ALLUSIVE AFTERSHOCK (8 page)

I glanced at the areas
on both sides of us. They were impossible to get around and impossible to jump
over. The quake caused a huge crevice extending indefinitely toward the west.
The crumbled buildings on each side were too high with too much broken glass. I
believed one of them used to be City Hall. The old brick structure’s huge glass
window that once wrapped completely around one corner lay scattered along with
the brick. I scanned the area as something caught my eye.

“Max, over there,” I yelled,
pointing toward a huge pile of rubble.

Max’s gaze followed my
finger. I wasn’t sure if he was irritated or confused by the way his forehead
crinkled. “What?”

“Those beams.”

“What would we …” Max
paused as his brain registered what I wanted to use the beams for, then he shook
his head. “No, Adela. No way in hell.”

“Yeah, we could
position them over the road here and walk across.”

He continued to shake
his head. “No! Too narrow.”

“Max, it’s our only
chance.”

Max looked at the group
of people waiting at the bottom of the pile of rubble. “Come on, Adela, let’s
get down. We’ll find another way.”

What the hell was Max’s
problem? He was acting so irrational.

“No way am I going to
walk across a thirty-foot drop on a twelve-inch steel beam. A person would have
to be insane to do that,” Max said as he glanced at the depth of the drop
again. He shivered as though the chill rose from his spine and settled at the
base of his skull. “There has to be another way.”

He helped me take my
first step down from the pile of debris when the asphalt under my foot shifted
and slipped out from under me. I screamed and Max grabbed my arm tighter to
steady me. The asphalt continued to shake as the aftershock got stronger. He
tugged me down with him to a crouching position. Losing our balance now would
be extremely detrimental to our bodies, not to mention our lives. We were too
close to the edge and neither one of us wanted to look down the other side.

“Don’t move or we’ll
fall over the ledge,” he said and I braced myself, praying the pile of concrete
under us didn’t collapse. A large oak tree snapped in half as the ground
beneath it split open, knocking some power lines to the ground. The thick trunk
crashed into the middle of the street inches from the man holding the little girl.
One of the ladies screamed as the power lines hissed and sizzled close to her
feet. Trying to avoid contact with the sparking wires, her arms flared out as
if she were struggling to keep her balance while walking a tightrope. The
little girl clung to the man, her arms around his neck and her face buried in
his jacket. The shaking seemed as powerful as the one earlier, but stopped
about fifteen seconds later and the rumbling subsided.

“Quick, give me your
hand. Let’s get down while we still can,” Max urged.

As we stepped onto
level ground, the man with little girl approached us. “How large is the gap?”

“About fifteen feet.
Way too large to get over,” Max said.

“There are a couple of
steel beams in a pile of debris we could use to get across,” I pointed to the
side of the rubble where the beams lay crisscrossed over each other.

Max glared at me
.
Why didn’t he want me to mention the beams?
They looked plenty wide enough
for someone to walk over. He ran his hand through his hair, turned to me and
shook his head, again. “No. I already told you, they aren’t big enough.”

“Max, they are. They’re
at least twelve inches wide.”

“Twelve inches is
nothing. They’d have to be ten times that for me to place one foot on them.”
Max seemed completely rattled and I thought I heard him mumble, “At least wide
enough so I wouldn’t be able to look down.” Then a little louder, he said,
“Even if they were, which they’re not, we could never lift them into position.”

“Well, we have to try.
We have enough people here. The fire is heading straight for us.”

“I think the girl is
right.” The man glanced back at the approaching flames and set the child down.
“Stay here, honey. Come on folks, we need your help. We’re gonna see if we can
get these beams across the opening and crawl across.”

Three large men
followed him across the street to the beams. An older short woman and a rather
skinny tall one stayed back with the little girl. Max and I walked with the men
and we all studied the beams for a minute.

“Any suggestions?” Max
asked, his voice dripping with grimness and I wanted to shake him out of his
obvious state of fear. What happened to the daredevil guy who I thought I knew
so well?

“If we pull them back,
and lay them up here,” I pointed to the edge of the drop, “maybe we can push
them until they are far enough to reach the other side.”

“That idea might work.
Name’s Roy, by the way,” said the man who had been holding the little girl.

“I’m Adela,” I gestured
toward Max, “and this is Max.”

“Howdy. Okay, you heard
the little lady. Everybody grab a spot and on ‘three’ we pull toward the
ledge.”

I took my place beside
the beam and Max said, “I got this, Adela. No need for you to help.”

“I can help, Max. It’s
gonna take all of us.” Why was he suddenly treating me like a weakling? We all
placed our hands under the beam and Roy shouted, “One, two, three!” I heard
several grunts from everyone except Max. His face didn’t even look strained.
Was he really not helping?

As we lifted, the heavy
steel rose from the ground and settled down in front of the ledge. We all let
go, and I rubbed my palms on my sweater to relieve the sting lifting the steel caused.
Max stood watching me.

I glanced at the fire
only a block away. Thick smoke saturated the air and visibility around us
became almost impossible. I looked back at Max. He gulped as he watched the
fire approach.

“Okay, when we do this
part, we’re going to need to push up as well as over. Everybody ready? On
three. One, two, three!” Roy shouted above the roar of the impending fire.

I pushed so hard I was
sure my face scrunched into a gazillion wrinkles. Max’s face turned red as he
shoved and I was relieved to know he was helping move those steel monsters. My
fingers burned from the pressure against the metal and the beam tilted up.

Someone yelled; Roy, I
think. “Keep it steady. Don’t let it slip. Steady, steady. Okay, slowly now,
down we go.”

Everybody let out a
sigh of relief when the beam touched down on the concrete on the other side.

“Okay, let’s get the
other one,” Roy shouted.

The older short woman
yelled up to us. “Isn’t one enough?”

“No!” Max shouted back.

“But the fire, it’s too
close, we don’t have time.”

“She’s right. Let’s go
with the one. Who wants to go first?” Roy asked.

“She should, it was her
idea,” the shorter woman said, pointing at me.

“Come on Max, let’s
go.”

“No.”

“Max? What’s wrong?” He
shook his head and took a couple of steps back away from everyone.

“Nothing. I think we
need both beams, that’s all.” He slumped away and sat on a piece of concrete on
the side of the road. I couldn’t believe my eyes. He was supposed to be the
tough one here, but he almost seemed like he was about to roll up into a ball
and whimper like a baby.

“You guys go on. We’ll
come in a minute.” I walked toward Max with the need for an explanation that he
didn’t look like he wanted to give.

I heard Roy behind me.
“Okay. Come on, baby.” I turned to watch him pick up the little girl and carry
her across the beam, one foot in front of the other like he’d been walking a
tightrope his whole life. The others followed.

I stood in front of
Max, hands on my hips. “Max, it’s our turn. Let’s go.”

“I can’t.” He propped
his elbows on his knees and sank his face into his trembling hands, while
shaking his head. I kicked his foot and he glared at me. I pressed my lips tightly
together, not sure what to say to him. He looked like a scared little girl.

“Move over,” I said and
he scooted to the left as I plopped down beside him. “Why not?” I coughed and
he glanced back at the flames inching our way. I’d always been in awe of Max.
He knew it and always enjoyed reveling in my admiration, up until this point,
at least. I always considered him some sort of hero who never backed down from
anything. Max was wimping out.

“The beam is too
narrow,” he said. “I can’t do it. I’m afraid of heights.”

I blinked and felt my
eyes grow huge as I gave him my best oh-come-on-you’ve-got-to-be-kidding
expression. “You’re afraid of heights?” I tried hard to hide the sound of
incredulous disappointment from my tone but he had to be joking.

He sat up and sighed,
keeping his eyes straight ahead as though embarrassed to look me in the eye. I
stared at him, waiting for an explanation.

“Remember when we were
kids and we ventured into the woods on a pretend camping trip?”

I frowned. “Sure, I
remember, but what does that have to do with this? There’s a fire about to
consume us and if we don’t …”

“It was the bridge,” he
interrupted quickly as though, if he didn’t get out what he wanted to say, he’d
chicken out.

“What?”

“The bridge. When we
came to the wooden bridge, remember the wooden bridge? It was only this wide?”
He extended his hands out about two feet apart in front of him. “You ran ahead
and left me on the other side. I stepped onto the bridge and got halfway across
when one of the boards broke loose under my foot and my leg slipped through. I
hung there calling for you, but you were too far ahead. I thought I would fall
into the creek below and die. I finally managed to pull myself up and crawled
on my hands and knees the rest of the way across. I had nightmares for months,
actually years. I’ve been afraid of heights ever since.”

“That’s why you
insisted we head home the long way that day. Why didn’t you tell me?”

“Because, I thought you
would have laughed and called me a sissy or something worse. After that?” He
shrugged. “There was never any need to mention it afterwards, until now.”

He peeked at me and I
nodded, understanding. “I guess I’m not the strong and confident hero guy you
thought I was.”

“I wouldn’t have made
fun of you,” I said, unable to hide the hurt in my voice. It crushed me to know
he hadn’t trusted me enough to tell me.

“I’m sorry, Adela. I
never wanted to hurt you. You’ve been my lifeline. I just couldn’t bring myself
to admit my fear.”

“I wish I’d known,” I
said softly. Then suddenly, almost like a firecracker had lit from within me,
fueling me with emotion, I was on my feet in front of him and in his face. “Max,
this beam isn’t wood. It won’t break, I promise. You can do this. Look,
everyone else made it across. Please, Max. If we don’t go, we’ll end up like
roasted ducks here. You have to try or you’ll burn to death. Just follow
me—we’ll go slowly.”

He looked up at the
flames barely twenty feet away. We were surrounded by fire, soaring toward us
on both sides of the street, consuming everything in its path. Windows burst,
creating sounds of explosions and shattering glass. Roofs rumbled as they
collapsed and sparks flew in all directions. He knew I was right.

“I’ve always heard that
death by burning is one of the most God-awful ways to go. I suppose it would be
better to die instantly, plummeting thirty feet or so to my death. Maybe I
wouldn’t die; maybe I would just break something, or several things.”

“Come on, Max.” I
tugged at his arm.

“Okay. Okay. You’re
right. We die here for sure or maybe die there. Let’s go before I change my
mind.”

I didn’t know what I
would have done if Max hadn’t given in. I couldn’t have left him; I’d even
thought of having one of the guys come back and knock him out so they could
carry him across the steel plank. What Max revealed hurt—not his fear, but the
idea that he thought so little of me that he actually believed I would laugh at
him. I guess he didn’t know me as well as I’d assumed. We walked to the beam
and I was glad to see that one of the men, I think his name was John, had
stayed back to wait for us. I managed to smile at him. “Thanks for waiting.”

“No problem. Couldn’t
leave you kids over here.” He nodded at Max. “I was thinking maybe I’d have to
knock you out and carry you across, son. Glad you decided to do this on your
own. Go on now. I’ll be right behind you.”

Obviously, I wasn’t the
only one with that thought. Everyone else stood on the other side, waiting
patiently. The group consisted of nice, caring people and a warm feeling ran
though me as we stood looking at them across the way. “Um … I’ll go first, take
my hand.” I held Max’s hand in mine and stepped onto the beam. He followed
behind me. “Don’t look down. Keep your eyes on my back. Don’t look at your
feet.”

“How will I know where
I’m stepping?”

“We’ll go slowly; feel
your way with your feet. Keep your eyes focused on my back. You have my hand.”
If
you fall, I fall. So please don’t fall.

I took a few steps onto
the beam and I felt Max stagger a little behind me. I stopped. “Steady, Max.
You can do this. Just focus on my back,” I coaxed, sounding similar to the way
I talked to Aaron and Ambie when they got frustrated trying something new.

All of a sudden Max let
go of my hand. “Max, what are you doing?” I turned to see him crouched down on his
knees, looking down at the bottom of the chasm.

“Go on, Adela. I’m
fine. Just keep moving. I’ll do it this way.”

“Okay,” I said. I
didn’t want to leave him there, but I didn’t want to stay there arguing, so I finished
walking across. When I got to the end, I saw Max and the guy behind him stopped
in the middle of the crossing. The man was saying something to Max that I
couldn’t hear and then I saw Max nod. He slowly stood up. He looked at me and I
kept my eyes on his as he took shaky steps across to me. When he took his last
step off the beam in front of me, everybody cheered. Max took a deep breath,
his face turned bright red, and he smiled.