Shaken to the Core

by Jae

  The answer was yes. The moment she’d seen the soldier train his rifle on Kate, the image of blood pooling on cobblestones went through Giuliana’s head, filling her with white-hot determination to do whatever it took to stop that from happening to Kate. The fierceness of that urge surprised her. She’d been protective of her siblings and the rest of her family too, but never like this.

  It was to be expected, she tried to tell herself. Dangerous times like these brought out the worst in people. She glanced at Kate. Or the best. They also brought people together and forged friendships faster than ordinary times ever could. Maybe that was why the thought of anything happening to Kate was so unbearable.

  But that explanation didn’t seem quite right. There was something else. She could feel it but had no words for what it was. It was almost like a tug, a strange kind of force pulling her to Kate.

  A sputter from the engine wrenched her out of her thoughts. The automobile jerked like a person with a hiccup.

  “Oh, no, no, no,” Kate murmured. “This can’t be happening.”

  “What is wrong? Is the automobile too hot again?”

  “No. I think we’re out of gas.”

  “Out of gas?”

  “Yes. The engine is fueled by gasoline,” Kate said through gritted teeth. “Without it…”

  Right on cue, the automobile slowed. Kate shifted her weight forward as if that would keep it rolling just a few yards more and pulled it over to the side of the street.

  What now? They sat there for several moments and looked at each other. The helplessness on Kate’s face reflected how Giuliana felt.

  “I saw a canister of gasoline in the drugstore,” Kate said and glanced back over her shoulder to where they had come from.

  Giuliana gripped her arm. “No, Kate. We cannot go back!”

  A sigh escaped Kate. “No, I don’t think that’s a good idea either.”

  “What do we do?” Giuliana glanced around.

  The street in which they had stopped looked abandoned. A front door stood open, as if the house’s owner had left in a hurry. There was no one around to help them.

  “Only one thing we can do.” Kate jumped down from the automobile, picked up the carrying case that held her camera, and put Lucy’s revolver inside. “Walk.”

  * * *

  Maybe Biddy’s shoes didn’t fit as well as Giuliana had thought. Her feet burned as if they were on fire, and she was fairly sure that blisters were forming on her heels. The cramped muscles in her legs ached, and pain flared through her left ankle with every step. The bundle of medicine bottles hadn’t seemed to weigh that much when they had started out, but now it was getting heavier by the second.

  To make things even worse, they had to detour several times because a huge fire was eating its way through Hayes Valley.

  Madonna, how much longer to Golden Gate Park? Would they even be safe there, or would the inferno head that way eventually?

  “I bet you never thought you’d have to live through something like this when you came to America,” Kate said.

  “No,” Giuliana answered with a wry smile, “I did not.”

  Before she and Turi had set out from Sicily, she’d had no concept at all of Merica—or earthquakes. Her grandmother had told her tales about the great earthquake that had destroyed the hometown of her ancestors over two hundred years ago, but Giuliana had never personally experienced a natural disaster.

  She had also never driven in an automobile, never had her picture taken, and never spent the afternoon at the vaudeville. Since meeting Kate, her life experiences had rapidly expanded.

  Kate was quiet for a while. After walking across the next intersection, she asked, “Do you…? Is anyone waiting for you back in Sicily?”

  “Oh, yes.”

  “Oh.” Kate kicked at a tin cup someone had lost or left behind. “There is?”

  “Naturalmenti. My mother, my little brother, and my three younger sisters. They grow like flowers.”

  Kate blinked at her and then laughed. “Weeds. You mean they must be growing like weeds.”

  Heat pooled in Giuliana’s cheeks. “Yes, that is what I meant. I always get these little sayings wrong.”

  “Don’t worry about it. You speak English really well, considering you’ve lived here for just a few years.”

  Giuliana shrugged and then hefted her bundle a little higher against her chest. “I found out quick that people buy more fishes when I talk to them. So I tried to learn fast. But your sayings…There are so many of them. They bring me trouble.”

  The shadows lifted from Kate’s eyes as she smiled. “It’s actually adorable.”

  Now it was Giuliana’s turn to blink. A flutter rippled through her belly. “It is?”

  Looking away, Kate nodded.

  They continued on in silence until Kate said, “What I meant before was…is there anyone waiting besides your family? A young man who’s courting you?”

  Giuliana shook her head. Truth be told, she’d never paid much attention to the boys in her village. She had been too young to consider marital concerns when she’d left, and she had always assumed that she’d return to Sicily one day, so she’d never paid any attention to American men either. “And you?”

  Kate waved her hand. “Well, you know what happened with William Jenkins, and I’m not eager for another suitor.”

  “Young Mr. Baker seemed to like you.” Giuliana had watched him closely during breakfast, which seemed like weeks ago but had indeed been this morning.

  “Me?” Kate pointed at her chest and shook her head. “I got the impression that he was quite interested in you.”

  A snort escaped Giuliana. “Me? Riddiculu! Look at me!” She gestured at her body—not as tall and willowy as Kate’s—and at her boring dark hair and eyes. Why would Mr. Baker be interested in her when he could court Kate, who was beautiful and intelligent, not to mention rich?

  “I am looking,” Kate said so quietly that Giuliana almost couldn’t hear her.

  Did that mean…? Did Kate find the way she looked pleasing to the eye? The thought made Giuliana tremble deep inside, but not the way she had when the soldier had aimed his rifle at Kate. She wanted to ask, yet words escaped her.

  Kate ducked her head and quickened her steps, marching ahead of Giuliana.

  Other people joined them from all directions, all heading toward the park, so they fell silent.

  After a few more minutes, Kate lifted her hand and pointed. “Oh! Look, we made it!”

  With difficulty, Giuliana wrenched her gaze away from Kate and peered ahead to where Kate was pointing.

  The white canvas walls of the tents in Golden Gate Park stretched in front of them.

  If feet could talk, Giuliana’s extremities would have let out a whoop of joy, but she wasn’t entirely happy that their time alone together was about to end.

  They walked up to the main hospital tent. The sheet-covered bodies in front of the tent sent shivers down Giuliana’s spine. She swallowed but then followed Kate in.

  Lucy was just finishing the last stitch to close a nasty cut along a patient’s temple. When she saw them, she laid her instruments aside, washed her hands in a basin, and stripped off her soiled apron. “Darn, am I glad to see you!” She patted Kate’s shoulder. “You were gone so long that I thought for sure something had happened to you.”

  Giuliana and Kate looked at each other. How could they sum up their adventures since setting out from the tent hospital? It was impossible to describe the terror Giuliana had felt when she’d seen the soldier aim his weapon at Kate, so she didn’t even try.

  “We ran out of fuel and had to leave some of the medicine behind,” Kate said.

  “I’m sorry. I should have thought of that. I guess an automobile isn’t content with a mouthful of grass or hay.”

  Kate’s lips formed a tired smile. “Not exactly. But look what we brought you.”

  At her nod, Giuliana put down her bundle on an empty operating table and untied the petticoat
. They had stuffed as many of the morphine vials from the crate into the petticoat as possible before leaving the automobile behind.

  Within seconds, nurses and physicians crowded around the bundle, oohing and aahing as if it held a newborn baby.

  Giuliana had to smile. At least their nerve-racking trip through the burning city hadn’t been for nothing.

  “Thank you.” Lucy nodded first at Kate, then at Giuliana. “You can’t imagine what it means to some of these patients not to have to spend the night in agony or have to undergo an amputation without morphine.”

  A warm glow of pride spread through Giuliana. She suspected her grin was as broad as Kate’s.

  “Oh, and we should also return this.” Kate opened her carrying case and pulled out Lucy’s revolver.

  Lucy pressed it back into her hand. “Keep it for now. I’m surrounded by soldiers, so I don’t need it.”

  Giuliana wanted to say that the revolver had been the only thing stopping a soldier from shooting Kate, but she bit her tongue and watched Kate put the revolver back into the carrying case.

  Loud voices from the tent’s flap made them all look toward the exit. Even some of the patients on narrow cots glanced toward the commotion.

  A nurse was arguing with two women in low-cut dresses, one holding up the other.

  Frowning, Lucy marched over, followed by Kate and Giuliana. “What’s going on?”

  “She wants to turn my friend away,” the stockier of the women said, hurling a glare at the nurse.

  Giuliana studied the slighter woman. She looked pale even though rouge gave her cheeks an artificial rosy glow. Like her friend, she wore a dress with a tight, low-cut bodice, which revealed the upper curve of her milky-white bosom. The ripped hem of her dress showed off a scandalous amount of leg—and a large, bleeding cut along her calf.

  Lucy turned to the nurse blocking the entrance. “Is that true?”

  “They’re harlots from the Barbary Coast, Dr. Sharpe,” the nurse said so loudly that everyone within a five-yard radius could hear her.

  “Harlots?” Giuliana whispered to Kate. “What does that mean?”

  With flushed cheeks, Kate whispered back, “Women who lie with men for money.”

  “Just look at them.” The nurse wrinkled her nose as if smelling something bad. “It’s obvious.”

  It was. Giuliana’s gaze dipped down to the top of the bigger woman’s bosom. Never before had she seen women in such revealing attire.

  Lucy kept her gaze on the women’s faces. “They need help, Nurse. Let them in.”

  “But, Doctor—”

  “I said let them in.” Lucy’s voice sounded like the crack of a whip. “We haven’t asked any of the other patients how they make their living. We won’t start now.”

  Her face as bright red as the paint on her charges’ cheeks, the nurse wordlessly led the two women into the tent.

  Lucy watched them go and sighed. With the dark shadows beneath her eyes, she looked incredibly tired.

  Giuliana fought the urge to give her a hug. Back in Sicilia, she wouldn’t have hesitated, but the Miricani were more reserved than the people back home. They didn’t even greet each other with kisses to the cheeks. Oh, so what.

  Just as Lucy was about to turn away, Giuliana wrapped her arms around her.

  Lucy flinched as if she hadn’t been hugged in some time but then immediately relaxed and squeezed her back.

  “This was a good thing to do,” Giuliana whispered.

  “It’s only right. But thank you.” Lucy slowly let go and stepped back. She looked from Giuliana to Kate. “You two take care of each other, all right? And if you need anything, you know where to find me.”

  Giuliana nodded while Kate stood there with a slight wrinkle between her brows.

  “Are you all right?” Giuliana asked once Lucy had walked away to look after her new patient.

  “I’m fine.” Kate turned sharply, pulled back the tent flap, and held it open for Giuliana to pass through. “Come on. We need to find some gasoline and get the automobile before the sun sets.”

  * * *

  Getting half a canister of gasoline from an army lieutenant was the easy part. Finding an automobile, a wagon, or a horse-drawn cab to take them back to the city, where the Packard waited, proved to be much more difficult.

  Every vehicle in the vicinity of the park had been pressed into service as an ambulance, and the few drivers who still had their carriages asked for the outrageous sum of fifty dollars for a ride to Van Ness Avenue. Getting back to her father’s automobile seemed impossible.

  Just as impossible as driving the mental image of Giuliana embracing Lucy from her head. Oh, come on. It was just a hug. But Kate couldn’t help it. She wanted Giuliana to hug her, not Lucy.

  “Kate!” Giuliana called. She’d been walking ahead of her down the row of tents, on the lookout for any vehicle. Now she pointed at two orderlies who were just loading an empty stretcher into the back of a horse-drawn ambulance waiting in front of the hospital tent.

  The ambulance? Kate stared for a second before shrugging. Well, why not? Desperate times called for desperate measures. She gripped her carrying case with one hand, pulled up her dress a bit with the other, and ran toward the vehicle. “Where are you going?” she called up to the driver.

  “Lane Hospital,” the driver shouted back. “Getting ether and probably picking up patients along the way.”

  That was up in Pacific Heights. Not exactly where they wanted to go, but the driver would have to go east first. “Can you take us as far as Webster Street?”

  He eyed the Red Cross badge still pinned to Kate’s shirtwaist, nodded, and pointed to the back of the ambulance. “Get in.”

  Kate climbed up first and nearly slipped. The wood floor of the ambulance was wet. She put her carrying case down and extended her hand to help Giuliana up. “Careful.” She kept hold of Giuliana’s hand, even when they were both inside—just to prevent Giuliana from slipping.

  The driver cracked his whip, and the horse pulled forward so abruptly that Kate and Giuliana nearly fell.

  Giuliana toppled against Kate, who still held on to her hand.

  She clutched Giuliana’s shoulder with her free hand and somehow managed to keep them both upright. Protecting Giuliana like this, holding her close, made her feel warm all over. As the horse settled into a fast clip, Kate pulled Giuliana farther into the ambulance and sat with her back against the wall.

  After climbing over debris, hauling mattresses, and driving all over the city for most of the day, sitting down felt good even though the floor was wet here too.

  She touched the boards, and when she glanced down, her fingertips were covered in red. Blood! The entire ambulance was drenched in it. Quickly, she wiped her hand on her skirt, pressed it to her mouth, and swallowed against the wave of nausea.

  They looked at each other without saying anything. Even Giuliana had gone pale despite her olive complexion. Their shoulders bumped against each other as the ambulance bounced over cobblestones and pieces of rubble, but neither moved away. Giuliana’s closeness was the only thing that made riding in the blood-soaked ambulance bearable.

  Endless minutes later, the driver pulled the horse to a halt. “Webster Street,” he shouted back to them.

  They scrambled over the slippery boards, out of the ambulance, as fast as they could.

  “Thank you,” Kate called up to the driver. When she glanced down, she realized that they had left bloody footprints on the ground. Another wave of nausea hit her.

  As the vehicle turned north and clip-clopped away, Kate again wiped her hands on her dress and looked around.

  Not that she could see very far. To the east, a wall of black smoke blocked her view. Darn, the fire had crept west while they’d been gone. The dynamite blasts sounded closer than ever. Kate even thought she felt the ground shake beneath her feet. “Do you feel that?”

  “Is…is it an earthquake?” Giuliana’s gaze darted around as if she was afrai
d the world would collapse on top of her.

  Soothingly, Kate trailed her fingers over Giuliana’s arm and felt the tense muscles tremble under her hand. “No. Don’t worry.” After what Giuliana had been through, she couldn’t blame her for being scared of aftershocks. “I think that’s the dynamiting. It has to be just two or three blocks away—right where we left the automobile.”

  They started to run, charging past people who sat in their front yards on rocking chairs and watched the fire approach. When they rounded a corner, another detonation shook the ground, this one even closer. The blast was so loud that Kate clutched her ringing ears. Just one block ahead, a shower of bricks rained down onto the cobblestones. Thick smoke rolled through the street toward them.

  Kate stumbled to a stop. Through stinging eyes, she stared into the smoke. Should she try to make it through before the next blast came? She glanced at Giuliana, who had paused next to her, gripping the canister of gasoline.

  Another deafening blast boomed. More bricks fell. The smoke became thicker, making them cough.

  No. She wouldn’t risk her life—and, more importantly, Giuliana’s—to get to the automobile. If she was judging the distance correctly, the motorcar might have already gone up in flames or been smashed to pieces anyway.

  She gripped Giuliana’s elbow and pulled her north.

  It would be a long walk home—and she didn’t look forward to facing her father and confessing that she’d lost the automobile.

  * * *

  As they trudged up Nob Hill, the sun started to set. The gas streetlamps hadn’t been lit, either because the gas mains had been broken by the earthquake or because the streetlamp lighter had fled—or worse—so no one was going from street to street and climbing up to open the gas valves.

  Still, there wouldn’t be a lack of light tonight. Scarlet walls of flames spiraled upward at the southern and eastern horizon, painting the sky blood-red and throwing dancing shadows on the blackened ruins of a dozen skyscrapers. In the west, the sun was setting behind a dense cloud of smoke in shades of gray, brown, and ochre.