In the Time of Catastrophe & Wonder
In the opulence and corruption of early twentieth-century San Francisco, Teany Neally and Shan Ling are drawn into the orbit of the city’s powerful: politicians, occult practitioners, and men of immense wealth.
They are shaped by the same hidden forces. After the city’s 1906 earthquake, a brutal crime shatters their lives.
The city’s wealth is invisible until it is not. Banks, railroads, land, water, and streets of mansions belong to only a few families, while Chinese and Irish newcomers are scarcely seen except as labor. They lay the rails, dig the sewers, build the houses and serve the people who hold them in contempt.
…wave after wave exploded underneath them, and its destruction merged with a sound no one had heard before.
In Göttinberg, Germany a seismograph marks its power.
Monstrous clouds of smoke approached, and it looked as if the sky itself was burning.
…The Valencia Hotel had been four stories. Only its top floor remained above ground. Men trapped below, close to death, begged to be shot. Some had their wish granted.
Reason and superstition intertwine in churches, government offices, bars, hotel rooms, and private places.
Maybe the silent lines on her palms would betray her. She stepped away and was flooded with relief.
“Miss, Miss, there is no refund of the tickets. Come now. You will see.”
His face was oddly narrow, and his hair was pulled up, tucked deep inside an orange turban. Teany thought of a giraffe she’d seen at a carnival in Emeryville. He towered above her and moved the same way.
“Your turn is blessed,” he said and smiled.
She’d never seen a smile like this. It was as if he’d never been afraid.
“No regrets in the Temple,” he said again. “I will promise you.”
His eyes were warm and old and Teany saw it was true what the waitress said, he was the most beautiful man in San Francisco.
She picked up the canvas bag with the twin’s body and cradled it in her lap. The chaos of the night and early morning disappeared as she listened to the rhythm of the fountain and the swaying tree branches.
The twins had come into the world under the sign of Scorpio. Only one of them would live with its mark on birth and death: the girl Mary named Teany.
Ling got on his knees and held the wooden cylinder against his forehead, as the temple’s scent of aloeswood and myrrh mingled with his hair and clothes. He’d promised Xiu that they would leave with Mei for Maoming, that this would be his last visit to Tianhou Temple and Tangrenbu.
When he caught his breath, he shook the cylinder until one fortune stick leaned farther than the others and fell.
“As the weather clears after a rainy spell,
Now you can see the Golden Crow and the Jade Rabbit.
As the old fades, the new appears.
It only takes one jump to clear the Dragon Gate.”
In the Time of Catastrophe and Wonder spans the late 1800s in Guangdong, China, early twentieth century San Francisco, and Brooklyn in the 1950s. Images on this site are in the public domain and have been curated from books and digital archives.