Charlie was in a pre-trip dither. “You should have seen him after the party,” Quina said, “Suddenly realizing all the work he had to do.”

A tremor. Charlie was hammering outside, had stopped and then, in the silence, I felt a sort of rough shimmy across my desk. It lasted just long enough for me to consider jumping into the doorway. After it stopped I went into the front and asked everyone, “did you feel that?” They hadn’t, and everyon except for Quina seemed skeptical. I later learned it was 5.7 on the richter scale.

The front part of that house is on stilts. Maybe that’s why they didn’t feel it.

It take a significant tremor to be felt in the hills, which are bedrock.

A hint of things to come in 1989.