“Well, it seems as if the first eight days in the collapsed basement were a bit of a status quo.”
“They were. It was dark and hot and dusty. The only thing that changed during that time was our access to water. We didn’t have any. And then we did.”
“Thanks to your ingenuity.”
“Thanks to my stubbornness,” he corrected. “The quake exposed a pipe. I was determined to break the pipe open even though it was just as likely to carry sewage as water.”
“But it carried water, which allowed you to survive.”
“Yes.”
“I’d like to hear about your last few hours in the basement.”
He pressed his shoulders into his chair’s back. The open collar of his shirt formed a V around the indentation between his collarbones. She had an urge to trace that groove with a fingertip.
“For hours,” he said, “we heard machines getting closer. They were dismantling the building from above to remove weight, and they were also trying to drill toward us from the side. Have you ever been inside an A-frame house?”
She nodded.
“It was like that down there because two concrete slabs had fallen against each other above us.” He set his elbows on the table and tipped his fingers together, demonstrating. “We were sitting on the bottom of a triangle.”
“Understood.” She’d heard this story, but it was raising the hair on her arms to hearhimtell it. This wasn’t academic for Sebastian. He’d lived this.
He rested his hands on his thighs. “I suggested that we sit against one of the walls.”
“Were you the leader of the group?”
“I guess. Luke’s a year older than I am, and he was the most popular kid on the trip ... the most popular kid at Misty River Middle School. But his younger brother, Ethan, had come with us to return the sports equipment to the basement. He’d been annoying Luke with questions, so Luke told Ethan to go to the back of the line. Luke wanted a break from him for a few minutes, which shouldn’t have been any big deal. But then the earthquake hit. Luke pulled four of us out of the hallway. He was going back for Ethan when it caved in.”
Leah regarded him solemnly.
“I think Ethan died instantly because we never heard him calling for us. He was only twelve years old.”
Her memory conjured a picture of twelve-year-old Dylan, dressed in a tie for his middle school midwinter dance. “Heartbreaking.”
“While we were trapped down there, Luke was immobilizedby shock and grief. Ben was optimistic. Genevieve was frightened and prayed a lot. Natasha reassured and took care of everyone.”
“And you decided which wall to sit under as the rescuers approached.”
“I had a few coins in my pocket. I took out a quarter and said, ‘Heads, that wall. Tails, that wall.’ I tossed it and it landed heads up. So the five of us went to sit against the winning wall. As the machines drew closer, the building began to shift. The wall across from us crashed down.”
“And the other wall, the one above you, held in place.”
“Right, but it shouldn’t have. It had been resting against the wall that fell. The mathematicians like you, the structural engineers, the architects ... they all agreed. It should not have stayed in place. Science can’t explain why it remained there, protecting us from falling debris until we were loaded onto the chopper. Only then did it collapse. We all saw it and heard it.”
“Christians concluded that God intervened. He held the wall there because of the prayers prayed for you around the world.”
“Yes,” Sebastian said simply.
“Do you believe He held the wall?”
“I do.”
“You encountered a miracle.” God had come through for Sebastian in ways his mother had been unable to. Leah chewed her potatoes. “How did that event change you?”
“It made me realize my life was worth something. I’d received a second chance, so I decided to make the most of it.”
“After you were rescued, how long did it take you to realize that the five of you were famous?”
