Paperquake (27 page)

And then there was silence and in the silence she opened her eyes and looked up to see a girl a few years older, a girl with russet hair pulled back into a neat bun at the nape of her neck, standing right in front of her. The girl was wearing a long dark skirt and a white blouse with a high collar, and she was holding out her hand to Violet. Although the girl appeared to be part of the little group out in the backyard, Violet knew with a shiver that she was not really part of anything anymore.

"Laela?" whispered Violet. "Or are you Verity?"

But even as she spoke, the girl faded away and all that was left was the silence in the backyard and the huddle of her family and friends around her.

"It's over," came Rose's tremulous voice.

"Careful, everybody," warned Greg, "there may be aftershocks."

No one moved. They waited, frozen, but nothing happened. After another moment, Lily gave a little laugh and hugged whichever girls she could get her hands on. "Everybody okay? Are you girls okay? And you, Sam?"

"I'm okay," said Sam weakly.

"Did you see her?" asked Violet, but her voice came out a whisper. "Did you see Laela?"

"That must have been the 'big one,'" murmured Jasmine. "It
must
have been. There couldn't be anything bigger than that."

"I thought it was the end of the world," said Beth, pushing her hair from her eyes. She looked around at everyone and managed a smile. "I really thought it was the end."

"What about you, Baby?" Greg knelt next to Violet. "We came out because Rosy told us you'd feinted. What happened? Are you okay now?"

Then suddenly everyone was looking down at Violet where she sat on the hard concrete. She was staring up at the sky, where the glint of an airplane shone silver through the clouds.
The people up there missed it,
she thought aimlessly.
They don't even know
... Then she blinked and saw her family and the wonder in their eyes.

"Did you see Laela?" she asked. "I did."

They weren't listening to her. They were just marveling over her.

"It was just as you said, VI!" exclaimed Jasmine. "An earthquake at noon."

"We have a prophet amongst us!" Rose exclaimed dramatically.

"But really," marveled Greg, "it's the most amazing coincidence."

In the distance, sirens started wailing. Violet wondered if the Golden Gate Bridge Was still standing.

"But of course you couldn't really have known," Lily said anxiously, helping Violet to her feet. Lily's eyes were wide with fear. "Right, sweetheart? It was just a guess, wasn't it?"

Obediently, Violet nodded.

They brushed themselves off and walked tentatively up the back steps into the Chance Street shop. "Oh no," moaned Jasmine as she stepped inside.

"All that cleaning!" wailed Rose. "All for nothing!"

The house was a shambles. Plaster dust had sifted down over everything. The clean floors and windows now looked as dusty as if they had been untended for a decade.

"But at least the walls are standing," Greg said with satisfaction. "This is a well-made building."

"And fortunately we don't have much in the way of furnishings in here," said Lily. "You're right, dear. It could be a lot worse. But what about our things at home?"

"I'd better get home and see if everything's all right at
my
house," said Sam. He picked his way through the fallen plaster and turned back by the front door. "Um, thanks for everything. The Halloween Ball and the sleep-over and everything. I'll come back to help you clean up here once I see what's happening at home."

"Let us know if there's anything we can do for your family," Lily said. And when Sam had left she added, "What a nice, polite boy you've found, Vi."

Violet stood at the window. She could see Sam's house still standing across the street. In fact, all the houses on Chance Street seemed to be unharmed except for the scattered bricks from fallen chimneys and some broken window glass. People were rushing out into the streets now, checking on neighbors, calling dogs and cats home.

Greg walked to the wall in the front room and pressed the light switch. Nothing. "Electricity is out," he said. He picked up the telephone. "There's a dial tone. Beth, you'd better try to reach your mom. She'll be worried about you. I'll go turn off the gas before we all explode." He strode away.

"I'd better cancel the sign for the shop," said Lily slowly. "No sense hanging it today, when we won't be opening on time."

"The radio still works," called Rose from the back room. "It's on batteries. Let's listen for the news." She came into the room carrying the portable radio.

"
Whoa,
folks!" the disc jockey was exclaiming. "That one sure shook things up, didn't it? Just hang on to your hats for another minute and we'll be bringing you a news update. We're lucky we still have power!" His voice was lighthearted, carefree, but Violet detected a giddy tone. She felt near to hysteria herself but forced herself to listen to the newscaster who came on next. Her sisters and Beth crowded close to listen.

"Today's quake hit at 12:02
P.M
.," began the newscaster in an appropriately grave voice. "The epicenter has been determined to be on a recently discovered branch of the San Andreas fault, three to four miles out in the ocean off the coast of San Francisco. Seismologists are still trying to calculate an exact reading on the Richter scale, but early reports say it was at least a 7.3. The water turbulence generated by the quake is severe, and there is currendy someconcernabout tidal waves. Communities along the coast as far north as Mendocino and as far south as Carmel are being evacuated. We're getting updates right now—" He broke off, then continued excitedly.

"There is a lire at Fisherman's Wharf, and the area is currendy being evacuated. Word has just come in that several blocks in downtown Oakland will also have to be evacuated due to the danger of explosions. And wait—what's this? A report just now that police and firefighters are on the scene at the Golden Gate Bridge, where a cable has fallen across the deck, causing a collapse to part of the road! Let's see if we can transfer over to Jenna Fisher, reporting live from our helicopter."

Crackling, then a woman's voice came scratchily over the airwaves. "Yes, Dave, there's a lot going on on the Golden Gate Bridge just now. But despite the usually high volume of traffic over the bridge, there are no reports of injuries at this time owing to the bridge's having been closed shortly before the quake. In what police are terming an 'amazing stroke of good fortune,' a bomb threat was called in this morning, forcing immediate closure of the bridge."

"Thank you, Jenna," the newscaster said. "And now let's link up with Police Chief Darren Parker at the Golden Gate Bridge. Chief Parker? Can you tell us about this bomb threat?"

Violet, her eyes downcast, fists shoved deep into the pockets of her jeans, listened as the deep, harassed-sounding voice of the police chief came on the air. "We received a 911 call this morning from what sounded like a young girl. The call was made from a pay phone in Berkeley, but we have found no traces of the caller. She stated that she'd overheard her brother talking about planting a bomb to go off on the bridge today at noon, and begged us to close the bridge. She sounded quite upset, and in any case we must treat all such threats as potentially genuine. There was something about her tone ... So the bridge was closed immediately and traffic re-routed. It's just amazing that the bridge cable should break in the earthquake and come crashing down like this with the bridge totally empty of cars. If there had been traffic crossing as usual, we might be looking at hundreds of fatalities!"

"And what about the bomb?" asked the newscaster. "Did it go off?"

"No sign of any bomb," replied the chief. "We have our bomb crew still checking, but there's nothing so far."

"Thank you, Chief Parker," said the newscaster. "And now, to recap: The earthquake measured 7.3 on the Richter scale and hit at 12:02. Reports are still coming in about the massive damage to the coastal town of Bolinas..."

"Vi was right all along," Jasmine said in a voice tinged with awe. "I can't believe it. She was right about the earthquake
and
about the bridge!"

"We might have been driving on the bridge when the cable fell, who knows?" said Beth. "If Vi hadn't made us take the ferry instead—"

Rose rfemained silent, her arms wrapped tightly around herself as if for warmth or comfort.

"Wasn't it lucky about that bomb threat?" trilled Lily, her voice unnaturally high. "So no one was on the bridge at all—amazing! I just don't know what to think!"

"Things like this make me
sure
there's a God," said Greg solemnly. "Perfect timing."

"Violet walked to the front door and let herself out onto the front steps. Her heart was racing. The bridge had not fallen just as it had in the dreams, but when had anything come true
exactly
as it was foretold in the letters? It was enough that the quake had occurred almost exactly when the dreams predicted. It was enough that the bridge cable had fallen.
Not
my
death at all.
Hundreds of people might have been killed, but were not. She sank down on the step, hugging her knees.
That's what all this was about,
she thought triumphandy.

Sam came running across the street. "Hey, did you hear the news—about the bridge?"

She nodded, grinning, her heart too full to speak.

"Vi—?" He sat down next to her and put his hand on her knee. "Did you do it?"

She couldn't look at him. "Do what?"

"You know. They said on TV it was a girl's voice, calling from Berkeley. Was it you?"

"
Was
it?" echoed Jasmine's voice. She was at the door with Rose and Beth behind her.

"She wouldn't dare," sniffed Rose, coming out onto the steps. "Not in a million years."

"Oh yes, she would," Beth defended her friend. "She's braver than you think!"

"No shrinking violet, not
our
Baby," said Rose. "I still don't believe she had anything to do with it."

"But you'll never know for sure, will you?" said Violet coolly. She stood up and brushed her hands together in a businesslike gesture. "Well, I guess we've got some more cleaning up to do." She left the others still sitting on the steps and went to find her parents. But despite her offhand tone, she was smiling inside. She had done it! She and Laela and Verity.

Violet followed the sound of the radio newscaster's voice and found Lily and Greg upstairs in the front bedroom. "It's not too bad in here," Lily was saying as she swept mounds of fallen plaster into a black garbage bag. "If I could get the vacuum cleaner up here—"

"Don't worry," Greg said. "The electricity will be back on eventually. But I think we ought to leave this mess now and get home. There could be a gas leak—or broken water pipes. Some of the roads are blocked, and the BART is closed for a safety check. So are all the bridges. The radio says the ferries are still running so far, but they're going to be crowded." He saw Violet at the bedroom door. "Please go down and tell the other girls that we're leaving in five minutes."

"Sure." Violet started back for the stairs, then stopped as the floor shook under her feet and she heard a crash from the back bedroom. She braced herself for the vision, the terror—but they didn't come.

Then she ran down the hall with her parents close behind. "Watch out!" she called out, stopping abruptly in the doorway.

The earthquake had weakened the already loose plaster and it had rained down during the quake to cover the room, like snow. But the aftershock had cracked the exposed wooden beam and it now dipped dangerously. The crash they'd heard was the light fixture falling off the wall at the crack. It lay shattered on the floor amidst the plaster dust.

"I guess we can't open this place until I have a structural engineer out to check it for safety," Greg said with a weary sigh. "We can't very well have the roof coming down on the heads of our customers."

Lily's shoulders drooped dejectedly. "So much trouble," she said.

"Well, this is what's known as one of those Acts of God on insurance forms," said Greg. "But at least we're all safe. That's the main thing. Nothing we can do but clean up and keep going." He put his hand on Violet's shoulder. "Come on, sweetheart. There may be more aftershocks."

But Violet walked into the room despite the protests of both parents. She had seen something and couldn't leave without investigating. It was over by the window, by the cracked wooden beam. Something dark green beneath the white dust. Something familiar. She reached out and tugged—and out of the wall slid another of Albert Stowe's ledgers.

"Now why should that be tucked inside the wall?" asked Lily in surprise. She reached for it, but Violet held it close against her chest.

"I found it," she said softly. "I get to look first."

"Well, look by all means," said Greg. "But bring it with you. We've got to get home." He started down the hall."
If
we can get home at all."

Violet rifled through the book. "It's just another ledger," she told her mother. But her heart was pounding.

"How odd!" cried Lily, reaching for it again. This time Violet handed it over. "How boring!" she cried, opening the first page and seeing a list of expenditures made by Albert Stowe, Milliner, in 1903. "As a girl I always dreamed of finding someone's old diary or some romantic love letters or something hidden away. But this looks just like the other ledgers you found in that suitcase. Too bad."

"Yeah," agreed Violet, taking it back. Although the label declared the book belonged to Albert Stowe in 1903, she had recognized the writing on the pages in the back.

"Oh, well, bring it along home," said Lily. "It might be interesting anyway. After all, someone took the trouble to hide it, didn't they? I wonder why?" She headed down the stairs. "I bet there's a story there, somewhere."

Violet wondered, as she followed her mother down the stairs, whether she might hold the end to the story right here, right now, in her hands.