Paperquake by Kathryn Reiss

impossible," she said quietly, "but I keep wondering if the letters could be meant for me. Somehow."
    "What are you talking about? These letters are almost a hundred years old!"
    Violet scanned Hal's letters, frowning. "I know, I know. But look how V has something wrong with her heart."
    "That's just a coincidence," said Beth.
    "Maybe," said Violet slowly, "but maybe not. Mr. Koch says scientists don't believe in coincidence—and I don't think I do, either." An elusive thought tickled. What was it about the letters that bothered her?
    "You're giving me the creeps, Vi. Come on. I mean, look at the date! My grandparents weren't even born when Hal wrote those letters."
    Violet was silent. Just as she couldn't fully explain—even to herself—why she'd stolen part of a museum exhibit, she couldn't explain her strange certainty that the letters were meant for her. She shuffled through the pages, rereading.
    Long ago V had argued with her sisters in a restaurant. And then Violet argued with Jazzy and Rosy at the café on Chance Street. V had been lost in San Francisco. Hadn't Violet herself been separated from her sisters at the street fair?
    "Beth," she whispered. "Look at this ..."
    Beth leaned toward her. "What?"
    "The letters. I just realized—I can't imagine why I didn't see this before."
    "What? What do you mean?"
    "It isn't that the letters were written
to
me—they're
about
me. Somehow what happened in the past—" The letters trembled in Violet's hand—"What happened to Hal's poor V in the past is happening to me in my life
now!
"
    Beth's eyes widened. "But how can that be, Vi?"
    Violet hurried to point out the passages in the letter that had come true. The quarrel in the restaurant with her sisters. Getting lost in the crowd.
    Beth looked skeptical, then slanted Violet a grin. "If that's true, then some handsome guy like Hal is going to fall in love with you. And won't Jazzy and Rosy freak out?"
    "
I'll
freak out if that happens!" Violet looked at her in wonderment. "I've never had a boyfriend." She hadn't thought about what Hal's plan might mean to her. "But it might happen soon—look at this!" She jumped off the bed and dug her history notebook out of her backpack. With eager fingers she extracted the third letter from Hal and handed it to Beth.
    "Hal spilled his ink," Beth said. "Hey—it sounds like he planned to take V away somewhere—the very next night, he says. That might mean someone will come for you, too—" Beth broke off. "Wow, Vi—the date on this letter is April 18, 1906. Wasn't that the date of the San Francisco earthquake?" She looked puzzled. "Hey, wait a minute—where did you get this letter, anyway?"
    "Well..." Violet hesitated. Then she confessed. "From the Academy of Sciences. You know, the earthquake exhibit with the desk and everything?"
    "You
stole
it?"
    Violet shook her plastic-wrapped head. "I didn't
exactly
steal it..."
    "Yes, you did! That's
exactly
what you did. I can't believe you, Vi. You must be crazy."
    "But it was from Hal!" Violet tried to defend herself. "I need to find out about V and what happened to her. Because, well, because maybe it's going to happen to me, too. Don't you see? Hal must be sending me these letters—okay, not really sending them, but putting them in my path. A sort of paper trail!"
    "You mean you really think Hal is trying to—like—
warn
you of something?" Beth's eyes were very round. "A warning from the past? That's totally weird. But, hey—I've got a warning from the
present.
What if the police are looking for this letter? Have you thought about that?"
    Violet flushed. Of course the museum officials would have discovered the missing letter by now. They would be searching all the visitors before letting anyone out of the museum. The police would have been called. There might even be roadblocks set up all through Golden Gate Park to detain people while detectives searched their cars.
    Outside Beth's