Chapter Sixteen
Eight years, two months, fifteen days ago
When Helen planned her wedding to Tyler, she never thought they would lose someone they loved on their special day.
She was alone in her wedding dress when the earthquake hit.
Moments before the mounted lamps on the wall started to quiver, Helen spun around in her heels in front of the full-length
mirror in the hotel suite. She’d chosen a timeless design for her forever dress: a corset-style bodice with a sweetheart neckline,
fitted waist, and a full tulle skirt of lace-embroidered floral motifs. She felt like a princess, and in less than an hour,
she’d be a queen. Or, more accurately, a Mrs.
The Pacific Northwest was earthquake country, but they were usually so small you didn’t even feel them. Helen had felt only
a couple of minor earthquakes in her life, so they weren’t on her list of wedding concerns. The possibility of rain during
the ceremony? Yes. The earth ripping open? No.
The wedding and reception were taking place at a sprawling two-story oceanfront inn two hours from Seattle on the coast. It was a warm and breezy August day, and they were going to say their vows on the lawn with views of the Pacific Ocean during the golden hour before sunset.
Today’s sky was dotted with puffy clouds in the deep blue, and the air smelled crisp and fresh.
Helen had enough hairspray in her updo that it should hold with the ocean breezes, which was important since they weren’t going to do any couples photos until after the ceremony.
She didn’t want Tyler to see her in her wedding dress until it was time.
Mother Earth had other ideas though.
Helen had just sent her three bridesmaids out to check on things when the room began to shake.
Unless the ceiling caved in, there was nothing to fall from above, so Helen sat on the bed and waited. The deep rumbling sound
made it seem as though the earth was groaning. The large second-story windows overlooking the ocean trembled, and just as
she was starting to feel a wash of dread, it was done.
That wasn’t so bad, she thought. Hopefully the glass centerpieces on the ballroom tables hadn’t tipped over.
In a way, it was a disappointment that almost everyone Helen loved had experienced the earthquake together, and she’d been
with no one. Any moment, her bridesmaids would come bursting back into the room, buzzing with excitement over it. She hoped
they had thought to check the glass centerpieces first.
It couldn’t have been more than two minutes before she heard a loud knock on the door and then Tyler’s voice. “Helen?”
She went to the door and spoke through the wood, laughing a little. He must have run up the stairs and down the hall to check
on her. “Honey, I’m all right. It wasn’t that bad. Is everything okay in the ballroom?”
“It’s all fine. But we have to go.”
“What?”
“I know. I’m sorry. Can you open the door?”
“I’m in my dress, Tyler!”
“Helen.” He had a strange tone, both pleading and firm.
So Helen opened the door, but she stayed hidden behind it. She peered out at him with one eye, trying to hide her hair and
makeup.
Tyler, handsome in his black suit, smiled apologetically. “How do you feel about doing our ‘first look’ right now in the hallway?”
She felt a lurch in her chest. They weren’t supposed to see each other until she appeared at the end of an aisle lined with
white hydrangeas as he stood waiting at the altar. Something had to be seriously wrong.
“Hold on.” Helen hurried to grab her purse and phone from inside the room. By the time she stepped into the hallway, her heart
was pounding.
Tyler’s apologetic expression was instantly replaced with one of wonder as he took in the sight of her. “Oh, Helen.”
“Do you like it?” Helen said in a rush as she felt her eyes get shiny. There wasn’t time to savor it though. “Why are we in
the hallway? Just tell me!”
Tyler’s eyes turned shiny too, and he took her hand. “You are so gorgeous. I don’t know how I got to be so lucky,” he said.
And then he breathed out. “But we need to go to higher ground.”
“Higher ground?”
He led her down the hallway. “We shouldn’t stay at sea level after an earthquake. Just in case.”
“Oh my God! Is a tsunami coming?” Helen looked out a window as they passed by it and caught a glimpse of the ocean, its waters
choppy and rippling. “Shouldn’t we just stay on the second floor?”
“Some tsunamis are taller than that.”
Helen shuddered. Memories of TV images from the Indian Ocean tsunami and the more recent one in Japan overwhelmed her.
“I told everyone to go to the lighthouse on the bluff.” Tyler smiled at her. “We’ll call it a pre-celebration. It’s just a
precaution.”
Downtown Seattle was on the shores of Puget Sound, and the sound was made up of narrow inlets of water. Because Seattle wasn’t situated on the wide-open ocean, the risk of tsunamis was lower, so Helen had never thought much about them. But now they were exposed, right on the coast.
“How long do we have?” she asked.
“We have forever together. The rest of our lives.”
Helen felt the emotion well up inside her. “Tyler. How long?”
His face sobered. “If the epicenter was in the ocean, like the Cascadia fault, it could be here in under fifteen minutes.”
“Good Lord.” Helen lifted her skirt and started to jog, carefully, down the hallway.
Tyler kept a steady hand on her arm as he quickened his pace too. “I don’t want you to trip and break your leg.”
“I’ve run in heels before!”
“But have you run in a wedding dress?”
“Yes, all the times I was supposed to get married.”
They both laughed. For that brief moment, everything felt okay.
As they descended the stairs, Tyler’s phone rang, and he had a hurried exchange with his mom. “I’ll find Gracie, and we’ll
be right behind you,” he assured her just before he hung up. Then he told Helen how when he’d announced that everyone should
go to the lighthouse, his brother Leo had immediately run for the parking lot behind the inn where his car was parked. She
couldn’t help but smile. Leo had saved up for years to buy that 1970 classic Mustang. He’d probably be the first one to the
lighthouse.
They reached the parking lot and saw many people rushing to their cars.
“Have my parents left yet?” Helen asked, just as a full car stopped beside them.
“I’m not sure,” Tyler said, as one of his groomsmen rolled down the passenger window and shouted, “We can squeeze you guys
in!”
“I need to find my sister,” Tyler said. “She’s running around the inn telling people to evacuate.” He escorted Helen toward
the car’s back seat as he told her in a reassuring voice, “I’ll find your parents too.”
Helen stiffened in Tyler’s arms. “What are you doing?”
“Go with them.”
“No!” she said. “I’m not going without you.”
The groomsman leaned out the window. “Gracie said if the Cascadia just ripped apart, a huge tsunami could hit us any minute.
It could tear the entire hotel off its foundation.”
Helen stilled, her eyes never leaving Tyler’s, and an unspoken conversation passed between them in a matter of seconds. She
would not leave him behind at sea level while she went to higher ground. Never, ever.
Tyler drew a slow breath and said, “I need to get the car.” He glanced down at the four-inch heels peeking out beneath her
full tulle skirt.
She felt so delicate, so useless. “Go fast.”
So Tyler told his groomsman to go ahead, then broke into a run across the parking lot. Pulling out her cell phone, Helen drifted
to the lawn so she wouldn’t hold up any more people trying to escape. She tried to call her parents, but it went to voicemail.
Their phones were probably on silent for the wedding.
From the lawn, she could see down to the beach. There was a man and woman building an early evening bonfire, the fresh flames
and oily heat barely visible in the summer evening light. Why weren’t they evacuating? Helen’s eyes followed the edge of the
sea out to a sailboat on the horizon. At any moment, a wall of water could come bearing down and swallow the sailboat, then
crush the couple on the beach and sweep Helen into the deadly tangle.
She remembered the worst of the footage from the Japan tsunami—the people who walked, instead of ran, as the water came toward
them. And then they were gone.
Suddenly Gracie was there, hands pressed to the front of her baby-blue cocktail dress as she caught her breath beside Helen.
“Where’s Tyler? Should I get my car?”
“There you are.” Helen let out a long exhale. “Tyler’s bringing our car now, and Leo was one of the first to leave.”
“Good. Because if the epicenter’s out in the ocean—you know, the big one—we’re about to be driftwood.”
“Why is everyone in your family a tsunami expert?”
“Because they’re incredible! Tsunamis can move hundreds of miles per hour.” Gracie bounced from one foot to the other. “Shit!
We really need to go.”
Helen swallowed. “Have you seen my parents?”
Gracie had not, and it added to Helen’s rising dread. How long had it been since the earthquake? Five minutes? Ten? If they
weren’t going to make it to the lighthouse, she wanted to be with Tyler. She wanted to be holding on to him when the water
ripped through them. The power of the wave would instantly pull them apart, but she wanted to be in his arms in the terrifying
moments while they watched it come toward them.
Her thoughts must have shown on her face, because Gracie put a hand on Helen’s arm and said, “It’s okay. I was just being
morbid. I’m sure there’s no tsunami.”
To Helen’s relief, her parents showed up a minute later, but then they gave Gracie some troubling news. Gracie’s father, Gary,
was headed back to his room with Evelyn—because Evelyn wanted to grab some jewelry.
“He told me they were leaving!” Gracie’s shoulders sagged and she let out a bitter laugh. “That’s just like her. Jewelry?”
Tyler’s SUV came tearing around the corner then, and the mess in Helen’s chest started to ease slightly. As her mother helped
her into the front seat, Helen heard Gracie tell Tyler about Evelyn’s last-minute quest for jewelry, and Tyler swore under
his breath.