Shaken to the Core

by Jae

  They rolled up their hose and climbed back onto the fire engine, which then rattled down the street toward the next hydrant.

  Kate stared after them. What…? Then realization hit her.

  The earthquake had shattered the water mains along Sixth Street. There was no water to put out the fire. Whoever was still trapped beneath the rubble was beyond help.

  She gazed up the smoldering pile of debris, which now looked like an unconquerable mountain. One half of the heap of rubble was already burning, the flames quickly progressing toward her side. Tears burned in her eyes, and this time it wasn’t just from the smoke.

  Then movement caught her attention.

  Was that…?

  A hand! A hand was sticking out from the debris, and this one wasn’t the hand of a dead person. It was moving. Moving!

  Kate’s heart leaped. She scrambled up the pile of rubble toward the hand sticking out from a crack in the debris. Of course, it could be any of the other tenants, but she still called down a hopeful, “Giuliana?”

  A moment of silence. “K-kate?”

  Yes! It’s her! “I’m here. I’m getting you out!”

  A sob of relief drifted up. “Hurry! The fire…” A cough interrupted Giuliana.

  Kate worked like a possessed woman, throwing down roof tiles, tearing off pieces of plaster with her bare hands, ignoring splinters and sharp edges.

  Finally, Giuliana could get both arms out into the open. Heat and smoke wafted up through the opening Kate had created.

  Giuliana let out a scream. “My dress burns!”

  No time for gentleness. Kate grabbed her wrists and pulled, throwing her entire weight into it.

  Another scream from Giuliana nearly deafened her, then the resistance was gone. Giuliana popped free, and they both tumbled down the pile of debris and landed on the cobblestones below, with Giuliana on top of her.

  Instantly, Kate rolled out from beneath her.

  The hem of Giuliana’s dress was smoldering, tiny flames starting to lick up the fabric.

  She beat at them with the rags wrapped around her hands until, finally, only smoke curled up from the tattered dress. Breathing hard, Kate sank back down.

  They lay in a tumble of arms and legs and plaster pieces. Kate felt Giuliana’s chest heave as she sobbed against her. She wrapped her arms around her and just held her while the fire next to them crackled.

  * * *

  When the singeing heat of the fire came too close, Giuliana reluctantly let go of Kate and sat up. Together, they scrambled to the other side of the street and watched as the flames devoured what was left of the boardinghouse. All of her earthly possessions, the photograph of Turi and her parents next to her bed…gone forever.

  Finally, Giuliana couldn’t stand to watch anymore. But wherever she directed her gaze, everything was in ruins. On all sides of the intersection, where the four lodging houses had once been, only large piles of rubble remained.

  Giuliana’s stomach churned at the thought of the hundreds of tenants that must have been buried on the lower floors. If Kate hadn’t come, she would be one of them.

  She turned toward Kate and studied her.

  Dust and soot covered Kate’s face. Her pale yellow silk taffeta dress might have once been the latest cry of fashion, but now it was stained and ripped in several places. Kate didn’t seem to care or even notice.

  “Are you all right?” she asked, running her gaze all over Giuliana, who nodded.

  “I think I am.” Every inch of her body hurt. Heat flared along her shins as if she’d been sunburned; the cuts on her palm and her forehead pounded, and her ankle—the one she’d hurt falling off the chair—ached from freeing her feet, but at least she was alive. She peeked beneath the hem of her ripped and blackened dress. Her stockings looked as if a swarm of moths had descended on them. She rolled them down to reveal the angry red skin of her legs.

  Kate sucked in a breath. “Does it hurt?”

  “This is not so bad,” Giuliana said, trying to ignore the burning pain. “I hurt more when I burned my hand in the crab pot.” She pulled the dress down and looked at Kate. “Why are you here? Your house…your parents…are they…?”

  “They’re fine. Up on the hill, the earthquake didn’t do much damage. But when I heard that things might be more grim South of Market, I had to find you. I…” Kate licked her chapped lips and fell silent.

  Giuliana reached out and squeezed her hand.

  Kate returned the gentle pressure but then winced.

  Carefully, Giuliana turned her hand around. Kate’s palm, once so soft and smooth, was reddened and covered in little cuts. Splinters and chips of stone still stuck in the skin in some places. “Kate! What happened?”

  “Doesn’t matter. Come on. We have to get away from here. It’s not safe.” Ignoring the splinters, Kate took Giuliana’s hand and pulled her down the street.

  The cobblestones were warm beneath Giuliana’s shoeless left foot. Smoke filled the street, seeming to come from all directions now. Flames licked out of the shattered windows of the bakery where Giuliana had bought her bread almost every day. No firemen were around to extinguish the fires.

  A thunderous roar filled the air. At first, Giuliana thought it was coming from the raging fire behind them, but when she glanced over her shoulder, a mass of dark bodies was heading straight for them.

  Cattle! Dozens if not hundreds of panicked steers were charging down the street.

  “Kate!” She tugged on Kate’s hand. “Run! Tauri! Steers!”

  “What?”

  Not waiting for Kate to grasp the situation, Giuliana started to run and dragged Kate with her by their joined hands. Her aching body and the barely healed ankle protested, but there was no time to give in to the pain. Her gaze darted to all sides. Where could they hide?

  The hoofbeats behind them grew louder. The earth started to shake again.

  Giuliana’s muscles wanted to freeze, but she forced them to keep going. The tremors were caused by the steers, not another earthquake.

  The Nevada House came into view—or rather: what was left of it. Its three stories were now just a pile of rubble.

  Giuliana eyed it. Could steers climb? She didn’t think so. With a sharp tug, she guided Kate toward the ruins of the Nevada House. As they clambered up the pile of debris, she lost her grip on Kate’s hand.

  Behind them, the herd roared past, trampling anything in its path. The tottering front wall of a house, the only part of the building left standing, collapsed in a heap of dust. Two steers fell, buried beneath bricks, but the rest rushed on toward Market Street.

  Everything went quiet as they disappeared in the distance.

  Kate and Giuliana stared after them and then at each other.

  A shaky breath escaped Giuliana’s lungs. “Madonna mia! Where did they come from?”

  “They were probably on their way to the stockyards on Potrero Hill,” Kate said. “The earthquake must have set them free.”

  From on top of the hill of plaster and wood, Giuliana looked around. Columns of smoke rose to the south and the east, and the wild herd of steers had rushed north. Was there any place safe left in the city? Any warmhearted family who might give her a place to sleep for a day or two, until things went back to normal and she could find employment? Or was this a sign from God, telling her that he no longer meant for her to stay in San Francisco?

  But even if she wanted, she couldn’t take the next ship to Italy. All of her savings, hidden at the bottom of her trunk, had been lost, except for Mr. Winthrop’s five-dollar coin in the drawstring pouch still tied to her waist. Francesco, who had wanted to buy Turi’s boat, might have lost his money in the earthquake too. I hope that is all he lost. The thought made her shiver.

  “Come on,” Kate said and gripped her elbow to help her down the pile of rubble. “Let’s go home.”

  Giuliana refused the gentle tug on her elbow. “Home?” She shook her head. “I cannot go with you. Your father…he kicked me out. He wil
l not want me.”

  “But this”—Kate waved her hand at the destruction surrounding them—“changes everything, don’t you think?”

  Giuliana wasn’t so sure. Even an earthquake might not be enough to shake the rules of the higher society. But she had nowhere else to go, so it was worth a try. At least she could see Kate home safely. “Benu. I will go with you.”

  “Let’s go west for a block or two first and then head up Hyde Street,” Kate said. “I don’t want another encounter with those steers.”

  Giuliana nodded.

  They slid down the pile of debris. Kate’s boots crunched over dry pieces of wood and shards of broken glass. “Wait!” She indicated for Giuliana to sit down. When Giuliana did, Kate pulled up her dress and took off her last petticoat, revealing her smooth, fair legs.

  “W-what is this?” Giuliana quickly averted her gaze.

  Kate ripped the fabric. “You’ve got only one shoe. We have to wrap your foot, or you’ll cut it badly before we even make it to the next intersection.”

  She was right, of course. At least one of them was still thinking straight. Giuliana held out her left foot.

  With a soft touch, Kate wrapped the petticoat around her foot and neatly tied it off. “There. Not the latest fashion, but it’ll do.”

  “Thank you.” Having Kate take care of her felt strangely good, but there was no time to enjoy it. Giuliana forced herself to get up even though all her aching body wanted was to sit down and rest.

  Side by side, they headed west on Mission Street, which was full of people in their night attires. Some of them wandered aimlessly while others piled their most-prized possessions onto wheelbarrows, pushcarts, and even baby strollers to save them from the approaching fires.

  When they encountered an old man pushing his wife up the hill in a wheelchair, Giuliana moved to help him.

  “No.” Kate gripped her sleeve and held her back. “Save your strength. Let me do it.”

  Giuliana ached too much to protest.

  The old man stared at Kate with wide eyes when she approached, but he willingly stepped aside and let her take over.

  The four of them continued on, keeping to the middle of the street, well away from half-collapsed walls and tottering chimneys that would no doubt come down if another aftershock hit. Every now and then, bricks and rubble fell, making them flinch. The few houses that remained standing listed to one side, leaning against each other like tired old women after a long workday. In some places, the street had sunk several feet, while in others, the cobblestones had been raised almost hip-high. Water spilled from gaps in the ground, gathering in muddy puddles.

  Within a minute, the cloth around Giuliana’s left foot was drenched and made a splashing sound with every step. The air was thick with plaster dust so that it felt as if she were trying to suck molasses into her lungs instead of air.

  After a while, the old man and his wife needed to head in another direction, so they found someone else who would help them. Luckily, that didn’t appear to be a problem. Even people who struggled under the weight of their own belongings seemed willing to lend a hand.

  Maybe the Miricani weren’t as coldhearted as Turi had always claimed.

  Giuliana and Kate continued west. When they finally reached the street where they had wanted to veer north toward Nob Hill, a tangle of wires blocked their path. The electric wires overhead had snapped during the earthquake and fallen to the ground, where they were writhing and hissing like poisonous snakes. The torn ends spat blue sparks.

  A man lay amidst the live wires, still gripping a huge birdcage in one hand. Smoke curled up from his robe, and the smell of burned feathers drifted over.

  Giuliana covered her eyes for a moment.

  “Electrocuted,” Kate whispered next to her. Before Giuliana could ask what that meant, she added, “The electricity from the wires killed him. I think we’d better continue west one more block.”

  They walked on in shocked silence, holding on to each other’s hand just a little more tightly.

  CHAPTER 13

  City Hall

  San Francisco, California

  April 18, 1906

  Kate stopped in the middle of the street and stared north. For a moment, she thought the dust that burned in her eyes had blurred her vision and created a distorted image. But even after she had rubbed her eyes and risked a second glance, what she saw remained the same.

  City Hall, once the pride of San Francisco, lay in ruins. The massive granite columns had burst. The earthquake had shaken loose most of the masonry, leaving only the naked steel framework standing. City Hall now looked like a giant birdcage. Part of the bronze dome had crashed down too, and a giant piece of cornice had fallen onto a neighboring apartment house, tearing down one wall. Marshall Square, the plaza in front of City Hall, had transformed into a mountain of rubble, with only the statues of Pioneer Monument sticking out.

  It was awful, but at the same time, it made Kate wish she had her camera with her. In her mind, she took picture upon picture of the destruction and of the bronze statue of Mercury perched on top of the dome, strangely unharmed, looking down at the ruin.

  At least no other photographers seemed to be around either. Maybe she could return later, after delivering Giuliana safely to the villa. No newspaper editor would be able to refuse photographs like those, even if they had been taken by a woman.

  Giuliana squeezed her hand almost painfully tight. “Kate!”

  “I see it,” Kate said. “Guess the rumors about bribery and sloppy construction work were true after all. My father says he has long since suspected that City Hall was built shoddily.”

  “The people! There are people inside, no?”

  Kate started to shake her head. At this hour, the offices of City Hall would be empty. Then she remembered what else was in the building. “Oh dear God! The hospital!”

  Giuliana nodded grimly. “Dr. Sharpe…maybe she is trapped.”

  Or dead, Kate thought but didn’t want to say it. “She might not even be on duty.”

  “I think she is there. When my brother…” Giuliana squeezed her eyes shut for a moment, and Kate rubbed the back of her hand with her thumb. “When Turi was in the hospital, she did not leave. I think she sleeps in the hospital.”

  They rushed down Larkin Street toward the hospital’s entrance. Debris from the collapsed dome blocked the door and even the windows, leaving only a few inches free at the very top.

  Kate started clearing stones from a window.

  “No.” Giuliana pulled her away. “This is no good. The windows have bars of iron. We must go through the door.”

  Sounds drifted through the tiny gaps in the debris in front of the entrance. At first, Kate heard just the pained cries of what she assumed were patients and the shrieks of the insane coming from the detention ward, but then the scraping of stone filtered through too. Someone was working from the inside to remove the bricks from the door!

  She and Giuliana grabbed bricks and lumps of masonry and began to enlarge the opening from the outside.

  Three policemen ran up to them. “Thank you, miss,” one of them said. “We’ve got this now.” Gently, they urged Kate and Giuliana aside and took over clearing the entrance.

  Kate gritted her teeth. When she had risked her life to save Giuliana, the menfolk had all fled to save their own hides. No one had taken a moment to help her. Only now that the imminent danger was over did they remember that women were supposed to be the fairer sex. She opened her mouth to argue but then snapped it shut. As long as they got into the building, it didn’t matter who did the work.

  Firefighters with horses joined them and pulled the iron bars from the windows.

  As soon as the entrance was cleared, several people in dust-covered clothes rushed out, coughing.

  Kate gripped Giuliana’s hand and headed inside, not waiting for the men to tell her it was too dangerous.

  The policemen followed them in. One pointed to a long room on the main floor. �
�That’s where the doctors on duty sleep if there aren’t any new patients during the night.”

  Kate peeked inside. The room was empty. Two beds occupied the quarters, one at each end. A huge lump of masonry had crashed through the ceiling, directly onto one of the beds. It had driven the cot through the floor to the basement below.

  “Oh, no,” she whispered and stared through the hole in the floor. If Lucy had been sleeping in that bed during the earthquake…

  “What?” Giuliana asked behind her.

  Kate kept blocking her view with her back, not wanting her to see. “Nothing. Let’s just head down to the hospital and check on Lucy.” If she’s still alive.

  Downstairs, in the basement that housed the hospital, the large chandelier had crashed down from the ceiling. The lights were out, but by now the sun had risen and was peeking in through the half-cleared windows.

  Nurses were rushing from bed to bed, checking on all patients.

  Other than the doctor who may have slept in the bed, no one seemed to have been harmed.

  Lucy Sharpe, the sleeves of her shirtwaist rolled up to her elbows, stood in the middle of the room, giving orders like a general on a battlefield. She looked up as Kate, Giuliana, and the policemen rushed in.

  “Thank the Lord! I thought you had been…” Kate bit her tongue.

  “What?”

  “Nothing. Glad to see you’re fine.”

  Lucy gave them a grim nod. “You two don’t look so great, though.” She stepped closer as if to examine Giuliana.

  “No time. We need to evacuate the building,” one of the policemen said. “It’s not safe.”

  “I take it you cleared the doors?” Lucy asked.

  “Aye.”

  “Good.” Lucy turned to her nurses. “Pack all the instruments, dressings, and medications you can get your hands on. Officers, if you could gather as many volunteers, automobiles, and horse-drawn wagons as possible, I’d appreciate it. We need to transport the patients—and judging by the strength of the earthquake, there’ll be many more injured people arriving within the hour.”

  The highest-ranking policeman hesitated, clearly not used to being ordered around by a woman, but then he nodded and stormed off, followed by his men.