Can You Keep a Secret? by Caroline Overington Page B

melodrama!’ Pearl said.
    Colby kept talking. ‘And not everyone’s dead. I’m not dead, am I? You’re not dead. Now, we’ve got to find other people. But the phone lines have been down. It’s hard to get through. So, I need you to think. Did you see Robert in the office when you left? Did you take a coffee order from Robert?’
    ‘Oh, I can’t remember, Colby! My mind, it’s like soup! But look. Okay. Maybe I have an idea. Maybe I should send out an all-staff email, get everyone to respond. Like a fire drill, but on email?’
    ‘Very good!’ said Colby. ‘Very clever. That’s smart thinking. Tell people it’s an order. They must respond. We need to count survivors. Don’t be crying when we can do some good. Do it now. And copy me in on the responses you get. If we’re both counting, we’re not likely to miss anybody.’
    ‘Okay,’ Summer said.
    ‘Alright,’ said Colby, ‘and how many names are on the all-staff list, do you know? How many employees do we have?’
    ‘One hundred and thirty-seven.’ Summer knew precisely because she’d recently done a count for the holiday hampers.
    ‘Okay,’ said Colby, ‘you send that email now.’ Summer did, and over the course of the day, 111 of their staff replied, and each of those replies was greeted with joy and relief and a desire to hear more – but none was from Robert.
    ‘What are we going to do?’ asked Summer. ‘I just don’t get what we’re all going to do. There are twenty people – more – just missing. Lovely people, gone. The whole building, gone. Every computer. Every file. I just don’t understand what we’re supposed to do.’
    Colby didn’t know either, but he was close to Carnegie’s founder, Aaron Blatt, and he knew from speaking to him that both Aaron and his brother, Adlai, were trying to find a way to get from their homes in Connecticut to New York – not easy because the bridges and tunnels were closed – to address the staff.
    ‘People are going to want to get to work,’ he said.
    Pearl interjected. ‘But none of you have jobs! The office is gone.’
    Colby let it go.
    ‘Aaron won’t let this stop him,’ he told Summer.
    ‘That would be right,’ said Pearl, ‘some people are always thinking of the money.’
    ‘It’s not about money,’ Colby said. He finished his call with Summer, telling her to do what she could to make contactwith people and to stay in touch with him, and turned to his mother. ‘It’s about America! Going back to work is the right thing to do. We’ve been attacked. We can’t just lie down and take it. These people hate us. We can’t let them win. The minute he gets here – Aaron, I mean – the minute he gets here, I’m going to see him, to try to figure out what we can do.’
    Caitlin lifted her head from her hands. She looked horrified. ‘You’re going back to work?’ she said. ‘What am I supposed to do?’
    ‘What does it matter to you?’ said Pearl. ‘You won’t be here. Aren’t you supposed to be going home?’
    ‘I can’t go home!’ said Caitlin. ‘How can I go home?’
    ‘You can’t go home straight away,’ Colby agreed, ‘all planes are grounded. All airports closed.’
    ‘Yes, but that’s today! The airports can’t stay closed forever. They’ll be open again by the end of the week,’ said Pearl.
    ‘But I can’t get on a plane.’ Caitlin shook her head. ‘How am I supposed to get on a plane, after this?’
    ‘Don’t be silly,’ said Pearl.
    ‘Look, we don’t have to discuss it now,’ said Colby. ‘What I need is a shower. Caitlin, you need one too. Then we have to get something to eat.’
    ‘I can’t eat.’ The thought of the splattered person she’d stood on was still too clear in Caitlin’s mind. But she let Colby lead her to the shower, and to gently rinse the conditioner from her hair, and she let him hold her while she sobbed. Then, like so many New Yorkers that day, they were drawn back into silence in front of the TV, watchingand