PRESENT TENSE
Chapter Twenty
Saturday, May 10, 2003
Despite her exhaustion, Rose woke at around 5:30
the following morning. The sky was just beginning to lighten in the east as she
slipped from the sleeping bag and pulled on some clothes. After writing a brief
note to Sophie, she picked up her crutches and slipped out the front door.
Rose needed the crutches less and less now;
her ankle was well on its way to healing. Nevertheless, she carried them with
her as she walked slowly through the streets, occasionally using them for
support when her ankle grew tired.
Rose wandered quietly through the streets,
relishing the silence. She’d had little privacy over the past week, and it was
a relief to walk alone for a while.
She had little idea of where she was going,
and simply wandered aimlessly through the residential streets and out into the
downtown area.
No one was around. Few people were out and
about at such an early hour on a Saturday anyway, and the part of town she had
wandered into was still largely deserted, the buildings in ruins following the
earthquake.
Rose wandered past the burnt remains of cheap
wooden houses and apartment buildings, making her way in the direction of the
oldest part of town, where she had rescued Jack from the smoky jail a few days
before.
There was little left of the old brick
buildings. Most were in rubble, with a few walls still standing precariously.
The bricks themselves had not burned, but the contents of the buildings had,
and, looking in the direction of the city jail, Rose saw some twisted heaps of
mangled steel, where the extreme heat of the fire had melted the cell bars. She
shuddered, thinking of what would have happened if Jack had not been able to
break through the damaged wall with the ax.
Rose continued on, heading in the direction
of the shopping center that she had been in when the earthquake first struck.
All of the buildings were in ruins, although none had burned; the fire had died
out before it could reach this part of town.
Rose recognized the remains of the El Pollo
Loco restaurant, its sign still standing incongruously among the ruins. The
other buildings in the shopping center had been leveled by the cataclysm, and
several damaged cars were still scattered around the parking lot, some lying
upside down or half-buried in the rubble of the collapsed buildings.
As she crossed the street, she saw the
buildings that had collapsed upon herself and Jack. One wall of one of the
buildings still stood, but all of the others had collapsed into the pile of
rubble that had nearly trapped them. The cracked sidewalk was littered with
pieces of broken concrete and twisted pipes, causing Rose to wonder how they
had ever made it out alive. The odds had been against them, but somehow they’d
made it.
As she walked up the sidewalk, avoiding the
debris, she noticed the bloodstains that still marred the sidewalk. There had
been no rain in the past week, so the stains were still there. Rose stared at
them, shaking her head. It was nothing short of a miracle that Jack had
survived, his injuries had been so severe. Rose felt a chill as she realized
that if she hadn’t noticed how badly Jack was injured after they had been
trapped, he would have bled to death in the debris of the shattered buildings.
They had both been extraordinarily lucky.
Rose walked back across the street to the
broken remains of the restaurant. What hadn’t been destroyed by the earthquake
had been sacked by looters in the days that followed, but a few things still
remained intact.
She wandered over to the crevice that had
swallowed the SUV and had nearly swallowed her, curious as to whether it had
also been picked over by looters. The deep crevice, surrounded by shards of
broken glass, had remained untouched. Looking closer, Rose crouched down and
reached into one of the broken windows, retrieving her purse from where it had
caught on the parking brake and checking the contents. Everything was still
intact.
Glancing into the back seat, she saw the
drawing that Jack had made of her the previous Sunday afternoon and reached for
it, holding onto the headrest on the driver’s seat for support. Grabbing it,
she sat back up on the pavement, carefully avoiding the pieces of broken glass.
Rose gazed at the drawing, remembering how
happy she had been that afternoon. The picture reflected that, her face bearing
a real smile for the first time in weeks. Rose shook the shards of glass from
it and folded it carefully, tucking it into her purse. It was now torn on one
corner and slightly dirty, but she would always treasure it.
Rose stood up, remembering how she had tossed
it angrily into the back seat of the SUV just after Jack had been arrested for
stealing the ring. She had been shocked and devastated by the feeling of
betrayal, the feeling that he had only taken up with her so that he could more
easily steal from her. But later, after she had realized the extent of Cal’s
perfidy, she had risked her own life by going into the burning section of town
to save Jack’s life.
As she stepped back, her foot brushed against
something. It rolled out from under her foot, sparkling in the early morning
light. Rose bent down to see what it was.
It was her engagement ring. She picked it up,
wonderingly, realizing that Cal must have dropped it when the earthquake struck.
The diamonds had caused it to be hidden amongst the shards of broken glass.
Rose stared at the ring, remembering the
night that Cal had given it to her. She hadn’t wanted it then, but had
convinced herself that it was for the best. She knew better now. Cal could have
provided her with all the material comforts she could want, but there had never
truly been any love between them. Rose had long since stopped liking him, and
she had no idea whether Cal truly felt anything for her. The engagement had
been a mistake from the start, and Rose was glad that it over now.
She tucked the ring into her pocket and
started back toward Sophie’s house, carrying the few items she had recovered.
The ring and the contents of her purse were valuable, but Rose treasured the
drawing most of all. It had a value that could not be measured in money, and
the recovery of this tangible reminder of what she and Jack shared made her
feel more at peace.