Paperquake (26 page)

"How do you know this?" asked the voice on the other end of the line.

Violet thought quickly. "Um—my brother! Yes, I overheard something about a bomb—my brother and his friends set it. They're going to try to blow up the whole bridge. At noon today, that's the important thing. You need to get the police to close the bridge before noon. Get everyone off before it starts—I mean, before it blows up!" Abruptly, before the voice could ask anything else, she slammed down the receiver. She was shaking, and her heart was pounding so loud she was sure the people coming out of the little grocery store could hear it.

Quickly she turned away from the phone booth and pelted back through the yards to North Street. She collapsed on the back steps of her house, panting.

The door opened and Lily peered down at her. "Violet! We were looking everywhere for you! You said you were going up to the bathroom. What in the world are you doing outside?"

"I—um—I thought, um, I thought I'd left some of my schoolbooks out here." The lie brought a flush to her cheeks.

"Maybe you do have a fever. Come inside and let me check. I'm sure it wasn't good for you to stay up so late last night."

"That's right," Violet agreed readily. "Probably I'm too sick to go anywhere today—and you should all stay home to take care of me."

Lily looked at her searchingly. "I'm getting very worried about you." But when they went in to the kitchen and Lily pressed the plastic temperature strip to Violet's forehead, there was no fever.

Rose and Jasmine appeared in the doorway. "Oh,
there
she is," said Rose.

"Are you okay?" asked Jasmine.

"She's fine," replied Lily.

"Good, so can we go now?" Rose asked impatiently. "Everybody's waiting."

Greg, Sam, and Beth were sitting in the van. Sam had made himself comfortable during the long wait with his feet propped on his backpack. "The ferry leaves in twenty minutes," Greg said with a frown. "We'll have to hurry if we're going to make it now."

Violet looked at her watch. 10:35. By the time they caught the ferry and got to San Francisco, it would be nearly 11:30. Then they needed to take the cable car—they would arrive just before noon. At least she hoped they'd be there by noon. She didn't want to be on a cable car going up a steep hill at noon.

"Wait a sec," she said as they all piled into the Jackstones' van. "I need to go back inside." Her father sighed dramatically but handed her the key, and she ran back into the house. She emerged a moment later carrying the family's first-aid kit from the bathroom cupboard. "We may need this," she said, climbing into the van.

Rose rolled her eyes. But Violet settled herself on the seat next to her, buckling the seat belt resolutely. She had done what she could. There was nothing else to do.

Whatever happened next, at least she would know she had tried.

 

The ferry ride seemed to last forever. Violet stood at the bow and stared down at the choppy waves. Planes flew overhead, slivers of silver among the clouds, heading east. The brisk, salt-scented wind whipped Violet's hair into a tangle. Her sisters were wearing neat braids—but she had been so caught up in her worries that matching her sisters was the last thing on her mind. Her parents, sisters, and Beth stood nearby, munching sandwiches and grapes.

Sam came up behind her. "Are you okay, Vi?" he asked. "Aren't you hungry?"

"No, I'm nervous," she said stiffly. "But at least we're not driving over the Golden Gate Bridge."

"I guess I feel nervous, too," he confided, "whenever I let myself think about earthquakes. But I try not to—"

"That's not good enough," she said curdy. "Not today, anyway. If Laela's dream and my dream are right, then there's going to be another earthquake at noon, and the Golden Gate Bridge is going to fall." She checked her watch. "In about half an hour."

"You're pretty sure about this, aren't you?" he asked.

"It makes about as much sense as everything else that's been happening," Violet replied. "But I hope I'm wrong. I hope nothing happens at all."

"I wish I believed it would help to go to the bridge and report the quake to the people at the toll plaza so they could stop the cars from going across," Sam said. "But they'd never believe me in a million years."

"I know," said Violet. She had to bite the insides of her mouth to keep from blurting out that she'd already reported something more compelling. No one must know what she had done. She peered across the water to the bridge, hazy in the distance. Were the police evacuating the bridge now because of the anonymous bomb threat? She couldn't tell.

The ferry ride ended and Violet's family and friends started walking for the cable car. She saw a policeman driving by in a patrol car and felt her cheeks grow warm. What was he doing up here when he should be over at the Golden Gate Bridge, shutting it off to travelers? Was he out looking for mad bombers? Or for crazy girls who called in fake bomb threats? Violet checked her watch again.

They hopped on a cable car at the terminus. As they traveled along, Violet stared out at the streets, trying to picture how they had looked back in 1906 after the earthquake and fire. Picturing the past was hard, but it was all too easy to picture how the city would look if an earthquake hit now. She tried to push out of her mind the images of houses jolted off their foundations, piles of rubble in the streets, and homeless, injured people everywhere.

Finally they arrived. Chance Street shimmered in the autumn sunshine. Dry brown leaves skittered along in the gutter, driven by the brisk wind. To Violet, the street seemed unusually noisy. Birds were everywhere, chirping from the trees and telephone wires. There were a lot of dogs barking from behind fences and inside houses.
Funny.
She'd never noticed all this noise on Chance Street before. Could it be true what she'd heard on the news about animals becoming agitated just before a quake?

"I'll just drop my stuff off at home," Sam was saying. "Then I'll come over."

"Thank you, dear," said Lily, smiling at him approvingly. Jasmine and Rose nudged Violet behind their mother's back grinning.

Inside the shop, Lily and Greg started assigning chores. "Jazzy and Rosy, you two girls can lay shelf paper on the shelves over here. Beth, dear, would you please sweep once more—making sure to get in those corners? Baby—"

"I'll sweep the courtyard," Violet said hastily. She didn't want to stay in the old shop. It had survived the 1906 quake, true, but its old walls seemed none too safe to her now.

"Fine. I'll send Sam to help you when he comes back." Lily switched on the portable radio they'd brought from home. Rock music blared as Violet escaped out the back door.

She swept dead leaves off the pavement slabs and imagined how the garden might have looked before old Miss Stowe had covered it over with concrete, back in the days when Laela worked here, when Verity lay in bed in the room overlooking the garden, when Hal planned to elope with her. There would have been beds of flowers and bushes along the back, probably, and the stone birdbath over there—and the bench there by the wall. She could practically smell how fresh and lovely it once was, how small and cozy and inviting, the perfect place to sit with tea and needlework. She was standing there leaning on her broom and musing that here was another place where layers of time cracked, letting bits of the past filter through, when the screen door burst open and Rose stood in the doorway.

"Vi!" she said, and her voice sounded strange.

"What?"

"You'll never believe what we just heard on the radio! The Golden Gate Bridge has been closed. There was a bomb threat, and the police have stopped all traffic!"

Violet glanced at her watch. It was 11:53. Seven minutes till noon.

"That's good," she said calmly. "Did the report say how long they'll keep it closed?"

Sam and Jasmine appeared at the door behind Rose. "Ap-parendy the bomb is supposed to go off at noon," Sam said. "So the bridge will be closed at least till then. The bomb squad has been called out."

"Oh no." Violet hadn't expected that. "They shouldn't let
anyone
on the bridge—"

"Baby," said Rose, narrowing her eyes. "What do you know about this?"

"How many times do I have to tell you not to call me Baby?"

"Don't change the subject,
Violet Emily Jackstonel
What do you know about this?"

"Me?" Violet widened her eyes. "How could I know anything about
bombs!
I just hope that no one is on the bridge when it goes off, that's all."

"Hmm " said Jasmine, pushing past the others to come outside to the yard. "If I didn't know you so well, Vi, I'd wonder if you had done something..."

"Done what? Planted a bomb on the bridge?" Violet tried to make her voice sound outraged, but it came out as a little squeak. "Where would I get a bomb?" She looked at her watch again. 11:55. Five minutes till noon.

"Come on out here, you guys.
Fast!
"

"What for?" asked Rose, not moving.

"It's almost noon!" She wasn't sure the courtyard would be any safer than the house, but at least the walls wouldn't be able to collapse on them outside.

"Even if there is a bomb on the bridge," said Rose scornfully, "it won't reach us here."

"But you're not really worried about the bomb," Sam said slowly. "Are you?"

"You still think there's going to be an earthquake, don't you?" Jasmine jumped off the stoop. "Okay, come on, Rosy. It can't hurt to humor her about this."

"No, I suppose not," Rose agreed. "But what about Mom and Dad? And Beth?"

"We have to get them, too," said Violet urgently now, glancing at the time. "The house is too rickety to be safe. Out here we have a chance. Tell them—"

"Want to do another faint?" asked Rose. "Like in the museum?"

"No—just say I need to show them something.
All
of them!"

Rose vanished back inside. Violet reached out and grabbed Jasmine and Sam by the hands. "Come over here," she said, pulling them to the far corner of the yard. "Away from the buildings. Most people in quakes are killed by falling roof tile and stuff, right?"

Rose and Beth came outside, but there was no sign of Lily or Greg.

"Oh, Vi, the things I do for my friends." But Beth's giggle sounded nervous.

"I couldn't get them to come," Rose said. She didn't seem worried. "Mom is upstairs screwing new lighting fixtures into the ceilings. And Dad is holding the ladder. They said whatever it is you want to show them can wait."

"But it can't!" cried Violet. Her watch read 11:57. She watched the second hand sweep around, and then it was 11:58. Two minutes longer! She sank to the ground. "Hurry, Rose, tell them I've fainted." She felt strange and dizzy—so frightened now at what might indeed be coming, she thought she might
really
faint.

Rose sauntered back inside while Sam, Beth, and Jasmine crouched over Violet. "Calm down," Sam said soothingly. "Nothing is going to happen."

11:59 ... 12:00. Violet held her breath. Rose appeared again, with Lily and Greg behind her. They came outside, down the steps into the concrete yard.

"What is it, Baby?" cried Greg, hurrying over. "Rosy said you felt faint!"

"Oh, I
knew
she was up too late last night," moaned lily. "All this activity can't be good for her heart!"

Violet sat motionless, her head drooping low between her raised knees. She flicked a glance at her watch. 12:01 ... 12:02. The autumn sun hung directly overhead. She could feel the touch of warmth on her head despite the brisk breeze. Had she been wrong, then? Was it all a mistake?

But then there was a hush, as if all the city held its breath. And next, far down within the earth, beneath layers of soil and bedrock, miles deeper than anything could live, there came a rumble. It was an ominous rumble, a sudden slow shifting as if a giant animal under the earth had awoken from a long sleep and stretched—
Tyyamwwwnnn.
That rumble was a portent of more rumbles to come, and as the Jackstone family and Beth and Sam huddled in the concrete courtyard, the rumbling changed to a groan. Then the shaking began.

Violet closed her eyes and grabbed the nearest hand—she didn't know whose.

"Stay where you are, everybody," she heard her father shout. "Hold on tight!"

The ground bucked and rolled. The concrete rippled. The trees creaked and groaned. Somewhere nearby there were crashes and a scream, the grate of metal, the thud of heavy objects falling to the ground. Cars squealed out in the street, horns blared, and the rolling and heaving of the ground continued.

There was nowhere to run to that could be safer than where they were, Violet knew that, yet some part of her wanted to dart into the house for safety. "
Safe as houses,
" she thought wildly.
Isn't that how the old saying goes?
Yet houses were not safe when the walls dipped and cracked, when the plaster was raining down and tiles spilled off the roof. Where could you go when nowhere was safe?

"Help!" cried Rose as the bricks from the chimney smashed to the ground only a few feet from where they huddled. Greg drew her into his arms.

Jasmine and Beth were sobbing in terror. Lily leaned over the girls protectively, her arms outstretched as a mother hen might shield her chicks with her wings. Sam was looking wildly around him, starting at each crash or bang from the street. It was his hand Violet was clutching, and he held on tightly as if she were the anchor that would keep him from being flung out to sea. Violet sat frozen while all around her the cries and sobs and thumps and crashes merged together into one great cacophony.

She squeezed her eyes closed and immediately there were
flames—flames!
—and the acrid smell of burning rubber. She could not breathe. The shadow children were there, reaching out to her, crying for help—no, not crying after all. They were shouting something. Not reaching out to her—they were waving. The smoke cleared and the three children stood hand in hand, two boys and the little girl. Behind them stood their car, unburnt, and the dark figures of their parents, waiting for them. The shadow children turned and walked toward them, the little girl turning back once more to wave. Violet felt their gratitude wash over her, like water extinguishing flame, as the dark shape of their car drove away into nothingness.