Year of the Jackpot 21

they were placed in one cabin. He saw that it had twin
beds and let the matter ride. Meade went to bed with her
Teddy bear without even asking to be kissed goodnight. It
was already gray, wet dawn.
They got up in the late afternoon and decided to stay
over one more night, then push north toward Bakersfield.
A high pressure area was alleged to be moving south,
crowding the warm, wet mass that smothered Southern
California. They wanted to get into it. Breen had the wiper
repaired and bought two new tires to replace his ruined
spare, added some camping items to his cargo, and bought
for Meade a .32 automatic, a lady's social-purposes gun; he
gave it to her somewhat sheepishly.
"What's this for?"
"Well, you're carrying quite a bit of cash."
"Oh. I thought maybe I was to use it to fight you off."
"Now, Meade"
"Never mind. Thanks, Potty."
They had finished supper and were packing the car with
their afternoon's purchases when the quake struck. Five
inches of rain in twenty-four hours, more than three billion
tons of mass suddenly loaded on a fault already over-
strained, all cut loose in one subsonic, stomach-twisting
rumble.
Meade sat down on the wet ground very suddenly; Breen
stayed upright by dancing like a logroller. When the
ground quieted down somewhat, thirty seconds later, he
helped her up. "You all right?"
"My slacks are soaked." She added pettishly, "But, Potty,
it never quakes in wet weather. Never."
"It did this time."
"But-"
"Keep quiet, can't you?" He opened the car door and
switched on the radio, waited impatiently for it to warm up.
Shortly he was searching the entire dial. "Not a confounded
Los Angeles station on the airl"
"Maybe the shock busted one of your tubes?"
"Pipe down." He passed a squeal and dialed back to it:
"your Sunshine Station in Riverside, California. Keep
tuned to this station for the latest developments. It is as of
now impossible to tell the size of the disaster. The Colorado
River aqueduct is broken; nothing is known of the extent
of the damage nor how long it will take to repair it. So far
as we know the Owens River Valley aqueduct may be in-
tact, but all persons in the Los Angeles area are advised to
conserve water. My personal advice is to stick your wash-