She could breathe again.

  They sat in the pit with their faces covered for a long time, waiting for the blizzard to stop. The mountain growled and boomed.

  Jess huddled close to the boys.

  She realized that there could be only one thing worse than being in the middle of this horror.

  Being here alone, without the twins.

  At last the ash blizzard stopped.

  A thick coating of the warm flakes covered their heads and shoulders.

  Jess spit and coughed and wiped her eyes.

  The sky had lightened up. Finally she could see well enough to climb through the tangle of limbs that covered the hole.

  She made her way up until she was high enough to see the forest.

  Except it was no longer a forest.

  It was a graveyard of fallen trees.

  Every single tree was down — thousands and thousands of trees. The force of the blast and the surge had ripped most of them right out of the ground. Two-hundred-foot trees, knocked over like Popsicle sticks.

  Some had been uprooted, others snapped like twigs. If Jess and the twins hadn’t been deep in that hole, they all would have been crushed.

  The cabin was smashed under a huge fir tree.

  Everything was covered with a thick coating of gray ash.

  But there was a sight even worse than the ruined forest: the mountain.

  With the trees down, Jess now had a perfect view of St. Helens.

  Or what was left of St. Helens.

  It looked as though it had been smashed by a giant hammer. Its sparkling peak was gone. In its place was a gaping black mouth vomiting up smoke.

  Jess had never seen anything so hideous.

  She slammed her eyes shut and turned away. She climbed back down into the hole again.

  And now she could finally really see the boys. Their faces were plastered white with ash and smeared with blood. They looked like two battered ghosts.

  Sam was staring down. Jess followed his gaze to his thigh. His pants were torn. What was that on his leg? It didn’t look like skin. It looked ripped up and blackened, like burned meat.

  Jess gasped.

  “Oh, Sam!”

  And then she looked at Eddie. She couldn’t see his wounds. But from the glazed look in his eyes, she could see that he was badly hurt, too. Both boys were shivering.

  They needed to find help — now.

  But how? The boys couldn’t stand. And Jess wouldn’t be able to carry even one of them out.

  It was hopeless. They would have to sit here and wait for help to come.

  Jess looked up, praying that she’d see Mr. Rowan peering down into the hole. But how would he get to them? It would take hours — even days — for anyone to make it through the maze of fallen trees.

  Jess had to get help.

  But what if there was another eruption?

  What if another fiery hurricane swept over the forest?

  What if she got lost?

  A hundred terrible questions swirled through her mind, and none had answers.

  But that didn’t matter, Jess realized.

  “I’m going to get help,” she said, fighting back tears. “I’ll be back very soon.”

  The boys didn’t seem to hear her. Both seemed to be drifting away. Sam’s eyes were closed. He was shivering harder now.

  Jess gently took Sam’s cold hand and laid it on her palm. She lifted Eddie’s and put it on top of Sam’s. She rested her other hand on top of Eddie’s. She gripped both boys’ hands tightly within her own.

  All for one, she said to herself. And one for all.

  For the first time, Jess really understood what those words meant.

  Jess would do anything to help the boys.

  She would even face the volcano by herself.

  But which way should she go?

  Jess looked around, trying to understand where she was. The trail was gone. Nothing looked familiar. It was as though she’d crash-landed on a distant planet, a smoking, ash-covered land.

  The only landmarks were the smashed shack and the mountain. Dad had taught her to use the sun as a guide. But the sun was blotted out by the ash and smoke.

  Jess decided that if she walked with the volcano on her left, she should at least be heading back toward the parking lot. Then maybe she could find Mr. Rowan. If she couldn’t, at least she’d be close to the road. It was so hot that her clothes were sticking to her sweat-soaked skin. Jess stripped off her sweatshirt and dropped it over a branch. Then she took a breath and set out.

  She walked between fallen trees, and when there was no room between the trees, she climbed up and walked along their trunks. Everything was covered with inches of ash, and in some spots it was very hot. The air smelled like rotten eggs and smoke. Her back throbbed with pain.

  But even worse was the thirst. Her lips were cracked and bleeding, her tongue swollen and sandpaper dry. She hadn’t had a sip of water since she’d left home. How long ago was that?

  Just this morning, this forest had been crisscrossed by creeks filled with clear rushing water. On her camping trips with Dad, they’d scooped up water right from streams and gulped it down without a worry. But now every stream she passed was ruined. The ash had turned the sparkling water to thick gray sludge that stank of sulfur. Just the thought of trying to swallow a mouthful was nauseating.

  The sounds of the volcano pounded in her ears.

  It roared. It thundered. It boomed. Bolts of lightning shot through the churning cloud above. Her footsteps kicked up clouds of ash that burned her eyes.

  But Jess ignored the pain and the thirst and the volcano’s roar. She fought the swirl of terrifying thoughts that screamed through her mind.

  Instead she pictured Dad’s hopeful eyes. She imagined her great-grandfather Clive Marlowe tramping through these very woods alone when he was just a few years older than Jess.

  She tried to hear Mom’s voice.

  “Whatever happens, you and I will make it through.”

  But what really kept her feet moving was Sam and Eddie.

  Her best friends.

  For as long as Jess could remember, they’d been right there with her. In those terrible months after Dad died, the twins had hardly ever left her side. They’d even slept on the floor of her room. She pictured their freckled faces, imagined the feel of their hands.

  Jess stumbled along for hours, for miles she was sure. The parking lot was nowhere in sight. She was afraid she might be walking in circles.

  And then she came into a big field, a place she’d never seen before. And that’s when she realized she was completely lost.

  She crouched down on the hot, ashy ground, too exhausted to even cry. Every inch of her body ached. Her lungs burned from the ash. She had never imagined that she could be so thirsty. If only she could sleep for a little while. Everything would be better when she woke up. The sky would be blue again. The mountain would be quiet. All of this would be over.

  She let her eyes drift closed. She had the feeling of letting go, of floating away. The pain and thundering noise faded.

  No!

  She forced herself to stand up.

  What was she thinking! She had to keep going. She had to find help for the twins. She could not give up.

  And that’s when she noticed a new sound.

  Not a roar or a boom or a whoosh.

  Thwack, thwack, thwack, thwack.

  A helicopter.

  Jess leaped to her feet and searched the sky.

  And there it was: a yellow chopper, flying in circles.

  She jumped up and waved.

  “Hey! Hey! Here I am!”

  But of course they couldn’t hear her.

  And she was so covered with ash. She was just another speck of gray in the endless ash sea. How would they see her?

  The helicopter disappeared. And then it circled back a minute later. Jess jumped up and waved, but it flew away again. The pilot couldn’t see her.

  What could Jess do? How could she get their attention before they flew away?

  And then it came to her.

  She found a big branch and snapped off a stick covered with leaves.

  She used it to sweep the ground around her, to create a huge cloud of ash that rose up like a smoke signal. And then she ran out in front of it, waving her arms.

  The helicopter slowed.

  It swooped down a bit and hovered over her.

  A man leaned out and waved. He shouted through a bullhorn.

  “We’re coming down for you!”

  A wave of relief almost knocked Jess to the ground.

  The thwack, thwack, thwack, thwack got louder and louder, until it drowned out the sound of the volcano. The wind from the propeller kicked up so much ash that Jess could barely see. But moments later a man in a bright orange vest appeared out of the cloud. He knelt down.

  “You okay?” he shouted.

  Jess didn’t answer for a second.

  But then she nodded. She was okay.

  He helped Jess up and started to lead her to the chopper.

  “No!” she cried. “I can’t leave my friends here! They’re hurt! We have to get them!”

  “Where are they?”

  Jess turned and pointed to the wasteland all around them.

  “Somewhere out there!”

  “Okay,” he said calmly. “Let’s get up into the air. You’re going to help us find them.”

  And so, minutes later, Jess was strapped into the backseat of a four-seat helicopter. The pilot was up front, and the man in the vest was next to her. He gave her a thermos of water and big earphones to protect her ears from the engine noise.

  She looked out the window, combing the ground with her eyes.

  But everything looked the same, ash-covered trees as far as she could see. The air was filled with smoke. It was almost impossible to see anything.

  How would they ever spot the twins?

  But then Jess saw it — a flash of red.

  Her sweatshirt.

  Her heart leaped up.

  “There!” Jess cried. “There they are!”

  The man tapped the pilot’s shoulder and pointed down. The helicopter swooped around and headed for the twins.

  She had found them.

  Jess was cleaning up her room.

  She checked the clock.

  Ten o’clock. Better hurry.

  She and Mom were having visitors today, and they’d been working nonstop all weekend to get the apartment ready.

  They’d been in their new place for only a week, but already they were unpacked. Jess loved her new room, which was bright and sunny. She was still getting used to the Seattle noises and the crowds of people. But she liked it here more than she’d expected to.

  She moved carefully — the burn on her back still hurt if she turned too suddenly. But it had healed well. She was glad she couldn’t see what it looked like.

  Mom popped her head through the doorway.

  “Let’s not forget our camera,” Mom said.

  “I have it ready,” Jess said.

  Their new camera.

  Jess had finally worked up the courage to tell Mom the whole story about losing Dad’s camera.

  “It was Dad’s prized possession,” Jess had said, fighting tears.

  Mom had put her arms around her.

  “No,” she’d said. “You were.”

  Mom looked around Jess’s room now and smiled.

  “It looks great in here,” she said.

  Jess agreed.

  The walls were covered with photographs of trees and birds and of Mom — pictures that Dad had taken. His dream had been for his photographs to hang in a Seattle gallery, and now that dream had come true — almost.

  “And I really do love the red,” Mom said, admiring the freshly painted walls.

  Jess loved the color, too. She knew that for the rest of her life, red would be her lucky color.

  Dr. Morales had helped them paint the room. Jess was glad to see that their friend was starting to smile again. He’d been safe at his lab here in Seattle when St. Helens erupted. But like many of the scientists, he blamed himself for not being able to better predict the eruption. And he’d lost one of his close friends, a young scientist who had been near the mountain when it exploded.

  That man was one of the fifty-seven people who died in the eruption. Some people were killed instantly, in the pyroclastic surge and blast of rock and ash. Others died in the floods and mudslides that raced down the mountain in the hours afterward.

  Dr. Morales had been right when he predicted that Mount St. Helens would erupt with terrible violence. But not even he had imagined just how powerful the eruption would be. It was one of the most powerful in history, more explosive even than Pelée.

  The entire front of the mountain shattered. Millions of tons of rock and ice and volcanic debris crashed down the mountain. The pyroclastic surge instantly destroyed everything within its five-mile path. If Jess and the twins had been much closer, they would not have escaped with their lives.

  A mudslide swept down the mountain, picking up trees and logs and trucks and houses and bridges. The downtown of Cedar was spared. But some people lost their homes, including Missy. She and her family were with relatives in Iowa now. Jess was thinking about writing to her. She wanted to tell Missy the news: that Skeleton Woman really did exist!

  In a way.

  Jess had discovered this about a month after the eruption.

  By then Jess’s burn had mostly healed. She and Mom had been helping serve meals at a shelter for people who had lost their homes. There was another volunteer working that day, an older woman with a long gray braid and bright blue eyes.

  “I know you,” the woman had said to Jess with a smile.

  And Jess remembered her — she was the woman with the white pickup who they’d seen in the Loomis Lake parking lot, the day of that first earthquake.

  Her name was Gretchen Livingston. She worked for a group that had been trying to save the big old trees near Loomis Lake.

  Gretchen and Mom had hit it off. And a few nights later at Clive’s, Gretchen had told Mom and Jess her secret — that she was Skeleton Woman.

  “What?” Jess had gasped.

  Gretchen smiled slyly.

  “For years our group had been trying to find ways to stop the lumber company from chopping down those beautiful old trees,” she’d explained. “But nothing we did worked. And finally the company was going to cut them all down. I was ready to give up. But one day I was at a restaurant over in Cougar.”

  That was a town across the valley.

  “I overheard some loggers in the booth behind me. They were talking about the old Skeleton Woman legend. Of course I’d heard that story when I was a kid.”

  “Me too,” Mom said.

  “The men were spooked by the story. I guess the old witch was supposed to live near Loomis Lake, in that old-growth forest, right where they were supposed to be cutting.”

  She leaned forward.

  “That gave me an idea.”

  She found out when the cutting of the trees was set to begin. And she snuck up to that part of the forest. She went into the shack and waited.

  “I got my hair all wild, and I splattered some red paint on my clothes.”

  “I saw that paint! In the shack!” Jess said.

  “As the men were getting their chain saws ready,” Gretchen continued, “I burst out of the cabin. I dashed through the forest very quickly so they would catch just a glimpse of me.”

  She smiled proudly.

  “And that did it. They wouldn’t go back.”

  That’s when it dawned on Jess.

  “So you’re the one who found my camera in the cabin?”

  “Ah, that was your camera!” she said. “I couldn’t imagine who would have left it there.”

  “We were looking for Skeleton Woman,” Jess said.

  “Well, you found her!” Gretchen said.

  They all laughed.

  Then Gretchen got tears in her eyes.

  “But of course the forest is gone now,” she said.

  Not even Skeleton Woman could stop St. Helens from destroying it all. Two hundred and thirty miles of wilderness had been burned, ripped apart, or buried under a hundred feet of mud and debris. Millions of trees were killed by the burning wind.

  “The forest will grow back one day,” Mom had said, in her usual hopeful way. “Nature has an amazing power to heal itself.”

  Dr. Morales had told them that.

  And it was true. The trees would grow back. The animals would return.

  But it would take decades.

  And Jess wasn’t sure she ever wanted to go back.

  She wanted to remember her beautiful mountain the way it had been.

  It was only a few weeks after that talk that Mom had decided that she was finally ready to move to Seattle. She wanted to go back to college, to become a teacher. She wanted Jess to discover life outside Cedar.

  Mr. Rowan had offered to buy Clive’s. He’d been badly hurt in the eruption, and didn’t want to go back to his regular job. Mr. and Mrs. Rowan would run the restaurant. And of course the twins would help. So, in a way, Clive’s would stay in the Marlowe family.

  Jess’s throat tightened up as she thought of the twins. She would never forget those terrifying hours after they were rescued from the forest. The boys had been flown to a special hospital in Portland, Oregon, where they stayed for weeks. When they finally got home, Jess slept on the floor of their room every night until they were strong again.

  Jess still wasn’t used to not seeing them every day. But when she closed her eyes, she could hear their happy, bickering voices. When she felt lonely, she could feel their hands gripping hers in their secret handshake. She’d spoken to them every day since the move. And today the whole Rowan family was coming to visit.

  Jess and Mom had a big surprise for the twins: a Mariners game.

  A few minutes later, the doorbell rang.

  Jess rushed to the door.

  She flung it open, and there they were, Sam and Eddie.

  Two buzz-cut heads, four smiling green eyes, and ten thousand freckles.

  Four strong arms grabbed hold of her.

  Three hearts pounded with happiness.