Free The Mansions of Idumea (Book 3 Forest at the Edge series) by Trish Mercer Page B

same feeling . . . Sometimes
Edge was more insatiable than Peto at mealtimes.
    But, her skeptical mind reminded, this event
likely wouldn’t change anything. Big things rarely do. The tremor
may stun people for a moment, like an unexpected slap across the
face, but once the sting is gone everything sinks back to normal
again.
    As she progressed through the neighborhoods
looking for ways to help, Mahrree experienced a variety of
feelings. Horror for the widespread devastation—no house was
untouched—then a strange yearning of hope, that maybe, just maybe,
this land tremor would wake up everyone.
    It seemed to do it a bit for Mr. Hegek. The
Shins ran across him near one of the two-story, gray block school
houses. He stood in front of it, his hands on his waist, staring up
at a cracked window.
    Mahrree sidled over to the director of
schools. “Evaluating if we can have school tomorrow?”
    He jumped a little in surprise and turned to
her. “It’s remarkable! Look how well it held up. The only damage I
see is that window up there. I must confess, I snuck through it
looking for cracks, but didn’t see anything major.”
    Mahrree blinked in surprise. “You actually
went in?”
    “I pushed on the walls first,” he defended
himself. “I didn’t just blindly rush in there, you know. I do have
a bit of common sense, Mrs. Shin.”
    She smiled. “Well, not everyone here does. As
for school?”
    Mr. Hegek shook his head. “I’m cancelling it
for a few weeks,” he told her, and Jaytsy and Peto emitted little
cheers. “With this kind of mess, I think everyone needs to focus on
cleaning up. The End of Year testing can be put off for a few
weeks, I’m sure.”
    Mahrree shook her head in wonder. “Mr. Hegek,
you have more than a bit of common sense. Well done, sir!”
    Hegek blushed at her praise. “Besides,” he
said more quietly, “I’ve already told two families they can move
into the lower classrooms, once the soldiers have deemed them safe.
My neighbors lost everything, Mrs. Shin. My wife, son, and I dug
them out of a pile of rubble this morning. The Administrators
surely can forgive using their school building as a temporary home,
don’t you think?”
    Mahrree squeezed his arm. “Absolutely.
Especially since none of us will tell them, right?”
    She decided then that Mr. Hegek was the best
thing that morning.
    Because shortly after that, the Shins
experienced the worst thing. They turned on to a road to see that
several soldiers had stopped at a pile of rock and planking.
Mahrree froze in her tracks when she realized that what looked like
a pile of debris had been a house. No damage they’d come across had
been as bad as that, yet.
    A soldier jogged over. “Mrs. Shin, I don’t
recommend you bring your children here. There are fatalities.”
    Mahrree nodded and Peto asked quietly behind
her, “Mother, what are ‘fatalities’?” The tone of his voice
suggested he knew the meaning, but was hoping for some other
definition.
    Jaytsy began to weep silently. “I knew that
family. They had a little girl, about ten.”
    Mahrree tried to keep her voice calm. “Peto,
it means the Creator has taken them to Paradise.”
    “Oh,” Peto whispered.
    “Six hours of working and I thought maybe
Edge had been spared something worse. . .” Mahrree murmured. She
felt the undeniable urge to sit down and begin weeping like so many
she’d passed that morning.
    How obtuse of her, she thought, to demand the
villagers to get up and get moving, to do something about the
devastation around them, to swallow down their terror—
    Another soldier approached her, but Mahrree
didn’t see him. Her eyes were blurring with the horror that people
had died in their homes. Like a landslide, all the destruction of
that morning started to pile on top of her.
    “Mahrree,” the soldier said and gently placed
a hand on her shoulder.
    She recognized the voice of her favorite
soldier and turned to him. Already Jaytsy was hugging him, and