Free Paperquake by Kathryn Reiss

crowd.
    She drew a deep breath. "Jazzy!" she shouted at the top of her lungs. "Rosy? Where are you? Jazzy! Rosy!"
    And then suddenly Sam was climbing up on top of the mailbox next to her. He steadied himself by placing one hand on her shoulder, and added his own voice to hers. "Jazzy!" he bellowed, his foghorn voice sounding out over the noise and music of the street fair. "Rosy! Come to the post office on the corner!" He looked down at Violet. "How am I doing?"
    "Great," she said, nearly crying with relief as she saw the two golden heads of her sisters turn toward her. She pointed, laughing now. "There they are!"
    Sam jumped down and reached up his arms to swing her down after him. When her sisters ran across the street to her, she embraced them, exultant, then turned to thank Sam. He was already disappearing down the hill on his skateboard.
    Jasmine and Rose were furious. "Where
were
you?" wailed Jasmine. "I came back right away to the Mexican food place and you were gone. So I went back to the earring stall, but you weren't there, either!"
    Violet scooped up her sisters' burritos from the sidewalk. "Here," she said, holding them out as a peace offering.
    "We were frantic," hissed Rose, shaking Violet's arm as she pulled her toward the BART station. "Can't you be trusted not to wander off like a toddler?"
    "We promised Mom and Dad we'd take care of you," cried Jasmine. Her face was streaked with tears. "And then we couldn't find you anywhere. All those people—they might have been murderers or kidnappers."
    "And it would be our fault if anything happened to you," said Rose, unwrapping her burrito and taking a huge bite. "No one would ever forgive us," she continued, spewing out bits of lettuce."
Dad
will never forgive us for not calling sooner. He's probably worried sick."
    "I was fine—," Violet began helplessly, but Rose stalked ahead to a phone booth.
    "Don't tell Dad we lost Vi, Rosy," cautioned Jasmine. "We'll be in total disgrace."
    "Vi's the disgrace," said Rose. "She made a complete fool of herself with that boy on top of the mailbox." Rose glared back at Violet. "Anyway, you'll probably tell Dad and Mom everything, won't you?"
    "I won't tell," Violet said quietly, "—
if
you don't tell anyone about the letters I found."
    Rose swallowed her mouthful of burrito and then spoke into the phone receiver in a bright voice, telling their dad they were fine, the quake hadn't scared them. They'd worked hard and were taking the four o'clock train home.
    The girls waited for the BART in silence. The train service had been delayed as the cars and rails needed to be checked for safety after the earthquake. Violet could see that her sisters were so upset they would not listen to a word she said. Inside the train, she sat in the seat in front of them—"Where we can keep an eye on you," Rose growled—and read through the letters from Hal again and again until she had them nearly memorized.
    His was a voice speaking out to her, promising rescue. How was that possible? How could he help her? Violet glanced over her shoulder at the identical stony faces of her sisters and felt her heart tighten.
    I see you as lost in the bosom of a family that tries to control you. They simply do not understand you as I do.
    If only Hal could be with her now. She could use someone who understood.
    Â 
    The quake that day had measured 3.3 on the Richter scale. Lily and Greg were relieved to have their girls back home safely and asked for a full report of their day in the city. All three girls kept their promises. Violet did not say a word about being lost at the street fair. And Jasmine and Rose did not mention the letters. Instead all three of them regaled their parents with details of the cleaning up and told them how the quake had knocked plaster off the walls. Violet tried hard to keep her account of the quake as breezy and matter-of-fact as her sisters'.
    Greg and Lily would be going to the new shop the next day to inspect the