Dear Diary:                                          July 4, 2014

          Today is the 4th of July and one would think we’d be having a BBQ and fireworks. But no, Mother Nature decided to give us half a week of some serious torrential downpours this side of the Amazon Rainforest. So our holiday has been postponed until later this weekend. In the meantime, Charlie and Sue are still in Aspen; enjoying a blissful honeymoon. They called twice; once when they first arrived and the other time in the middle of the week to tell us how wonderful everything was and how thankful they were to us for everything we had done for them. It was the very least we could do for our family. And they were family after all. Charlie was Bella’s father and Nessie’s grandfather and Sue was Leah and Seth’s mother.  

           I was in my home office today, looking over some work journals and thinking back on just how much has happened in the last year. Last year on this day we had Nessie throw a temper tantrum of epic proportions, Michelle introduced us to Kim and they were now married, and Rogue nearly hit Alexander with a log for buying her an island which we then all spent a heavenly 11 days on later that month. And Leah got engaged to Keith there! Now they were married, settled in their home in the woods near the others. So much has happened. Not to mention the whole Carrie thing but I try not to think about her and that whole nasty business. It’s over, she’s dead. Happy thoughts only. As I finished thinking that last little tidbit, the door to my study opened and in walked Esme. 

 “Hi honey.” She said with a smile as she laid her purse and a folder down on my desk. I got up and walked over to give her a hug and kiss.

 “Hi sweetheart. How was the meeting?” 

“It went very well. I think we are on the right track and Dan gave me some good pointers for my edit.” She replied after she kissed me back. 

“I see you two are on a first name basis now.” 

“Just makes it easier, you know?” I nodded. 

           I did know yes. Esme had just had a meeting with Dan O’Leary from the publishing company that I had mentioned in the previous entry. O’Leary’s wife had come into Esme’s carnival tent and was very impressed by her crocheting and knitting patterns and told her husband who later showed up to take a look for himself. He too was impressed and told Esme that if she wanted to, he could help her publish a book about her work. Esme jumped at the chance and they’ve been working together on a template ever since. Today was their first official meeting regarding that template. By the sounds of it, all had gone well and Esme was on to her next step. 

           I was very impressed with my wife. She was going to be a published author. Everyone was proud of her, especially Alice who kept hinting that she wanted some credit or a little thank you from Esme in the book since it was the crocheting book she brought from Japan for Esme as a gift that had started her on this path to being an author. Esme smiled and patted her head and promised she was going to do a little message to everyone in the beginning of the book. 

           Meanwhile, we had noticed that the earth tremors were intensifying and could be called earthquakes now. Rogue was on her laptop most days monitoring the USGS’s progress around the area to see the latest updates. She was looking at readings and other graphs that looked like Egyptian Hieroglyphics to the rest of us. I have no idea how she can tell which end is up on those things but she just walked around with a bun on her head and pencils sticking out of them with another one behind her ear. On top of that, her cellphone was now glued to her hand as she would get updates from both the USGS and from Scott Kramer who would let her know the latest on those demon bikers. All we knew was that, when and if there was anything to worry about, we would know. 

          As I was going about my business, the house phone rang and Rose—who was closest to it—went to field it. Upon picking it up, she held it out to Esme saying it was Dan O’Leary. 

“Hi Dan, it’s Esme.” Esme said with a smile. 

“Hi Esme, sorry to bother you. You must be enjoying some family time.” 

“No not at all, we’re all just bummed that it’s raining; can’t have fireworks in the rain.” 

“Oh yeah you’re right! Well hopefully, we’ll get some good weather soon. All this wetness doesn’t help matters.” 

“True.” Esme said raising an eyebrow. She had mentioned to us that Dan sometimes spoke in these funny riddles that she couldn’t understand. He just seemed like a very quirky guy. 

“But listen, I’m getting off track as usual. Reason, I called is to invite you and your family to dinner tomorrow night. We at O’Leary’s throw these once a month dinners where we invite our clients and their families to join us. It’s a semi-formal gathering where we basically just mingle and get to know one another. My father—who started this company originally—always told me that writers get inspiration from other writers even if they write for different genres. So what do you say? Tomorrow night at 8pm?” He asked hopefully. 

          Esme looked at all of us and we nodded. Why not? Couldn’t hurt to get to know the other writers as well as the O’Leary publishing house family. Sounded like fun actually. 

“We have a really large family, would that be a problem?” Esme asked. 

“Not at all. The more the merrier!” Dan said excitedly. 

“Ok then, we will see you tomorrow night at 8pm. Thank you for the invitation Dan.” 

“The pleasure is all mine. See you tomorrow.” He said and they hung up. 

“Well that’s new.” I said. 

“Very nice of him to invite us all.” Esme said with a smile. 

“Soooooooooooooooooooo what are we all wearing??” Alice asked clapping her hands excitedly. Everyone groaned. 

“He said semi-formal, so I guess that’s suits for us guys and cocktail dresses for you ladies.” I replied looking around the room and my eyes landing on Rogue. 

“Wait, you want us to come too?” She asked surprised. 

“Of course! You’re part of the family.” Esme answered for me. 

“That’s very sweet of you; I guess we all have to figure out what to wear now.” Rogue replied with a small smile. 

“Now can we go shopping?” Alice asked impatiently to more groaning. I hid a smile. That’s one topic she would never leave alone. 

          As everyone dispersed to their respective homes to look through their closets for something appropriate to wear, I joined my wife in our master bedroom. It didn’t take long for us to find something to wear. We had enough clothes that shopping wasn’t necessary. It got dark soon after and we went to bed satisfied that we had picked the perfect outfits. The following day we were all speaking excitedly about that evening when Alice gasped and her eyes glazed over. Jasper was at her side in under a second. When her focus returned she said: 

“We are going to have a really large earthquake tonight, while at the party. It’s going to open something. I don’t know what though. Everything is so blurry but I can see and feel the earthquake.” 

“Maybe we should cancel?” Esme said worriedly. 

“Will anyone get hurt?” Bella asked looking nervously at Nessie. 

“No, seems everyone will be ok. It’s just a much bigger earthquake then we’ve had thus far.” 

“Well, we can handle a little shake, rattle, and roll.” Jacob said using his favorite phrase by now. 

“Is everyone sure?” Rogue asked. 

“Yes, this party is important to Esme and since no one is going to get hurt, I think we can deal with some tremors.” I said unconvincingly. 

“Ok, well then the time is fast approaching so everyone should go get ready.” Edward replied nodding at me. 

          With that, everyone ran off. A big earthquake huh? What could it mean? I didn’t have a good feeling in my stomach but then again any of this this natural disaster stuff never made me feel comfortable. Esme, didn’t seem worried though. She hummed to herself as she got ready. She decided to wear the knee-length burgundy strapless dress with ruffles on the bottom and black pumps she wore on our date last year when I was so efficiently bringing sexy back. I wore a black suit with a burgundy tie to match her dress. It was good to reuse clothes sometimes; came in pretty handy. No need to constantly run off and buy something new. Just don’t tell Alice I said that or she’d probably have my hide! 

          We were downstairs again 45 minutes later and realized we were the first ones there but not for long. Seemed like everyone had decided to recycle their old clothes as well; it was easier for the men as we just wore suits with ties that matched our mates. The only difference was with Kim and Michelle. Michelle wore a dark purple dress that sparkled and Kim wore black pants and a purple shirt that didn’t sparkle but matched her wife’s. Leah and Keith wore the outfit that both wore the night Keith proposed to her on the island. Everyone had very simple yet elegant clothing on. Rogue came in wearing a black dress that was made out of some sort of shimmery material and her hair was wavy the same way as Rose’s usually was. Amy and Corin’s dresses were sliver and green respectively. Sorry, Alice but I'm not going into everyone's wardrobe. Not my thing. I will say that everyone looked really nice! 

          Finally it was time to go. We all piled into three cars and drove to the place. O’Leary’s Publishing Company was a 5 story building that looked like a cross between a pyramid and an office building. They had valet parking and we left our cars there as we walked through the front doors. Security smiled and after we showed our ID’s and wrote in the log book who we were, we were escorted into elevators to take us to the top floor. When the elevator opened, there were people milling around in a room that had a buffet style banquet set up and tables all around as well as a dance floor. 

          There were servers walking around with glasses of what we presumed to be champagne and we each took a glass as we entered. It didn’t take long before Esme spotted Dan O’Leary and vice versa. His eyes lit up and he excused himself and came over with a woman on his arm. 

“Esme, welcome! I’m so glad you could all make it! This is my wife Julia.” He introduced the woman on his arm to Esme and the two shook hands as Julia smiled pleasantly at Esme.

“Nice to see you again Esme. I knew from the moment I saw your work that you would be perfect for publishing.” 

“That was very kind of you Julia. I would like to introduce you to our family.” Esme said with a smile. 

          As the round of introductions began, we had decided upon telling the O’Leary’s that the Watchers were our distant cousins who recently moved up here from NYC. It took a good 15 minutes to introduce everyone properly. Nessie as usual would be my niece. I could see that the O’Leary’s were blown away by everyone. Well, we are a sizable group when you get us together and we aren’t even counting the Denalis’. I could see Rogue quietly looking around and then looking Julia O’Leary over and her and Amy exchanging a look. Before I could wonder what that was about, I heard Rogue’s voice in my head: 

I just find it fascinating how she looks like the first lady. Her clothes are top notch and yet this company isn’t like a multimillion dollar company. They publish people’s work sure but nothing to cry home about. How do they pay for all of this? 

          Hmm. She had a point, looking around the dining hall, there were wall fixtures made out of what looked like real gold. Everything was pricey. Maybe it was an inheritance of some kind. But that was a lot of money and it was coming from somewhere. I saw the decorations were very Mardi Gras meets ID4. Before, I had a chance to really gather in my surroundings, the ground beneath our feet started to shake and violently. This was the earthquake Alice had foreseen. She wasn’t kidding; the whole building shook like it was going to fall apart. The lights flickered as Dan O’Leary tried calming everyone down; meanwhile the guests were just trying to hold on to something solid. I looked over where Dan was standing and was surprised to see a gleeful look on his face. Then all of a sudden he yelled: 

“Yee-Ha!!! Now this is what I call a Bacchanalia!!!” 

We all exchanged unnerving glances. 

To be continued….. 

~Carlisle Cullen