wonderful woman. Is she okay?”

An ache bubbled in my
chest as I shook my head. “I don’t know. There wasn’t any sign of her around
the house.

“Ahhh, jeez. I’m so
sorry, but maybe she’ll turn up. What about you, Max? Your folks okay?”

“No, they’re … both
gone. The house burned down. I’m pretty sure they were inside. There was no
sign of them anywhere else and both cars were in the driveway.”

Cooper hung his head
for a moment before he stood and embraced Max in a long hug. They held on to
one another for a long time before Cooper pulled slightly away and patted Max
on the back. “I’m real sorry, Max. Real sorry. Your dad was a good man and your
mom a terrific lady. She was also here with Lisa during her entire labor. We'd
have never made it to the hospital in time. Lisa's water broke and then things
just started moving along so fast and ... well, if your moms hadn't been
around, I don't know what I would have done. Good thing they are both
doulas
. Maybe they’ll show up. Have you heard anything? How
big was the quake? Do you know how much damage there’s been?”

“No, we haven’t heard
anything. Other than some people in town who helped us get over a fifteen-foot
wide chasm in the middle of the road, you’re the first one we’ve come across.”

“Other than Courtland,”
I added.

Max frowned. “Right.”

“Where’s he?” Cooper
asked.

“He’s in Max’s cellar
waiting for us to come back. He has some serious burns on his leg and arm. He sprained
his ankle and can’t walk on his own and needs a doctor,” I said.

“Well, I’ve got a first
aid kit somewhere in the barn along with a radio, if that’ll help. I’m sure
there are at least some Band-Aids in it for your hand, Adela.”

I glanced at the cloth
tied around the cut hand that I kept forgetting about.

“I’ve been sitting here
like a dead weight, feeling sorry for myself because I couldn’t do anything for
Lisa and Annie. Wasn’t sure what to do next.” Cooper squeezed his eyes shut and
pinched his lips tightly. He ran a hand through his thick dark hair and
gestured toward the wide double doors to the stable.

“Come on. I’m glad you
two came by. Let’s go find out how much damage this quake caused and if we’re
going to get any help soon.”

We walked to Cooper’s barn
and I was surprised to see a lone horse standing in the pasture on the other
side of the building.

Cooper tipped his head toward
the solitary animal. “That’s Old Willy. The other horses ran off when I opened
the gate but Willy, I think he’s too ornery to be bothered by the shaking and
rumbling. Have a seat on one of those hay stacks and make yourselves comfy.”

The inside of the barn
looked completely unharmed except for a toppled-over haystack scattered on the
ground. Cooper found the first aid kit and handed the metal box to me.

“Should be a booklet
inside to give you some advice on the burns or any other treatments you might
need.”

“Thanks.” I took the
box by the handle and set it down on the straw-covered ground beside me.

“Here’s the radio.”
Cooper pushed in the power button on an old battery-powered unit that sat on
top of a wide post, and static from the radio filled the air. He adjusted a few
of the buttons and fiddled with the two long antennas sticking out of the back
of the antique-looking metal contraption until we heard a male voice amongst
the static and listened to the announcer describe the devastation from the
quake.

“A megathrust quake,”
the guy said. “A multitude of epicenters occurred throughout California, one
triggering the next. The first one started on the San Andreas Fault line,
registering 9.1 on the Richter scale. Another in Northern California activated several
other faults, including the Bear Mountain fault, which ran right through Lotus.”

“That must be why the
earthquake went on for so long,” I muttered.

We listened to the
announcer tell how sand-blows occurred at Santa Barbara. Several rivers,
including the American, overflowed the flood plains, breaking two major dams
and flooding most of Granite Bay and Folsom, two major towns west of Pleasant
Ridge. There were reports of sunken trees and miles of buckled roads between
Stockton and Sacramento. Many major buildings toppled to the ground in Los Angeles,
San Francisco, and Sacramento. All the highways were closed until all the
infrastructures were tested for safety. So many bridges and overpasses had collapsed
and many roads had multiple rockslides, making them impassable.

“My dad,” I whispered.

“Your dad?” Cooper asked.

“My dad went to
Sacramento this morning. He has to be okay, right? They’re supposed to have all
those earthquake-safe buildings.”

“I’m sure he’s fine,”
Cooper said and glanced at Max, their faces showing the doubt my heart denied, but
I refused to accept the grim possibility of my father’s fate. My dad had to be
alive.

There had been reports
of multiple quakes as far north as Redding, south to San Diego, and east to Las
Vegas. The damage assessment was undetermined as authorities were having
difficulty communicating with many cities and towns and most of the rescue
teams were coming in from other areas. Almost the entire state of California
experienced tremors.

Several tsunamis as
high as thirty feet occurred along parts of the coast, wiping out cities as far
as ten miles inland. The damage from those had not yet been assessed.

“You kids better get
going back to Courtland. He’s going to need that kit and it’s going to get dark
and chilly soon. The temperature tonight is gonna drop below the norm because
of the quake.”

“Don’t you want to come
with us?” Max asked.

“No. I want to stay
here. I’m going to bury my wife and baby girl. Then I’ll take old Willy out,
scout around, look for other people. I wasn’t much use here saving my own but
maybe I can help somewhere else. Take this extra gallon of water with you. It’s
not much but might get you through another day before you’ll have to scout the
area for more. It’s gonna take some time for me to get to the pipes to get
more, providing the pump in the well survived. I’ll know more in a few days.
Wish I had more to offer but all the food is under dirt, along with the entire
kitchen. You’re gonna have to learn to hunt, Max.”

“Thanks, Cooper.”

“Max, take care. If you
need anything, I’ll be around here for a day or so before I take off.”

“Will do and if you
change your mind and want to come to the cellar, the offer still stands.”

The wind picked up and I
was glad we took Cooper’s advice and left when we did. Funny—Court had warned me
about the same thing. The sun was on its way down and there were enough clouds
in the sky to make a very dramatic sunset. The sun looked like a big ball and
the clouds, mingled with the dust and grime from the destruction, floated through
the bright orange. It was rather beautiful, but the thought of how it got that
way made my stomach turn.

We walked down the
hill. Max kept his promise and we stayed on the road away from the rattlesnake-infested
weedy areas.

“I wonder if Courtland
is okay.”

“He’s fine, I’m sure.
You seem to care about him a lot.”

“He never did anything
to me to make me dislike him. Why do you hate him so much?”

“Guy’s a jerk wad.
Always has been. He’s always looking at me with those accusing eyes of his,
like he can see right through me.”