The Tacoma times. [volume] (Tacoma, Wash.) 1903-1949, 1939-02-22
The Rains
Came
lContinued Bon Page 81

self and old Aunt Phoebe BY al n
Nature She saw that Aunt
Phoebe was aware Of the same IN
trusion. Il was as If a ghost had
entered the room and commanded
the attention ~ both Of them
The old lady looked at l-r and
started to speak. and then the
world about them seemed to come
to an end. The tiles beneath their
feet erinkled and broke apart. The
table rocked and the tea was
spilled on the fresh cloth. There
was the sound Of stone and NOR
tar cracking and crumbling. and
the lights went out as the distant
powerhouse was buried by the wall
Of water from the broken dam.
Then in the darkness Fern heard
Aunt Phoebe saying in funny
flat voice, Il guess that must have
been an earthquake.
Il suppose we ought TO 90 out
side at once. said Aunt Phoebe.
That's what my sister Doris said
she always did al Long Beach
when they had earthquakes. But
/ don't banker after going out IN
the rain. l suppose it would make
more sense If We went to sec what
had happened 10 the house. From
all the dust and smell you'd think
the whole place had come down"
The calmness of the old lady,
which wasn't perhaps so much
calmness as indifference. brought
Fern back TO her senses. and she
thought. What has happened 10
our house And to Ransome
Where was he -
And then she remembered that
he had gone out to dine with the
Bannerjecs, and thought quickly:
Anyway, that's not stone house.
Maybe wooden house is better in
an earthquake.
Half of the Smileys house the
front half looking on to the Dis
tillery road, had collapsed. but
there remained intact three bed
rooms and vast empty storeroom
which had not been made over
when the rest of the house vas
converted from barracks into mis-
sion. In some freakish fashion the
earthquake had demolished the one
end and left the other shaken but
still standing The old lady. fol-
lowed by Fern. regarded the
wreckage. making cluck ng
sound at the sight of the ruins of
house which she had always kept
in such fine order.
To Fern she said. II guess it was
lucky we were in the kitchen in
stead of the sitting ROOM" And
at the same moment they were
both aware of a strange sound
coming toward them distantly
from the direction of the town. a
sound vague and distant, COM
pounded of the rushing of water
and the wailing of people which
filled the emptiness of the silence
that succeeded the quake. Each
with a candle in her hand, they
stood the old woman and the girl.
listening, frightened now by the
new sounds which were less sud-
den and, being mysterious and less
immediate, were more terrifying.
Aunt Phoebe, pulling herself to-
gether, was the first to speak.
What on earth do you suppose
that could be ?" and then: Il guess
Bertha and Homer will be all
right. The night school is new
building and good and strong
1T sounds like yelling" said
Fern. Il want to go and see
what's happened to our house"
She was afraid now, deeply,
sickeningly afraid, because from
the house in the other garden
there had come no sound. If her
mother was there. or Hazel, they
would have screamed, because that
was their nature. One of them
would have come across the drive
no matter how much they hated
the Smileys. From the window
she could make out nothing in the
thick darkness nothing but
rain and the great branches of the
banyan trees reaching up and up
toward the black sky.
D.