Chinatown

A few days later, I got on the horn to Paulette.

"Hey, how goes it?  I've missed you.  I think we were both a little punch drunk after our last rendezvous."

"I know what you mean.  Oh God, I have had such a time lately."  Paulette sighed.

"Oh, what?"

"Oh, it's no big deal.  Well, it is a huge deal.  Barney is getting old and you know...."  Paulette's dog, Barney, was fifteen years old and his balance was failing him.  She'd find him lizard-like trapped on her slick kitchen floor.

"I'm sorry.  Barney is such a sweet guy."  I didn't know what to say.  A few years ago when my pooch Chrissy died, I cried for a month.  "Hey, I don't know if you feel like a field trip, but I would really like to drag you along."

"Yeah?"  Paulette hadn't really heard what I had said, I could tell.

"There is a tour of Chinatown tomorrow at noon.  It's only an hour, but we could do the tour and then have pupus at House of Nanking.  So, anyway, I've been reading the history of Chinatown.  Salacious!  There were these brothels that had fifty mats in a room and a girl - and I mean a girl - on every mat.  And you know the term shanghai'd - like to get shanghai'd, kidnapped - well that word originated in Chinatown.  Ship captains who needed a crew would make a deal with bartenders in Chinatown, who would liquor up a potential deck swab and then dump him through a trap door!  The guy would wake up on a boat in the middle of the Pacific Ocean.  Lots of weird shit, so I thought it'd be fun to take a tour."

"Yeah, okay, I'm in."  Paulette and I made plans to meet the next day.

It felt a little muggy as I waited for Paulette at the corner of Stockton and Vallejo Streets.  I spied her blond bob pop up above the dark haired fray and started towards her.  I started to wave, but recognized a look of alarm cross her face.  She was only a half block away and I started to trot.  "Paulette!"  Suddenly, she dipped out of sight.  Other pedestrians rushed toward me, and I found myself elbowing my way toward my twin.  And then I felt it:  a sudden wave going under my feet, under the sidewalk.  I staggered and pitched, finally catching my balance and making my way to Paulette.  "Come on!"  We grabbed each other's forearms and made our way to the produce market.  We clambered over a tipped-over table and some debris.  "Stand in the door!  Hurry!"  The shaking subsided and we took a breath.  But then, I heard a dull roar and another quake hit.  This time, rather than a wave, the shaking was violent and we saw through the window a gift store across the street slump down, like a child falling to his knees.

Some of the people around us starting speaking softly in Mandarin and pointing to the ground.  One man desperately started clearing debris and cabbages from the floor to expose a trap door.  Quietly, but quickly, men and women filed through the trap door, us included.  When we stepped into the basement, we were met with another big shake and dropped to the floor.

After the last tremor, Paulette turned to me, "Are you okay?" We both sat up.

"Yes, yes.  I'm fine.  Are you all right, Paulette?  Oh, look, you are bleeding!"  Paulette had a spot of blood seeping through the material of her skirt.   She pulled up her skirt and dabbed at the wound with her finger.  That was weird; I didn't remember her wearing a skirt when I first saw her.

"It's fine.  Just a flesh wound.  I wonder how these other people are doing?"  We took in our surroundings; we were sitting with maybe thirty people, all of whom seemed to be speaking in a Chinese language.  Some were bleeding, some were bending arms back and forth and others were holding children close to them. But then, we started to notice something else.  Their dress was antiquated - the men were wearing traditional Chinese jackets and the women were in long skirts.  And we were both in long skirts.  "What, why..." we said in unison.  Paulette and I were both wearing long wool skirts and jackets, with our long hair piled on top of our heads. We looked like the women in my history guide - the women from 1906.

"Claudette, this time I'm scared.  If this is what I think....The fire is coming."

"We have to get out of here."