Paperquake (23 page)

The first trick-or-treaters were arriving as they finished eating. lily went to the door with a basket of chocolate bars.

Sam waited in the living room, talking to Greg while the girls rushed upstairs. Violet dressed in the green-and-black Victorian-style dress. She fluffed out her hair the way she'd done earlier, then tied the large hat with the green velvet ribbon under her chin. She even dabbed on some lip gloss.

Her sisters looked up in surprise when she joined them in the living room. They appeared identical in their alien costumes, golden hair streaming over their shoulders from under the black scarves.

"I changed my mind," Violet said simply. "Hope you don't mind."

"No," said Rose, with a little frown. "But—"

"You look gorgeous!" cried Jasmine.

"Are you Verity or Laela?" Sam asked in a low voice. He pulled the rubber Frankenstein mask out of his jacket pocket. "Wish I had a Hal mask instead!"

The needlepoint portrait flashed in Violet's head. "
Ssh,
" she cautioned him as her parents came in from the kitchen with a camera. "I like Frankenstein just fine."

They posed for photographs, first all together, then just the aliens, then Frankenstein and the Victorian Lady, then the triplets with Violet in the middle. She knew she stood apart from her sisters more than ever tonight—but now she didn't care.

She
was
different. She was special. She was the one who was part of a plan, the one to whom past and future were revealed.

Greg drove them to the Halloween Ball, where they met Beth, who was standing with Casey Banks and Brett Hudson in the school gym. Beth wore a black witch's hat and a long cape. She was fending off the boys, both wearing vampire costumes, with her broomstick.

The gym had been transformed with dim lights, pulsing music, a multitude of leering jack-o'-lanterns, and scarecrows strategically placed in corners to hide the storage lockers. Long tables covered by cheerful pumpkin-sprigged tablecloths were stocked with snacks and cold drinks. There was no place to talk quietly to tell Beth about the latest diary entry, the book with Hal's inscription, and the news clippings Sam had brought. The music was too loud, the gym too crowded with costumed creatures. But it had been arranged that Beth would sleep over at the Jackstones, so there would be time to catch up later.

Sam grabbed Violet's hand and swung her into the crowd, and there were Beth and Rose and Jasmine all bobbing around amid ghosts, ghouls, and a dragon, all holding soft drinks sloshing in their hands and wearing wild smiles on their painted faces. The music pounded with Violet's heartbeat.

She had been so excited about coming to the dance with Sam. And yet she felt an urgency connected with Laela's dream. There was something she had missed, something vitally important
not
to miss. She felt dizzy and frightened.

She saw Mr. Koch with some of the other teachers and parents near the door, holding drinks and swaying to the music. None were in costume. Some of them looked bored, some amused. Mr. Koch looked as if he'd like to dance. A pretty, dark woman in a tight red dress stood next to him.

After the song ended, Violet stepped away from the circle of her friends. "I'll be back in a minute," she shouted to Sam over the music, and pushed through the mass of dancers.

"Hello, Violet," Mr. Koch shouted when she reached him. "You look stunning in that hat." He nodded at the woman in the red dress. "My wife wore one like that at our wedding!"

"It wasn't nearly that big!" laughed the woman.

"I need to talk to you," Violet said urgently.

Mr. Koch looked surprised. "Are you all right?"

"I feel dizzy—"

"Let me get you a Coke." His wife turned to the table.

"I need to ask you something," Violet said quickly. The teacher leaned closer in order to hear her over the din. "Those books you loaned me for my paper. Where did you get them?"

"They were some things I got after my mother died and we had to clear out her house."

"Your mother—?" Violet repeated faintly. She looked up at his face. "Did your mother know someone named Hal Emerson?"

"Why, yes," Mr. Koch replied in surprise. "I should think she did! He was her father."

"You mean Hal Emerson was your
grandather?
" Violet was incredulous. "Was Laela Baublitz your grandmother?"

"That's right—but how could you know?" He looked amazed. "Tell me about it."

Violet accepted the cold drink from Mrs. Koch and sipped it. Shewasn't sure whattosay. She didn't know how to tell him about Hal's letters to Verity, about Laela's diary pages, written nearly a century ago, having landed by something far stranger than coincidence in Violet's possession. How could she explain to Mr. Koch that there was something going on, some pattern she now believed she was meant to follow, set in motion by these papers from the past and centering, somehow, around an earthquake?

"Did you ever hear of anyone named Verity?" she asked.

He couldn't hear her, so she had to shout it. "Did you ever know someone named Verity?"

He set his glass down and shouted back at her. "Verity was my mother's name!"

Violet was staring at him. "How could your mother be Verity? I know she died before she even got married—"

"Whoa, slow down." The teacher took hold of Violet's arm and steered her toward the door of the gym. "Mind if we just talk in the hall a minute? It's so loud I can't hear a thing." He pushed open the door and led her through. In the hallway the air was cool and the beat of the music receded.

Violet clasped her hands in front of her. She had so many questions and didn't know where to begin. She had completely forgotten about Sam. Mr. Koch folded his arms across his chest and leaned back against the wall. "Now, if you don't mind, tell me what's going on."

She nodded. "I'd love to tell you—but I just don't know what's going on! I really don't! Oh, it's hard to explain, but weird things have been happening. I've been finding out all sorts of things. I know that an eighteen-year-old girl named Verity Stowe died in 1906—just hours before the big earthquake. But she couldn't have been your mother, could she?"

"No," he said. "My mother's maiden name was Verity Emerson. So it's a different Verity. But I wonder—
hmm.
" He looked at the ceiling thoughtfully, trying to remember something. "I know that my mother was named for a dear friend of her parents. Maybe that was your Verity Stowe." He frowned at her. "Now tell me more about these "weird things' that are happening, as you say. Are you saying they're somehow connected to your science paper? Is this a novel excuse for telling me you won't have the paper done on time?"

Violet didn't answer. Her thoughts were racing along as she shuffled a few new pieces of the puzzle and worked them into place. Laela and Hal had married after Verity was dead, she knew that much already. Then later they must have had a daughter—and named her Verity after Verity Stowe.

"Are your grandparents still alive?" she asked abruptly. It would be amazing if she could actually meet Hal and Laela and talk to them, ask Laela what she'd felt so guilty about. Ask what she was supposed to do about the dreams. But her hopes were dashed when Mr. Koch shook his head.

"Oh, no, they've been dead a good thirty years. And my mother died last year—that's when I cleaned out the house she'd lived in and came into possession of my grandparents' books and papers. I suppose my mother must have inherited them from her parents years ago. But I'd never seen them until I had to clear out my mother's house." He looked at her thoughtfiilly. "There was a letter among my grandfather's papers you might be interested in seeing. It's very personal—a sort of family treasure. But since you already know something about my grandparents, you might like to see it."

"A letter?" Violet's voice was sharp. "From Hal?"

"No—from a woman named Verity, who apparendy loved him very much. Possibly it's the Verity Stowe you know about. It's a very melodramatic letter, but rather sweet at the same time. I'll let you read it if you like."

"Oh yes, please, Mr. Koch! Do you have it with you now?" Violet felt like jumping up and down. "Oh, please, Mr. Koch—it could be so important!"

"I don't have it with me, no," the teacher replied dryly. "I can't say I usually bring old family letters with me to a school dance. I'll bring it to school on Monday." Her face fell, and he continued. "Or—I live only around the corner from school—you can walk over with me and get it right after the dance."

"Oh, thank you, Mr. Koch! Oh, that would be wonderful!" exclaimed Violet. She glanced at the closed gym door, worrying that Sam or one of her sisters would come barging out looking for her. "Can we go now?"

He raised a bushy eyebrow. "How about you first tell me why you want to know? This seems to me to have very little to do with your assignment."

She studied the tiled floor for a moment, then shook her head. "I'm—I'm sorry," she stuttered. "It's pretty complicated." She looked up into his face, saw the puzzled expression. "I think it's sort of to do with what you said in class the other week—about how the past is all around us, if we could only see it? Well, I've—I think I've been seeing bits of it."

"Go on," he said.

"Well, I meant to write about fault lines and geology, you know, and the 1906 quake. But I sort of got sidetracked away from the
earth
—and on to the
people
who lived then."

"They're connected," he reminded her.

"Anyway, I've been looking at lots of, um, original sources."

"And you're writing all this up for your project?"

"Oh, could I? I mean, yes! That's what I'm trying to do."

"Scientists need proof." Mr. Koch frowned. "And this all sounds very mysterious. I'm not sure I see how anything you've found out about my family can be connected to your earthquake paper."

"But you've just said people are connected widi the earth," Violet explained hesitantiy. She wasn't used to challenging Mr. Koch on anything. "I think I do have proof—"

The door to the gym opened and the thud of the music swelled. Frankenstein poked his head out. "Vi?" he called to her, sounding surprised. "I've been looking everywhere for you. Aren't you coming?"

She nodded. "Sorry, Sam! Just a second." She turned back to Mr. Koch and spoke hurriedly. "I think the people I've been researching are connected to the earthquakes just like fissures in the earth connect the fault lines. I have proof—but I need more. And so, um, anything you can tell me about your grandparents will help me understand—things—better, I think."

Sam stepped out into the hallway with them and closed the door.

"Info about my grandparents!" Mr. Koch grinned at Sam. "In this getup she looks like she could
be
one of my grandparents." He looked back at Violet curiously. "That's one of the more unusual requests I've had from a student. But if you think it will help your paper, I'm happy to oblige. My grandfather wa(s a journalist, I know that much. He married my grandmother just a few months after the 1906 quake. She had been a nurse."

Violet was nodding. "A companion—to a sick girl," she said softly. Next to her, Sam gave a start of surprise.

"Was she?" Mr. Koch said. "Well, women usually didn't work once they married, you know, and my grandmother didn't either, after she married my grandfather. They moved to the East Coast—to New Jersey. My mother was born there—quite a few years later. She was their only child. She grew up and married my dad, who was from California. So my brothers and I were born here—and here I still am today, with two kidsalreadyin college, and I live, as I told you, just around the corner."

Mr. Koch opened the door to the gym so they could return to the dance. A wave of music rolled over them.

"Mr. Koch?" Violet had to shout again. "Did your grandmother—um—I mean, was she a
nice
person? Did you like her?" Maybe Mr. Koch knew what guilty secret Laela had carried with her to the grave.

"I was just a kid when she died," he replied. "But she was a very sweet old lady."

"And did your grandfather love her?"
Why did Hal ever marry her in the first place?
she wanted to ask. He was passionately in love with Verity, and yet just months after her death he'd gone and married Laela. What had made him do such a thing?

"They were devoted to each other," Mr. Koch shouted over the din. "My mother often spoke about her happy childhood." He smiled at Violet as he held the door for her to pass through. "But just wait till you see the letter. It gives the word
romance
a new meaning."

"I can't wait!" she yelled back at him.

"But you have to!" Then he walked back over to his wife. Violet reached for Sam's hand.

"Weirder and weirder," he said. "What was all that about?"

She led him across the dance floor, looking for her sisters and Beth. The identical aliens were thick in the throng of dancers, antennae jiggling wildly, but Beth was standing by herself near the food tables, munching cookies disconsolately. At the sight of Violet, she brightened.

"Hey!" Sam yelled, his foghorn voice easily rising over the noise. "She ditched me, too!" His words were light, but Violet sensed that his mask hid an unhappy expression.

"I'm really sorry," she said to both Beth and Sam. "But I had to talk to Mr. Koch."

"What?" Beth couldn't hear her through the music.

"I'll tell you both about it later," she shouted. "Let's dance."

Sam took her hand gladly and then reached out for Beth's as well. He pulled both girls back into the middle of the surging crowd of kids. As they danced, other kids joined them till there was a circle of dancers. Beth's face lost her tense expression and Sam started laughing. By the time the song ended, everyone was singing along. They all danced as a group for the next song, and the next. When a slow song started, the group broke into pairs. Beth slipped away with several other witches.

Sam drew Violet close. He wrapped his arms around her waist. No one knew how to dance, she reflected, but it was nice to hang on to each other, to feel the beat of Sam's heart through his sweatshirt.
Eat, drink, and be merry,
she thought, twining her arms around him tightly and pushing back her hat to rest her head against his shoulder.
For tomorrow we may die.