Excerpt of The Crepe Makers' Bond by Julie Crabtree

The earthquake started like they always do. Suddenly. Nicki and M were sitting on barstools watching me fold won tons one minute, and the next second we were all thrown on the floor. I instinctively crouched against the cabinets as the wave-like motion of the earth rattled the flour canister off the counter. It hit my arm on its way down. My hearing became incredibly sharp. I instantly registered clacking silverware, pots and pans jingling deep within the cabinets, glasses and bowls clattering delicately, and outside the jarring blares of dozens of car alarms. My own sharp breathing was loudest of all. The floor’s vibration traveled through my knees and hummed in my belly. Shredded carrots and a won ton wrapper tumbled from the counter and landed next to me.

M yelled, "Stay down, Nicki!"

I heard Nicki say something but the fruit bowl clattered to the ground just then and I couldn’t make out words, only the fear. An apple rolled to a stop against my leg and, insanely, I wondered if the fall had bruised it.

Then, just as suddenly, it stopped. I stood up cautiously and peeked out the window. A hose reel had tumbled onto my mother’s border of violets, smashing their delicate purple heads into the dirt. Our neighbor’s wind chime had fallen and shattered.

Nicki’s voice startled me out of my trance. She asked, "Are you both okay?"

I looked over at M, who was picking up paper napkins that had dropped to the floor with the first jolt. She nodded. No one said anything else. It was one of those weird frozen-in-time moments, like we were just hovering in space or something. I realized it was the absolute motionlessness of the earth that created this sensation.

There is no more complete feeling of stillness then right after an earthquake. You can’t imagine how unmoving ground feels like such a gift. You want to trust it, but you can’t. See, there are always aftershocks, little jolts and pulses beneath your feet reminding you that nothing is ever completely reliable. Not even the ground under your feet.

In my mind I always see that day, the day of the quake, as the point when things began to shift between me and M and Nicki. I would begin to see everything that happened as either before the quake or after the quake. It was the start of the hardest year of my life. Well, my life so far."