ALLUSIVE AFTERSHOCK (6 page)

“Right. Now if you all
…” Mr. Montgomery’s voice continued but I’d had enough talk about earthquakes
and figured I was pretty safe from being called on again, so I tuned him out and
thought of Big Blue. Over the past week, I’d walked him around the yard twice a
day and spent almost every free moment brushing him and talking softly into his
ear, but I hadn’t tried to ride him since the day of the earthquake.
Considering the way Blue acted the last time, waiting to make sure he was one
hundred percent ready seemed like a good plan. The fewer encounters with Court,
the better. I didn’t want Courtland intervening at all, so whenever I went to
Blue’s stall I only paid attention to my horse, brushing his mane, feeding him
apples and carrots while he let me rub my cheek against his face and trace his
star with my finger.

Mr. Montgomery raised
his voice a bit luring me back to the present. “Okay, listen up. I’m going to
take roll now. Because of the earthquake, Mrs. Stock wants the attendance early
today.” After Mr. Montgomery called everyone’s name and marked the absences, he
scanned the room, searching for the lucky person who would get to leave and
carry the sacred notebook to the administration office. “Court, you mind
running this down to the office?”

Max mumbled, “Dr.
Doolittle to the rescue.”

A couple of girls to
his right giggled, but Chelsea Arden huffed out a show of disgust. Her parents
owned the largest winery within five miles of Wendell’s, the one owned by Max’s
parents. Not only was she the prettiest and most popular girl in school, but
Max actually liked her for a while. He even hooked up with her once, but when
he realized how shallow she really was, he dumped her. At least that’s what he
told me. They never even spoke anymore. I was certain her ego suffered a
little, being dumped by the cutest boy in school. She’d managed to stay popular
with most of the girls though, and four of them had this little clique thing going.
They ate together, hung out during gym together, and walked together down the
halls. I very rarely ever saw one without the other three.

I shook my head at the
vision of the girls walking arm-in-arm. No one could join in their stupid group
without Chelsea’s approval. Pathetic, if you asked me
.
The whole clique
thing was so lame and junior highish. If there was anyone able to grate on my
nerves, it had to be Chelsea Arden.

As Courtland stood, the
legs of his chair scraped along the floor and the back of his knees pushed it out
of the way of his tall frame. His dark green hoodie hung loose and unzipped,
his jeans sat low on his waist. His hair was slicked back away from his face,
different from the normal way it usually fell over his forehead, giving him the
appearance of an ancient Native American warrior. If I wasn’t already in love
with Max and Court hadn’t been so mean to me the other day, I might actually
think he was hot, the way he walked up to get the book without saying a word, his
gait easy but cautious as he sauntered past Max’s desk. One never knew what Max
might do and Courtland had been the brunt of his antics more than once.

“Stop by the library on
your way back and pick up a couple of the books they have on earthquake
preparedness. There should be a good selection on the subject. Ask Mrs. Snow to
help you; she’ll steer you in the right direction.”

Courtland strolled out
of the room while Mr. Montgomery continued his talk about earthquakes.

Sometimes I felt sorry
for Courtland, the way some of the kids made fun of his keen intuition with
animals. This morning, I was still too mad at him to care much about that,
though. My mind wandered back to Big Blue. I really wanted to ride him—maybe
today would be a good time to do it. If Max rode with me, Courtland might stay
clear. I scribbled a quick note in my binder, ripped the page out, folded it
into a little square and handed it to Max while Mr. Montgomery wrote something
on the board. He read it and folded it back up before sticking it under his
history book. After flashing a smile at me, he nodded.

I sat doodling on the
paper in front of me, making little swirling designs I thought might look good
on a book cover, half listening to Mr. Montgomery when I felt a brush of
material glide over my arm. I looked up to see Courtland as he strolled past me,
back from his trip to the office.

 All of a sudden, my
desk jolted then scooted forward a little and the hanging mobiles swayed from
the ceiling. Mr. Montgomery shouted, “Take cover, get under your desks!”

I slipped off my chair
and crouched down as my desk skidded away from me. I reached to grab the desk
leg, but it went too far toward the wall and toppled over. I searched around for
some place to hide as the roar reverberated through my ears. My body froze, not
sure where to go or what to do as several of the other desks slid toward the
wall and tumbled onto their sides.

Someone grabbed my arm,
yanking me toward the wall. Stunned at what was happening I turned to see who
had my arm and realized it was Courtland. He shoved away one of the desks,
which had tumbled over on its side, shouted, “Get down!” and pushed me to the
floor between the desk and the wall. I grunted as his body fell on top of me.

A multitude of screams
filled the air. The rumbling sounds were worse than during the earthquake last
week. I couldn’t move or breathe very well with Court’s weight on me. Somehow,
he must have sensed that, because he shifted his body a little between me and
the desk as my left side and arm smashed against the wall.

“Adela, cover your
face!” Court’s voice cracked in my ear as I heard a huge crash rumble around us.
I hid my face in the crook of my elbow and prayed the raging noise stopped soon.

The floor rolled and shook
under me, feeling similar to lying on top of a plastic raft in the middle of a
bubbling ocean swaying up and down in a continuous wavy motion, but without the
fun.

Fear raced through
every bone in my body and I thought of my sister. Ambrosia was going to be so terrified!
I only hoped Aaron took her hand and helped her the way I told her he would,
the way Court helped me.

I didn’t know how long we
crouched down beside the desk as the world crashed to smithereens around us. It
felt like nothing short of an eternity and I wondered what happened to Max.

All of a sudden the
roaring, the rumbling and the shaking stopped as if somebody pushed a button on
a ride at the amusement park, leaving only muffled sounds of cries and
whimpering around the room. Court didn’t move off me but he shifted and I
figured he lifted his head to look around.

“Are you okay?” Courtland
asked.

“I think so. I’ll be
able to tell better once you get off of me.”

“Sorry. I didn’t mean
to squash you.” He moved off me, sat back on his knees with his legs straddling
mine and pulled me up to sit. I inhaled and my lungs filled with dust from all
the drywall particles floating around in the air. I coughed and blinked at the horrible
sight; I could actually see specks of dust settling around us as I struggled to
breathe.

“Don’t breathe in too
deeply.” Court took hold of my sweater and yanked the sleeves down my arms.

“Hey, what are you …?”

When the sweater was
off, he bunched it up and handed it to me. “Here, hold this over your nose and
mouth for a few minutes until the air clears.” He did the same with his own
jacket. We stayed huddled and crouched together for a few minutes. I looked up
but couldn’t see anything except Court’s wide green eyes. I thought I saw fear
behind them and a shiver crawled up my spine. We stared at each other. There was
nothing else visible to us and no room to stand, our view and way out blocked
by an eight-foot slab of … something hanging down and laying propped against
the edge of the desks we were crouched behind. My lips trembled under my
sweater, but then my whole body shook with fear.

Court turned his head
to the area behind him. “This way.” He crouched on his knees and crawled to the
end of the slab. I followed, my eyes stinging from the dust-polluted air and
the tears threatening to let loose from the realization of what just happened.
I couldn’t help but wonder again where Max was. Court stood, took my arm and
helped me up.

My breath caught in my
throat as I took in the scene around us.

I glanced up expecting
to see dangling mobiles swaying from the ceiling, only to see blue sky through
clouds of gray dust. There was nothing for the mobiles to hang from anymore.
The entire roof collapsed, leaving brown and gray grit shrouding everything.
Pieces of the ceiling lay over most of my classmates, arms, fingers, and legs
peeking out from some of the debris. Guilt swamped me as I recognized a blue
sweater worn by one of the girls I’d considered a “Max groupie” sticking out
from under a pile of concrete The arm in the sweater seemed lifeless and the
girl attached to it was probably dead. Court could just as easily have picked her
or anyone of the others to save, but he saved me. In my stunned state,
something clicked in my brain and I went to the girl who wore the blue sweater.
I placed my fingers on the inside of her wrist, hoping to find some sign of
life. I’d never felt for someone’s pulse before, but I knew the instant I
touched her that she wouldn’t have one.

“Mr. Montgomery?” Court
shouted, but Mr. Montgomery didn’t answer.

On the other side of
the room Max stood up, shaking his head and I breathed in a huge sigh of relief
to see him. Several other students got up and they all tiptoed around and over
pieces of drywall, books, backpacks, and bodies. Everyone’s eyes stayed glued
to the floor, searching for movement from others who might have survived.

Max made his way over
and grabbed my hand as Court stepped a few feet away, searching and moving
debris off someone. Max’s grip on my hand was tight, suddenly very possessive,
and he held on as we searched the room. I didn’t think I’d be able to move if
he let go ... maybe he knew that. I followed him around the room as if attached
to his hip, afraid to move without him. There were so many dead students and
most of the ones that lived were bloody and crying.

I checked myself and
glanced at Court. We weren’t hurt at all. Max had a small cut on his forehead
but nothing that wouldn’t heal quickly. “Let’s go outside. Maybe we can help
out there,” Max said, pulling me out of my stunned state.

I looked up at what
used to be the ceiling, and seeing a small patch of clouds in an otherwise
totally blue sky, wanting to say we were already outside. I glanced over at
Courtland, who continued searching the room. I wanted to thank him, but Max
tugged and before I knew it, my feet followed Max as he guided me away from the
crumbled classroom.

Most of the exterior
walls of the school had collapsed, leaving the roof crumbled in piles or
leaning at a slant against other debris. Loose brick, shattered glass, and
broken window frames lay scattered around the asphalt.

Like several other
kids, we walked around outside like zombies, not really knowing which way to go
or what to do. Several minutes later, a shriek came from some place near where the
cafeteria was supposed to be and Max let go of my hand, jogging toward the
scream. I froze, taking in the devastation around me. Visions of bombed cities
in Iraq and the crumbled countries of Haiti and Japan after the destruction
from their earthquakes entered my mind. I remembered thinking how horrible it
must have been for those people, and I imagined myself along with the entire
world watching
my
town on the news. The idea seemed so surreal; this
couldn’t have actually happened here.

After standing around
alone and half dazed for what seemed like an eternity, my heart skipped a beat
or two as huge flames billowed from the area where Max had just gone and I
found it impossible to make my legs move. A crouched figure to my right caught
my eye and I stared motionless as Courtland Reese clutched Shiloh to his chest,
his head buried against her fur, gently rocking her back and forth. I couldn’t
tell if the dog was dead or not. For Court’s sake, I hoped she was only injured.
Shiloh had waited outside in the same spot for him every day since I could remember.
Stroking her fur, he looked up at me. Dirt filled-tears streaked down his
cheeks as we held each other’s gaze.

A jerk on my arm jolted
my attention and drew me away.

“Come on, Adela. I
nearly got my ass toasted over there when something in the cafeteria exploded. We
need to get out of here and go home.” Max tugged, clutching my arm tightly in
his hand, pulling me along with him, his grip so tight I couldn’t break loose.
I wasn’t sure I wanted to go with him and leave Courtland there, but I didn’t
seem to have much control over my own legs or the ability to tell Max to wait. I
ran but my eyes remain fixed on Courtland until I could no longer make out his
face.

As I stumbled out of
the collapsed building, I stood outside looking for Adela to make sure she was
safe. That damned Max tugged her away while I’d been preoccupied searching for
survivors. Typical. Just like the freakin’ fourth grade.

At almost the same time
I spotted Adela standing in the middle of the courtyard, my eyes settled on dark
fur. Shiloh’s black-brown body lay on its side surrounded by shattered glass. A
large shard of glass stuck deep in her neck and blood pooled around her as I
rushed to her side. She didn’t move, but stared at me with glassy eyes.

“Ahhh, Shiloh. I’m so
sorry. You’re gonna be okay, girl, hang in there.”

I stroked her head and
then pulled the glass from her neck. I tore off my sweatshirt, pressing it on
the wound to stop the flow of blood. Her chest heaved up and down for a few
seconds and then stopped. I was too late. Shiloh was gone. I hugged her limp
body to my chest, crushing my face in her fur, and wept, rocking her body with
mine. Oblivious to all the shouts and screams around me, I held her, breathing
in her scent. I wanted to yell, “Why my dog? Why take my dog?” I stopped
rocking when I sensed the sympathetic presence close by and looked up. Adela
stood no more than ten feet away; our eyes locked.