Earthquake Alert!

narrated by Ulf Blanck

with illustrations by Stefanie Wegner

translated by Georgina Hodge

KOSMOS

Can Throwing

Peter and Bob arrived at the junkyard punctually at 8 a.m. and leaned their bikes against the veranda. Justus Jonas leaned happily out of the kitchen window and greeted his two friends. “Wait, I'll be right out!” he shouted. Justus stuffed his mouth full of food, wiped his sticky fingers on a napkin and was just about to run outside past his Aunt Mathilda, when she stopped him in his tracks. “You haven't finished your milk,” she shouted abruptly. “Sit down, drink up and tuck your shirt in your pants! It seems like everyone around here does whatever they want. Your uncle has been driving me crazy all day too. It’s high time for some changes in the Jonas household.”

Justus drank the rest of his milk reluctantly and stuffed his T-shirt under his belt with his other hand. In the meantime, Aunt Mathilda pulled a fragrant cherry pie out of the oven and put the hot pie tin on the table to cool down. “None of you really deserve this,” she grinned. “Alright, now you can go to your friends.”

Unfortunately, Justus hadn't noticed that he'd tucked the tablecloth into his pants too. He jumped up and ran towards the door, ripping the whole tablecloth off the table with him. There was a deafening clatter as the pie tin crashed down onto the tiles, leaving the floor covered with cherries and crumbled pie.

“I just don't believe it!” Aunt Mathilda ranted in dismay. “I stood in the kitchen the whole morning painstakingly pitting those cherries one by one. Can't you just be a little more careful? Now look at this mess!”

Justus' face was bright red as he helped his aunt to pick up the smashed leftovers of cherry pie. “I'm sorry,” he said quietly. “I'm really sorry.” He truly meant what he said, because his Aunt Mathilda's cherry pie was by far the best in Rocky Beach.

“Just leave it! I'll clean up the rest myself and bake another pie. I still have a couple of eggs left. You better run along now and watch you don't step on the cherries!”

His two friends were waiting impatiently for him outside.

“Were you juggling cans in there or what?” Bob said jokingly, as he cleaned his glasses.

Justus didn't feel much like laughing. “Forget it! What a crappy start to the day. Uncle Titus should be arriving soon. I'll go and get us some gloves.”

“What do we have to drag around this time?” Peter asked curiously.

“No idea. He went to Hollywood very early this morning with his pickup truck. Maybe he bought some battered old movie sets. That would be just like him.”

Uncle Titus was a junk dealer who bought anything and everything that was good and cheap. Justus, Peter and Bob often helped him to unload and put away the stuff, because each time, he generously gave the three boys a few dollars.

A few minutes later, they heard a familiar sound approaching from the main road.

“I recognize the whining sound of that broken exhaust a mile off,” Justus grinned. He was starting to feel better. Then a rickety-old truck rolled through the large gate of the junkyard and parked.

Uncle Titus stepped out and proudly opened the tailgate. “Just look at what I've picked up! Everything dirt cheap!”

The three ??? couldn't believe their eyes. The whole truck was packed to the hilt with empty film canisters.

“Well, did I promise too much? Over 1500 of them! These cans held the likes of James Bond and Alfred Hitchcock movies in them. These are part of movie history. Fantastic, isn't it?”

Justus opened the lid of one of the flat canisters confused. “But they're empty. I don't get it.”

“So what?” his uncle replied. “There's a touch of Hollywood in these canisters – Marilyn Monroe, James Dean and Humphrey Bogart. The tourists are gonna rip these things out of my hands.” The three ??? now knew what he was up to. Uncle Titus had a sixth sense when it came to business. “Okay, let's start unloading them. We'll stack them neatly behind my shed. Then I'll drive back to Hollywood again.”

“Was there a problem with the payment?” Justus wanted to know. His uncle laughed. “Nah, I'm gonna pick up another 1500.”

The next two hours were spent piling up the cans.

Wobbly towers were lined up against the wooden wall of the shed. Meanwhile, Aunt Mathilda carefully took the new cherry pie out of the oven. This time, she placed it on top of the kitchen cupboard to cool down. “Better safe than sorry,” she said quietly to herself.

“That's it,” Uncle Titus said satisfied. “All the cans are properly stored away now. I suggest we take a little break now.” They took off their gloves and sat down exhaustedly on the loading ramp of the truck.

It was weird, because at that very moment, the ground beneath them started to tremble slightly. They only felt a slight vibration at first, but then it shook stronger and stronger. The stacked canisters rattled threateningly, until they collapsed on top of each other like an avalanche. A handful of crows flew up from the trees cawing loudly, and the neighborhood dogs began to howl in fear.

An earthquake.

Yellow Alert

As suddenly as it began, the earthquake disappeared again. “That was only a 3.5 on the Richter scale,” Uncle Titus breathed a sigh of relief. “A real Californian just laughs at a tremor that small.“ He hadn't noticed that Aunt Mathilda had been standing behind him on the veranda the whole time. She was covered from head to toe with cherries.

“Titus Jonas! Well, I'm not laughing and I'm Californian, too. I've had quite enough of baking pies for one day!” She stormed back into the house angrily and slammed the door behind her. During the tremors, the cherry pie had fallen down from the cupboard onto her head. “And don't anyone dare start laughing!” her voice was heard cursing from the house. However, Uncle Titus and the three ??? found it very hard to suppress their giggles.

After a few minutes, she came outside again wearing a new dress and gave Justus a note. “I'm sorry I yelled so much,” she said smiling as she plucked the last cherries out of her hair. “It's not your fault that my pie fell down – at least not the one on the cupboard.”

Her nephew looked down at the floor guiltily. “Of course, I'll bake another pie. It is the weekend after all. Justus, could you go to Porter's and get me some things? I'm completely out of eggs. I wrote down the other things I need, as well, and your uncle will give you the money. If he has enough money for old tin cans, he can buy some eggs too.”

Uncle Titus dug a $20 bill out of his wallet grumpily. “All right. The rest is for you, because you helped me unload. It was an expensive earthquake this time.”

Such small quakes were nothing unusual for the area. The west coast of the United States is regularly hit by similar shocks and Californians have learned to live with the danger over the years.

The three ??? set off on their bikes in a good mood, leaving the junkyard behind them. Peter and Bob went with Justus into town. They wanted to spend their freshly earned money right away.

On the way to Rocky Beach, the road narrowed due to some minor road work. It had been like this for a few days already because the road was being resurfaced, but now, on the weekend, there was nobody working there. As the three boys cycled across the sandy asphalt, a vehicle raced towards them.

“Who's that driving like a bat out of hell?” Peter shouted in shock, cycling as far to the right of the road as possible. The driver of the red sports car didn't seem to pay any attention whatsoever to the road work and kept on speeding, slamming his brakes on at the very last minute.