Chapter 3

“Hello!” Lily called out. The aftershock had brought the ceiling down some more, but she was safely crouched at the lowest point in the bookstore. A scant thirty seconds earlier, and she would have been crushed between the wall and the ceiling, which she heard collapse in the room behind her. The decision to move toward the ground level entrance had been the right one.

Desperate to find the source of the voice she had heard, she yelled into the darkness. “Where are you? Are you hurt?” Hearing nothing, she feared the worst for the woman who had cried out. If the woman was up higher, she may have been crushed when the ceiling fell farther. “Talk to me! Where are you?”

Still no response.

Lily understood the danger she was in. The next tremor could bring the ceiling all the way down, sealing her underground with no hope of rescue. But she couldn’t forge ahead knowing there was someone else trapped here, someone who likely had no chance at all without her help. Her mind made up, she started to scramble toward the direction of the sound.

The bookstore was larger than Sycamore and Foot Locker combined, and lined with several shelves that had clung tight to their brackets rather than fall to the low point of the crevasse. Lily’s only option was to pick slowly through the debris, careful not to put her weight anywhere that might cause the structures to shift. From every vantage point where she could balance, she groped in the darkness for the feel of flesh or clothing that might belong to whoever had called out.

After combing the room for what seemed like an hour, she was left with only one possibility, and it wasn’t good. At the top of where the floor had fallen, along the back wall of the store, there was a ledge about six feet wide, similar to the one she was on in the fitting room. The ceiling had fallen on that side too, but not all the way. As best she could tell, there were some places that had at least two feet of clearance, enough to shelter someone who was trapped. But if the woman had been in one of the lower places during the aftershock, there was no guarantee she had survived. Lily steeled her resolve and pulled herself up.

The side closest to Foot Locker was where the ceiling was lowest, and she stretched her arm into the space and swung it from side to side. “Can you hear me? Are you there?”

After several minutes of crawling prone on the ledge, her hand brushed upon a full head of thick hair, then a warm face. She was flooded with relief, and almost giddy to finally find her quarry. “There you are. Thought you could hide, did you?”

She wriggled into the space alongside the woman, who was lying on her back. As her fingers traced the surroundings, she determined the woman was pinned by a fallen bookcase that seemed to be attached to the wall by a single bolt at its base. The top shelf lay across her chest and another across her hips. Lily found a strong carotid pulse, and gently patted the woman’s cheek until she felt her stir.

Another tremor began to shake their dungeon, prompting Lily to lean forward instinctively to shield her captive companion from falling debris. So great was the comfort of knowing she was no longer alone, she never gave a thought to how much precious time and energy it would take to free the poor woman.

 

Anna’s eyes fluttered open, but in the darkness, she couldn’t see who was touching her face. Nonetheless, she felt calmed by the presence of another person. “Thank god,” she murmured, shaking her head slowly from side to side. “I’m... the bookcase is...”

“Yeah, I can feel it across your chest. Can you move?” It was a woman’s voice, a young woman by the sound of it.

“It hurts. My leg... the whole weight of the shelf is on it. Every time I try to push it up off my chest, it presses harder into my knee,” she said. Taking a deep breath, she went on. “That last tremor made it hurt more. I think something fell on it.”

“That’s because it’s pivoting on a bolt where it’s still attached.” The woman knocked her knuckles on the ceiling. “It’s pretty low up here.”

Anna felt the woman’s hands wander across her abdomen. Then fingers slithered along the edge of the shelf where it held her hips firmly in place.

“Under normal circumstances, I’d buy you dinner first,” the stranger said, the lightness in her voice a welcome relief. “I’m Lily, by the way, in case you wanted to know who was feeling you up.”

Anna did her best to laugh, not minding at all the hands that brushed against her. “I’m Anna, and I can’t tell you how happy I am to meet you. I’ve been screaming for hours.”

“Yeah, well... sorry. I was busy trying on a new top.”

Anna was comforted by the woman’s gentle humor. She caught Lily’s hand and squeezed it. “Thank you for coming to help me.”

“No problem,” Lily returned the squeeze. Then she pulled her hand away and reached lower to gently touch Anna’s knee where the lower shelf pinched the swollen flesh. “I can see why this hurts so much. This shelf is digging into your leg. Let’s see if we can take some of the pressure off.”

“I can’t lift it.” From what she could hear, Lily was crawling around the area, shuffling books into stacks. “Please tell me you’re not straightening up.”

“Oh, good. A smartass.”

“Sorry. I just had a vision of being rescued by an obsessive-compulsive neat freak.”

Lily grunted, apparently struggling to move in the small confines. “Okay, here’s what we’re going to do. I need you to get ready to push up on the shelf on your end. I’m going to lift this end up at the same time and try to slide a couple of books under it. Then I’ll put some more books under your shelf. Little by little, we should be able to get it all the way off.” She crawled deeper onto the ledge until she was next to Anna’s knee. “Hang on... I just barely have enough head room to do this.”

“Just say when,” Anna said, gripping the shelf.

“Ready? Now.”

Lily grunted, apparently straining to hold the bookshelf with one hand while she used the other to slide the books. As soon as she got the lower ones positioned, she moved a stack next to the top shelf Anna was holding.

“Okay, you can let go.”

Anna did, immediately noting that while the shelf was still touching her knee, it was no longer digging in. She could have cried with relief. Her foot began to tingle as the blood once again surged through her lower leg.

“Is that better?”

“God, I can’t tell you! Most of the pressure is off my leg now.”

“Think you can do it again? One more time, and I think I’ll be able to pull you out.”

As the circulation returned to her leg, so did the pain, especially around the joint. “Ready when you are.”

They repeated the procedure, Lily adding another book to each stack. “How’s that? Can you move?”

“Yeah, it’s free. It hurts like hell.” Anna squirmed, trying to no avail to slide out of her prison. “I need to get out from under this thing.”

“Let me help.” Lily scooted behind her head and Anna clasped her hands together across her chest as Lily’s hands slid underneath her arms. “I’m going to back up a little at a time, and you tell me when you’re out.”

Inches at a time, Anna felt herself slide backward.

“Are you out?”

“Not yet.”

“Good god, woman! How tall are you?”

“About five-ten.”

“You’re an Amazon.”

Anna invoked the line she had used since she was twelve. “I’m perfectly normal for people my height. What are you, a Pygmy?”

“Only one of us is normal, and it ain’t you. I’m a respectable five-four.”

With every silly jibe, Anna let go of the tension that had gripped her since the earthquake. Almost overcome with relief, she grabbed Lily’s hand again and squeezed it hard. “I’m so glad you found me.”

Lily squeezed back. “Me too. Maybe two of us can make faster headway getting out of here.”

Anna sat up, stifling a yelp when she tried to bend the leg that had been pinched by the bookshelf. “Do you know what’s happened?”

“If I were guessing, I’d say the top floor collapsed. The only reason we’re still alive is because we were both so close to the back wall. There’s a huge crack in the floor that made the wall tilt forward. That kept the ceiling from coming all the way down back here, but every time there’s an aftershock it drops a little bit more.”

“Where were you?” It was weird talking to a stranger in total darkness. From her voice, Anna guessed she was relatively young, but mature—late twenties or early thirties.

“I was about to change my top in the fitting room at Sycamore. That’s two stores back. I came through a Foot Locker to get here.” Lily tugged her elbow. “Let’s move down to the lowest part in case there’s another aftershock.”

They slid slowly down the incline of the fallen floor to the lowest part of the room. Anna’s knee was throbbing, and she quickly discovered it wouldn’t support her full weight, but it was useless to complain. She followed Lily to the far wall, and sat while Lily shuffled about among the books. “How did you get here from the other store?”

“There’s a method to my madness, but I’m not totally sure what it is.”

“That gives me a lot of confidence. Please go on.”

“Like I said, this is the third store I’ve been in, and the space seems to be getting bigger, like maybe the ceiling hasn’t fallen as far. The dividing walls between the stores shifted too. In the first store, there was a gap at the floor right at the bottom of this trench and I dug out some of the dirt and crawled under it. This one didn’t have a gap at the bottom, but it had a hole at the ceiling because the wall sank with the ground,” Lily explained. “If we can keep moving in the same direction, I’m hoping we’ll find an opening, maybe some light from the atrium or even outside. There’s no way out back the way I came.”

“I don’t know about the light from the atrium. I think it’s dark by now.”

“You’re probably right. Do you have any idea what time it is?”

“No, but I’m wearing a very expensive watch.”

“Figures. I don’t suppose you have a cell phone?”

“It’s hooked up to my Blue Tooth in the car.” Anna hadn’t meant for every word out of her mouth to make her sound like a spoiled brat, but she was sure she was leaving that impression.

“And I bet your car has one of those little emergency systems, where you can punch a button and find the closest Starbucks.”

As a matter of fact, her luxury coupe was equipped with the top-of-the-line service assistance package from BMW. She decided not to offer that information, but Lily saw through her silence.

“All those fancy doo-dads and not one in your pocket. Now don’t you feel stupid?”

“Somewhat. So where’s your cell phone? Don’t tell me. Let me guess. You’re one of those technophobes.”

“No, but I dropped it into my console because I only intended to be in here for five minutes.” Lily sighed. “I bet you’re right though. It’s probably dark by now. Otherwise, we’d be able to see some light if there was a way out.”

“So what’s the plan?”

“It would be a shame to waste all that marvelous height.” Anna felt a pair of hands on her shoulders turning her in another direction. “The front of the store is this way. Why don’t you try feeling around the ceiling for a breeze, or even just air that’s a different temperature?”

“That would mean there’s a hole somewhere between here and the center of the mall.”

“Right. Oh, and I don’t want to scare you or anything, but when I was feeling around with my hands in that other room, I found a man who’d been killed.”

Anna gasped as the grim reality of their situation struck her. No matter how much they tried to make light of their predicament, today was no doubt a tragedy for many people. “That’s awful. So he was...”

“Yeah, I’d like to think it happened very quickly, though... you know, that maybe he didn’t suffer. All of those people...”

“I know what you mean.” Anna nodded in the dark, not even thinking of the fact that Lily couldn’t see her. “Maybe most of them got out.”

“I know I would have if I’d been closer to the door... and if I hadn’t been knocked unconscious when my head hit the wall.”

“You were knocked out?”

“Yeah, but I don’t know for how long.”

“I guess I was out of it too for a while, so who knows how long we’ve been in here.”

“Have you heard anything at all from the outside? Like people or machines trying to get in here?”

“Just some crazy woman talking to herself.” Anna chuckled. “Oh, wait. That would have been you.”

“Very funny.”

Whoever this Lily was, Anna knew she was brave and decent. And her confidence was contagious, she realized as she began her task, assured they would find a way out.

But after more than an hour of feeling with her fingertips along every nook and cranny at the ceiling’s edge, Anna had found no clue of a break in the collapsed walls at the front end of the store. And to top it off, her leg was aching badly, but that she kept to herself.

“I’ve got something!” Lily suddenly called, breaking a long silence.

“What?”

“It’s another pass-through near the top of the wall.” Her voice was coming from the far end of the store, directly opposite from where she had first entered the bookstore. “There was this little crack in the wall and I followed it all the way up. It gets bigger toward the top.”

“Is it big enough to squeeze through?”

“Maybe. Come give me a boost.”

“Keep talking in case I make a wrong turn and end up outside.”

“You’re a laugh a minute, Amazon.”

“You don’t want me to find the cookbooks. You think this is a disaster...” Anna scrambled along the dirt embankment, wincing as her weight came down on her injured leg. She braced herself against the wall, supporting herself almost entirely on her good leg, and offered Lily a two-handed boost to the top.

“Yeah, it’s definitely big enough,” Lily announced triumphantly. “Give me your arm and I’ll pull you up.”

Anna gripped Lily’s forearm and pulled herself high enough to hook her elbows over the ledge, giving her the needed leverage. When Lily dropped to the other side, Anna continued upward and through, falling in a heap amidst the pile of lace and satin lining the trench that bisected the store. Racks of wedding gowns had rolled into the gaping hole and toppled, layering the earth floor with a strange blanket of plush cloth.

“God, I could sleep for a week!” Lily exclaimed.

“Maybe we should stop and rest a while,” Anna suggested casually, falling beside her savior. She was already exhausted from her ordeal with the bookcase, not to mention hungry and thirsty. And her knee was screaming in pain.

“As tempting as that sounds, I’m still worried about the aftershocks. The ceiling dropped a little more back there during the last one, and the next one might finish the job. If that happens, I’d realize my worst fear.”

“What’s that? Being buried alive?”

“No, being caught dead in a bridal shop.”

 

Lily closed her eyes for a minute, silently thanking whatever deity had sent her a helping hand. Anna probably wasn’t the strongest woman, or even the most confident, but she seemed to Lily like a survivor, someone who wasn’t going to let herself be beaten by this situation or any other. And anyone who could keep her sense of humor under a pile of concrete like this one was all right in her book.

“I think the ceiling’s even higher here than it was in the bookstore,” Anna said.

“Yeah, that’s a good sign. Maybe it means we’re getting closer to a part that hasn’t collapsed.”

“Look, I know it’s a risk to stay put,” Anna said. “But my stomach tells me it’s getting pretty late, and if we stop and take a break for the rest of the night, we’ll have more energy for whatever’s next. And we’ll also have a better chance of seeing an opening in the daylight.”

Lily considered Anna’s point, but she couldn’t quell her anxiety about the aftershocks. “I’m still worried about the ceiling coming down. I really think it’s best if we keep moving for as long as we can.”

“So do I,” Anna admitted. “Except I don’t think I can go on right now. My knee is killing me. I need to rest it, at least for a couple of hours.”

Lily felt awful. She hadn’t even asked Anna if she was hurt. “Do you want me to check it? Maybe we can wrap it up with some of this cloth.” Lily reached in the darkness toward Anna’s leg and ran her hand up the shin to the inflamed joint. She heard Anna’s breath catch in her throat as she anticipated the tenderness. Lily was shocked to discover how swollen it was. “Why didn’t you say something? God, it must hurt like hell. We need to get that swelling down.” She groped around on the floor until she found what felt like a small display pedestal. Pulling it over to Anna, she piled several cloths—probably ten thousand-dollar wedding dresses, she guessed — on top to soften it, and gently lifted Anna’s leg to place it on the cushion.

“That feels good. Maybe you should go ahead by yourself. I can try to catch up when the swelling goes down. Or when you get out, you can tell them where I am. I’m only going to slow you down.”

Lily didn’t hesitate. “No way, we’re going out together. I guess we’ll be safe here for a while. It’s a low point. And by now, the aftershocks shouldn’t be as big. We might as well rest a few hours and move out when your leg’s better. Besides, with two of us, we should make good time if we’re rested.”

Lily leaned back and got as comfortable as she could.

A minute or so passed and Anna asked into the darkness, “So why are you so afraid of bridal shops?”

“Let’s just say that walking down the aisle in a white dress has never been on my list of dreams.”

“Wish I’d had that foresight,” Anna muttered. “How did you get to be so wise?”

“Well, it isn’t wisdom, exactly.” Lily wavered. She was usually up front about her sexuality, but finding herself trapped with a homophobe would be the icing on the cake for a day like today. “It just isn’t for me.”

“Sorry, I didn’t mean to get personal.”

“No, it’s okay... I just... I’m gay.”

Silence. More silence.

As was often the case, Lily suddenly wished she had gone with her instincts and kept her mouth shut.

“Oh... so you really were feeling me up?”

 

From the sleep of the dead, Lily was jolted awake by a powerful aftershock. Without even thinking, she reached out for Anna and clasped her hand while the earth shook. The already buckled ceiling above them groaned under the weight of the collapsed building. She uttered a silent prayer that what was left of the walls and supports would hold. She could hear the sound of metal scraping and twisting and smelled the fresh dust and debris loosened by the rumble.

“You okay?” Anna asked when the tremors stopped.

“All things being equal, I’d prefer waking up to Morning Edition. ” Lily drew in a deep breath, and brushed against Anna as she stretched her arms. “We’d better get a move on. I don’t know about you, but I’m ready to get out of here.” She helped Anna to her feet. “How’s the knee?”

“Better,” she answered, but with enough hesitation to leave doubts.

“I guess we should get moving again then.”

“How about you?”

Lily realized she didn’t feel so hot herself. “Okay, I guess. I have a cut over my eye and it’s making my head hurt.”

“Are you bleeding?”

“I don’t think so. Not anymore.”

They repeated the drill from the bookstore. Anna crawled to the front of the bridal shop and checked along the top of the dirt wall for a draft, while Lily felt along the wall for a gap at either the ceiling or the floor.

“I think we’re going to have to dig this time. There’s a hole here but it isn’t big enough to crawl through. We need to—”

“Listen!”

A faint whirring sound could be heard emanating from beyond the bookstore, but it stopped as suddenly as it had started. Someone was looking for them.

Lily sat frozen for several long minutes after the noise had stopped, straining desperately to hear the sound again.

“What do you think it was?” Anna asked.

“It sounded like a drill.”

“Maybe we should go back the way you came. It sounds like they’re looking back there for survivors.”

“There is no back there, Anna. I think that first aftershock brought the ceiling down all the way in the shop where I started. Besides, I doubt we can get past the bookstore.”

“Then maybe we should wait here for them to get to us.”

“I don’t know. Do you remember what the mall looked like from outside?”

“Sort of. I turned in from Endicott. I think the parking garage was on the left, and the—”

“That’s right. The garage was on the flat part. But the mall was on a hill, and the main entrance was on the top floor at the far end,” Lily said.

“That’s right. I remember. I parked in the garage and came in on the ground floor... this floor, to be exact.”

“And I parked on the upper level and came down the escalator. That means we’re underground here, underneath that top floor. We have to keep moving toward the parking garage to get above ground level.” The way Lily saw it, even if rescue workers had started to excavate the areas underground, they would be more likely to walk out in one piece if they reached the end of the mall.

“So we keep digging.”

“Right.”

“Right.”

With their bare hands, they worked for what seemed like hours to chip away the rocky dirt from the bottom of the wall, Lily lost in thoughts of being trapped in an underground prison. Once the hole was big enough to crawl through, she tried it, but there wasn’t enough room to maneuver on the other side. They had to scrape out a trench that would let them pull themselves all the way through.

Sweating profusely from the exertion, she pulled off her suit jacket and tossed it aside. “I picked a great day to wear my favorite suit, huh?”

“Yeah, me too. I had a meeting downtown, so I put on one of my best.”

“What kind of work do you do?”

“I sell cars. What about you?”

Anna’s response surprised her. From their brief conversations, this woman sounded well-educated and cultured, not like someone who told you a bunch of sleazy lies to separate you from your hard-earned money. “I’m a lawyer.”

“I would have guessed that. You strike me as someone who could be pretty argumentative.”

Since the darkness prevented either woman from seeing the other’s expression, Lily was glad to get a jab from Anna’s elbow to let her know she was only teasing. “Hey, watch it. You ever been sued for personal injury?”

“I guess I’d better move my ass... ets.”

“Funny. Hey, I’m going to see if I can get through. That way I can dig faster on the other side.”

“Sure you haven’t changed your mind and decided to leave me here?”

“Don’t be silly. I still need you for tall person things.” She started for the hole but stopped. “Hey, I don’t want you to take this personally, but before I go...”

“Yes?”

“I’m going back over by the other wall and take a leak. Cover your ears or something.”

“I see. And then you’re going to crawl through that hole and leave me in here. Do I have that right?”

“Right.”

 

Anna squirmed on her back through the tight hole, glad to get an extra tug from Lily on the other side. Every time she pushed with her injured leg, pain radiated all the way to her ankle. To that, she added the tenderness across her upper chest, imagining she probably had a horrific bruise from where the bookcase had struck her and pinned her to the ground. “Where are we now?”

“It’s another shoe store. Dress shoes and purses. Need anything?”

“Why couldn’t it be one of those vitamin stores with all those energy drinks?”

“I know what you mean.”

“How long do you think it’s been, Lily? I’d guess at least twenty-four hours.”

“Yeah, probably. If I’d known this was going to happen, I would have finished my lunch.” Lily snorted. “I hate to think what my car smells like right now. I left an unwrapped cheeseburger on the front seat.”

“Onions?”

“Probably. I only got one bite before this giant blob of ketchup fell out and landed in the middle of my chest. I was supposed to be back in court at one o’clock. That’s why I had to run in here and buy a new top.”

“You’re kidding.” Anna started to laugh. “I have to know. Are you still wearing that top?”

“Yeah, I’d just walked into the fitting room when the earthquake hit. Why?”

“I’ve been worrying that putrid smell was some kind of poisonous gas. Turns out it’s just you.”

“Stop it.” Lily smacked her arm playfully. “I can’t help it.”

There was something almost surreal about the way they were laughing and teasing each other, Anna thought. It was as if both were only too aware of the danger they were in and unwilling to face it with anything but optimism. If she let herself think about it—which she usually did in those long quiet moments while she was blindly searching the cracks and corners—she knew there was no guarantee they would get out of here. Before long, they might be too weak or dehydrated to push ahead. But not talking about it was the only strategy that kept them going.

“What were you buying in the bookstore?” Lily asked.

She recalled the book she had been holding when the ground started to shake, but pushed it out of her mind. “I came to pick up a book for my brother-in-law. I had it right there beside me. I’d go back for it if you hadn’t peed all over the floor right where we had to climb up.”

“Me? What about you?” Lily shoved her shoulder. “I heard you going too after I crawled in here.”

“You pervert. I should have known you were listening.”

“I couldn’t help it. I thought a water pipe had broken.”

No matter how hard she tried to feign offense, Anna couldn’t stifle a laugh. “If the rescuers came in right now and heard us laughing like this, they’d cart us off to a rubber room.”

“Maybe,” Lily said. “But if I have to be stuck in a place like this, I’m glad it’s with someone who has a sense of humor. If you had been one of those hand-wringing wailers, I probably would have left you back in the bookstore.”

“No, you wouldn’t have. You talk a tough story, but you’re a creampuff. I can tell.”

“No, you can’t. I’m a lawyer. I’m supposed to be tough as nails.”

Anna’s thoughts turned serious as she mentally clicked through the women she knew—her sister Kim, her business acquaintances or the privileged girls she had known growing up in Beverly Hills. She couldn’t think who among them would have the strength or determination to take charge of this predicament the way Lily had. “You are tough. I’ll give you that.”

 

As in Foot Locker, shoes boxes were piled high in the middle of the sunken floor, making it difficult to walk without stumbling. But the crevasse in this store wasn’t as deep as in the last, which Lily hoped meant they were nearing the way out.

At least that’s what she kept telling herself. By her estimation they should already be above ground, but there still wasn’t any light from the atrium. Given the strength of the quake, it was possible the collapse of the second floor had driven the entire lower level underground, especially since the ground had ruptured. She didn’t want to think about it, but it was possible they would reach the end of the mall only to remain trapped.

What worried her most was how low the ceiling was in this store. Up to now, it had gotten progressively higher, suggesting they would eventually reach a room that was intact. But it was possible the end of the crevasse meant the total collapse of the second floor.

Those were thoughts she kept to herself. Nothing good could come from voicing her doubts, doubts that might make them give up and wait for help that might never come.

Just as she thought again about rescuers, the whirring sound they had heard before returned, sounding even farther away this time. “You hear that?”

“It sounds like a drill,” Anna said.

“Or a saw. Maybe they’re trying to cut through the concrete.”

“Are you sure we shouldn’t be heading in that direction?”

Lily slumped onto the floor in frustration. “I don’t know, Anna. I thought we’d be safer here than back there, especially since I heard the ceiling fall behind me. Like I said, I’m not even sure we could get past the bookstore anymore.”

“You’re probably right.”

“Or not. I’m just flying by the seat of my pants here.” It was one thing to take responsibility for her own lot, but quite another to decide the fate of someone else. “If you really think we should try to go back, let’s go.”

“I don’t know either. I hate to waste time chasing some noise when we don’t even know where it’s coming from. For all we know, they’re up there trying to free people that they’ve already found on the second floor.”

“Anna, they probably don’t even know this hole is down here. If we can’t see the atrium, they can’t see through to us.”

“Then we should keep going the way we’re going.”

“Are you sure? I’m willing to try going back.”

“No, Lily. I think your instincts are right. But maybe we ought to try making some noise of our own.”

As Anna yelled and screamed, Lily rummaged around on the floor for something heavy she could use to bang on the walls and ceiling. The only tool of substance was a metal shoe sizer, which made a pinging noise that she doubted would carry beyond the room. “This might make a good shovel,” she said. “You keep yelling and I’ll start digging.”

Anna did, stopping on occasion to listen for a sign she had been heard. “I bet you’re right. They’re up there on the other end of the mall picking through whatever fell from the top floor. Are you having any luck?”

“Does bad luck count?” Lily dropped the shoe sizer and wiped the sweat from her face. “I’ve dug almost a foot down and it’s nothing but concrete. This must have been a support wall or something.”

“And there’s nothing at the ceiling?”

“Not that I can find, but maybe you can feel a little higher.” Lily didn’t want to say it, but it was hanging in the air. “We might have to turn back after all.”

She could hear Anna shuffling through the shoe boxes as she crossed the store to sit down on the dirt embankment. “We’re going to get out of here, Lily. I’m sure of it.”

“Oh yeah?”

“I just don’t think you would have come along and pulled me out from under that bookshelf if I was meant to die in here.”

“I hope you’re right, Amazon.”

 

Anna found a gap at the top of the wall, but determined it was only about two inches high and four inches across, and the wall was reinforced with immovable metal shanks. “We’ll just have to think of something else,” she said, trying her best to sound reassuring. She could tell Lily had grown discouraged.

“We could use a few minutes to rest anyway, right?”

Grateful for the temporary reprieve, Anna sank to the floor. She was about to doze off when it suddenly occurred to her to wonder what was going on outside their tomb. The sound from above had stopped, a likely sign that rescuers had given up. “Who’s waiting for you if we make it out of here?”

“I’m not sure anyone is. I told our secretary I had to run an errand but I didn’t say where.”

“So no girlfriend?”

“No. I’m between heartbreaks.”

“Yeah, I bet. I would guess you’re the heartbreaker. You seem like somebody who can handle being in charge.”

“It’s a ruse.” Lily was quiet for a moment. “Is anyone waiting for you?”

“My husband, I guess.”

“You guess?”

“I told them at the dealership I was stopping in here to get the book. So I’m sure they told him and he’s there by now.” Anna grew pensive. She didn’t want Lily to think she had married an ogre, but this dismal prison was depressing enough without adding to their misery by telling her sorry tale. “I don’t want to give you the wrong impression. My husband’s a good man. It’s just that we may have rushed a bit in getting married.” She paused and voiced her fear aloud for the first time. “I’m not sure we’re going to make it.”

“How long have you been married?”

“Not all that long... a little over a year.”

Lily placed a hand on Anna’s shoulder. “If you want to talk about it, I’m not going anywhere. Literally.”

“No, that’s okay.” Anna shook her head in the dark. It was humiliating enough just to dwell on it. Sharing it with someone else would make it unbearable. “I’ve had a lot of trouble talking about it. It’s just one of those things I’m going to have to work out on my own. And with my husband.”

“You rushed into it, huh? How long did you know him?”

“About four months before we got engaged... and another four before the wedding.”

“That’s a lifetime compared to lesbians. Haven’t you heard what a lesbian brings along on a second date?”

“I have no idea.”

“A U-Haul.”

Anna didn’t understand at first, unless it meant—“Are you saying lesbians move in with each other after only one date?”

“Not really, but it happens enough to be the stereotype. I think if lesbians could get married, most of us would. We’re pretty big on instant commitment.”

“Would you be married?”

“No, but that’s no thanks to me. I seem to be most attracted to women who don’t want commitment.”

“But you want it?”

“I always thought I’d like that... spending my whole life with somebody. It would be nice to think someone would always be there for me.”

Anna sighed. “I thought I wanted it too, but I’m not so sure anymore.” Despite her stated reluctance to talk about the situation with Scott, here she was, saying things to a virtual stranger she hadn’t told another soul. “I don’t know. Maybe I don’t have what it takes to be married.”

“What does your husband do?”

“He’s a professor at USC. I met him when I was getting my MBA. He was...” How much did she want to say? That Scott was different because he was interested in her business ideas? That he wasn’t so focused on getting her between the sheets? “He’s a very nice man.”

“Just maybe not the man for you?”

Anna groaned and relaxed against the dirt wall.

“I know. You don’t want to talk about it, but here we are all alone trying not to think about starvation and doom. You have a humanitarian obligation to keep me entertained,” Lily said as she tapped the shoe sizer against the ceiling.

“Fine. So we started spending time together and talking about the things we had in common. At first, it wasn’t even like we were dating. We just got to know each other as friends and he turned out to be the first man I’d met who had all the things I always thought I wanted in a husband. He was kind, interesting... good father material. And he didn’t act like I was some kind of trophy.” Nor did he seem interested in her family’s money. “Then we sort of took things to a romantic level and I started thinking maybe he was the one. Eventually we got engaged and my parents planned this gigantic spectacle of a wedding.”

In the dark, Lily handed her a jagged piece of tile, something she had chipped off the ceiling. “You must be an only child.”

“No, but my sister eloped, so my wedding had to make up for her too.” Anna shuddered inwardly at her memories of the elaborate affair. Over four hundred people had witnessed their vows—promises that now stood in shambles unless Anna could find it in herself to recommit to her marriage. Another piece of tile landed in her lap. “What is this stuff you keep handing me?”

“Get up, Amazon. We’re going through the ceiling.”