Olivia's Mine (8 page)

“Yes sir. Come on over and I’ll introduce
you,” he said, making his way back to the ladies.

Olivia took the beverage Frank brought and
put it down on a table.

“Frank, I love this song, let’s go dance,”
Olivia begged, not paying much attention to the stranger with him.
She had met so many people that night, she couldn’t remember who
she had been introduced to and who she hadn’t. They were becoming a
blur.

“Liv, I’d love to, but my leg’s killing me.
I’m sorry. I need to sit down for a few minutes.”

“Well then,” McMichael said, literally sizing
her up. “I would be happy to have a dance with your wife, Frank.
Olivia isn’t it? I’m J.W. McMichael.”

Olivia hesitantly looked at Frank who in turn
gave her a hesitant go-ahead, as McMichael placed his hand across
her back and led her onto the dance floor.

“Oh sure Frank,” Lucy said, “throw her to the
wolves her first day.”

“Why doesn’t he ask you to dance Lucy? I mean
if he wants to dance so much? I know he likes you. I think upon
occasion I’ve even seen him throw a smile your way.”

“Because,” she replied, “I’m taller than he
is. I tower over him and he can’t stand it.”

The crowded dance floor soon made room for
the new couple.

“Thank you for inviting me, Mr. McMichael,”
Olivia said. “That was quite kind of you. I didn’t know anyone
beforehand, but I’ve met quite a few of the townspeople tonight.
Your daughters are quite beautiful.”

“Thank you Olivia,” he said, taking her into
his arms. “I hadn’t realized that I did invite you, but no matter.
It is a pleasure to have you living in this town. I hope you’re
happy here. That’s a lovely dress you are wearing. Do you mind if I
ask where you got it?”

Olivia was taken aback by the question.

“It was a birthday gift from my parents. I’m
not sure where they got it.”

“Ah, well it’s just that the workmanship is
so detailed. I thought it might have come from a private clothier
in Seattle. My wife had one very similar once. A gift from a friend
of the family. I thought perhaps they were made by the same shop,
that’s all. Your parents have remarkable taste.”

“Is your wife here? I don’t think I’ve met
her yet,” Olivia asked innocently.

McMichael stopped dancing.

“No, she died, I’m afraid.”

“I’m sorry sir, I didn’t know…”

“Please call me McMichael, everyone else does
around here. It’s like it’s my given name, not my surname.”

“I think I’d better call you Mr. McMichael,
as obviously I’m not very familiar with you, and you are Frank’s
boss. That’s probably more appropriate. Again, I am terribly sorry
about your wife, I didn’t know.”

McMichael was comforted by the sincerity in
her voice.

“Well, you will be hearing many things about
me over the next few days, I’m sure. It would have come up
eventually. Good to hear Frank hasn’t been gossiping about the
boss.”

Olivia blushed at that remark and McMichael
noticed how the colour only made her more stunning.

“Hmm. Well then, I see the music has stopped.
I’d better take you back to your husband. Welcome to Britannia,
Olivia. Make sure he’s not late for work in the morning. I’m sure
you’ll find everything you need at one of the stores in town. If
not, let the shopkeeper know and we will have it brought in for
you. We like to keep the money in the town, to keep people
employed, so outside goods are frowned upon, just so you’re aware.
It was a pleasure to meet you,” he smiled, releasing her, as the
dance was done.

“Well he’s a bit of a pompous chore,” Olivia
said when she was safely sitting on Frank’s lap. “Let me guess. He
owns the most of stores in town?”

“Nothing gets passed you, pretty lady,” he
said, kissing her softly on the neck.

The old steam clock in the centre of town
struck midnight, letting out eleven short whistles, followed by one
long blast.

“Does that go off every night?” Olivia
asked.

“It does, but you’ll get used to it. I hardly
hear it anymore,” Lucy replied.

“It’s a little quieter up the hill where you
are,” Frank admitted. “There’s been a few nights when I’ve wanted
to stuff a sock in it.”

“Last call!” the bartender yelled above the
music.

“I’ll go get us another one,” Frank
offered.

“No more for me Frank,” Lucy said “I really
need to get home, I should have gone hours ago. I’ll never hear the
end of it from Marty. I was just having so much fun with you
two.”

“Cut the music,” McMichael said, taking the
microphone from the singer’s hand. “I want to make a farewell toast
to the bride and groom.”

The musicians stopped playing and the hall
grew silent. But only for a moment.

A thundering noise could be heard outside, a
noise that was so loud it caused the walls of the dance hall to
vibrate.

“Oh my God, what’s that?” Lucy asked.

McMichael took control over the panicking
crowd. “Men, outside! I want the women and children to remain
indoors. Mrs. Schwindt, take care of the girls. Keep them
inside.”

“What is it? An earthquake?” Olivia asked.
Earthquakes had been known to occur at various locations up and
down the Pacific coast.

“I don’t know Liv,” Frank replied. “Do what
he says, stay here, I’m going outside.”

The rain had mercifully let up, giving the
men emerging from the hall a clear look at the horror that was
unfolding before them. A torrent of mud and debris was coming down
from the top of the Jane Mountain at a tremendous speed. The entire
north face of the mountain above the 1000-foot mark had split from
the mountainside and was sliding down towards the town site. The
noise became deafening as the rock crushed what had once been
longhouse number six, home to eight Chinese workers of the mine,
their cries for help stymied by the rumbling force of Mother
Nature. Louder and louder the noise got as the rubble worked its
way like falling dominoes down the side of the mountain, toppling
one structure after another and carrying parts of them in its path
of destruction.

“What do we do?” Frank asked McMichael.

“Nothing. We do nothing.”

Frank looked at him cold-heartedly. McMichael
read his mind.

“Right now, we are safe and we are alive.
She’s cutting a path down the east slope. Simpson, get Dr. Van den
Broek over here. He’s been at the bar all night, so he’s probably
still there. Get him some coffee and sober him up. I want every
available medically trained person over to the hospital
immediately, and that includes the vet. Christianson, start
knocking on doors and get every available man down here and form
rescue teams. We’re going to need to get up there and get help to
those who need it. You, Clarkson, we’ll need some stretchers from
the hospital and Jeffries, get the stretchers from base camp. The
dead are going to stay dead. Got that? We take care of the injured
first. But we are not going up to the top camp until it is safe to
do so.”

Lucy, true to her nature, came out from the
hall to take a look despite McMichael’s instructions not to do
so.

“Get back inside,” McMichael yelled at
her.

“Oh my God, it’s going towards my house!”

She froze in horror.

“I said get back inside Lucy!”

“My babies!” she cried, and bolted into the
street. “Oh my God…my family…”

McMichael ran after her and grabbed her
forcefully. “I said get inside.”

He shook her. “Do you hear me? Lucy!”

“Yes, of course I hear you…oh my God, my
little girl, she can’t hear the noise…”

“Leave her alone,” Frank snarled, his hatred
for the man pulsing through his veins. How dare he rough up the
woman. Could he not see the shock draining all but the slightest
colour from her face?

“Do you really want her to see this
Fitzpatrick?” McMichael asked, turning her head and giving her to
Frank, a fleeting moment of compassion in his voice. “You get in
the hall, and you tell that young wife of yours that you need her
to keep Lucy and the other women who are in a state of shock,
inside the hall. We will get some blankets brought over. Olivia’s
new here. She’ll be able to help them without any pre-conceived
notions or prejudices. I need her to be compassionate. You don’t
need any training for that, but it’s not something all of us have.
From where I’m standing, you and your wife have come out of this
very lucky. So you save that attitude of yours for another time and
place. I have a job to do, and right now, it isn’t very pleasant. I
have to count the dead. I have to decide where to set up a
temporary morgue. Do you really want to be in my position?”

Frank, somewhat humbled, took Lucy back
inside. There was wisdom in McMichael’s words if not in his
actions.

The thought of the lives of her loved one’s
ending so abruptly was too much for Lucy to bear. She sobbed
hysterically.

“Oh my God, Marty!” she wailed. “Marty’s
gone…and Melissa, she just had a little cold. I should have stayed
home with them. I should have brought them to the wedding anyway.
Robbie wanted to come and I said no, I didn’t think there would be
any other children here…”

“My lord Frank, what is it? What happened?”
Olivia asked.

“Mountain slide,” he replied, nodding towards
Lucy. “She’s right. They’re gone. There’s no way they could have
survived that. The whole two upper levels of the town…”

Frank’s voice choked and he could not
continue.

Olivia remembered her new friend’s
conversation on the boat. How these were the only children she
would ever be able to have.

“What?” Olivia asked, shocked.

“I saw it, Liv. I saw the rocks come crushing
down on their home. It pummelled it like it was made of paper.
There’s nothing left. McMichael’s asked if you could stay here,
with her and the other women, in the hall, as there’s going to be
more bad news tonight. I guess he thinks you’ve got a warm heart.
Please, stay with her, and help the others. I need to go back
outside to help.”

Olivia put her arms around Lucy.

“Lucy, if there’s anything I can do…”

Lucy just looked away.

What can anyone really do when your family
has been taken from you in one swift act of God, Olivia asked
herself? Call it Mother Nature, call it fate…call it what ever you
want. Nothing prepares you for a loss as great as she was
suffering.

Olivia sat her down and Lucy began rocking,
in a catatonic state.

Frank went back outside. The tons of rock had
crashed down to the lower level campsite, taking Lucy’s home and
five others along with it, and reduced them to rubble. The thunder
was now silent. There was devastation everywhere. People started to
emerge into the street with candles.

Akiko, who had been making her way over to
the hall when the rumble began, turned around and glanced towards
her home, where she was relieved to see Harry and Jimmy safe on the
doorstep. Their home had been spared. She must remember to burn
incense, she thought, in honour of the saving of her family’s
life.

“We need blankets taken to the dance hall. Go
get them,” McMichael barked at her, and she was only too happy to
do so, to be of some assistance. She searched her mind for the
English words to say. “So sorry,” was what she was able to come up
with.

McMichael nodded.

“I want every man available to get his
flashlights and gear and assemble at the foot of the mine. Divide
up into crews of four. Do not separate under any circumstances. Go
up and down the mountain together. I want you to report the number
of injured people to your crew chiefs. I am going to ask you to
make a judgment that I hope I never have to ask you to make again
in your life. If they look like they are about to die, they
probably are. Leave them. If they are talking, in pain, but able to
move and speak coherently, leave them for now. Take the most
severely injured out first. Injured means alive, unconscious with a
pulse, turning blue, or bleeding severely.”

He touched under his neck.

“You feel your own pulse under your chin?
That’s what you’re looking for. If they don’t have one, they don’t
go. Now let’s get to it.”

The men broke into groups and started to make
their way up the mountain.

And like a moment’s rest from the tragedy
surrounding him, Frank came across an extraordinary site. There at
the base of the rubble, was Tan Chui, one of the immigrant workers
from longhouse six. He had come down the entire side of the
mountain inside a ball of debris. Like a massive snowball making
its way down an avalanche, Tan had tossed and rolled down to the
town. Frank glanced up at the distance he must have travelled and
shook his head.

“Mr. McMichael, come see this. You’re not
going to believe it, but I think he’s still alive.”

McMichael began to walk over towards Tan. He
touched his fingers to his neck again to remind Frank to check to
see if Tan were indeed still alive. As Frank moved aside some wood
and mud, finding Tan's head, then his throat, Tan let out a moan,
scaring Frank half to death at the same time. Frank quickly pulled
back his fingers from Tan’s throat.

“I’d say he’s alive,” McMichael agreed. “Get
him over to the hospital.”

Tan’s face was beginning to swell, his face
covered with lacerations. Pieces of wood and glass were embedded in
his forehead, which was bleeding profusely.

“Should we move him?” Frank asked.

“Well,” McMichael paused, “we really don’t
have a lot of choice, we don’t know how secure this area really is.
Clear the rubble from around him as best you can. Keep his neck
straight and slide that stretcher under him. It’ll take a few of
you to do it. That’s why I wanted you in fours. Get some cloth and
put some pressure on that forehead wound. Don’t worry, it looks
worse than it is. The head tends to bleed. That’s the least of his
troubles.”