In the Time of Catastrophe & Wonder
In the opulence and corruption of the early 20th century, Teany Neally and Shan Ling, are drawn into the lives of San Francisco’s infamous and powerful. Although not aware of each other, they become entangled by the same politicians, practitioners of the occult and men of immense wealth. A brutal crime though, in the aftermath of the city’s 1906 earthquake shatters each of their lives, bringing them together in a way that defies reason.
P O W E R
The reach of the city’s wealthiest families is invisible but inescapable. Banks, land, railroads are theirs, as is the water that flows into every house and tenement. The Chinese and Irish newcomers are barely given a glance, yet they are the ones who lay the rails, dig the sewers, build the mansions and serve the very people who hold them in contempt.
S H O C K
…wave after wave exploded underneath them and its destruction merged with a sound no one had heard before.
It is an earthquake of such force, in Göttinberg, Germany a seismograph marks its power.
Monstrous clouds of smoke approached, and it looked as if the sky itself was burning.
In three days, fires ravage the city worse than the earthquake, almost twenty-eight thousand buildings would be gone.
…the Valencia Hotel was four stories and only it top floor remains above ground. Men trapped and close to death beg to be shot. Some have their wish granted.
L U C K . C H A N C E
F A T E
Astrology and other occult practices thrive in the corridors of power. Even in an era that champions reason and science, men like J.P. Morgan, Thomas Edison, and President Roosevelt trust the esoteric in the private places where decisions are made. The practices, though, are not solely those of the privileged. Bound by the same unseen forces, the forgotten and powerless, also believe the metaphysical has the answers to their fate.
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 that squirrels jumped back and forth on. Once she was rested, she’d look in her charts of the planets and astrological tables to understand the events of the early morning. The twins had come into the world under the sign of Scorpio, but it was only one of them that would live with its potent 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. He lowered the cylinder full of fortune sticks and wept. When he’d caught his breath, he shook it gently for a long time, until one stick leaned out further than the others and toppled out. It was rare he did chien tung, fortune telling sticks at the temple. Xiu said they lost their power if they were consulted too often. It was time to leave, time to leave San Francisco, time to leave America. At the side of the altar, he looked through the slips of paper until he found the stick’s number, twenty, written on one. The paper was folded in half and Ling put it in his jacket pocket then went down the stairs and out into the daylight on Waverly Street.
“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, through early 1900s San Francisco, to Brooklyn in the 1950s. Images on this site are in the public domain and have been curated from books and digital archives.