As much as he loved his kids completely, Jess was his first-born, and she was "daddy's little girl." As with a lot of girls, Jess was drawn to her daddy, and she was very proud of him. He was the manager of the "Doubleena Hotel," the tallest hotel in Southern California.

A luxury hotel that catered to the rich and famous, the hotel had seen its share of VIP guests and celebrities. Although she had been there many times, and had gotten to know many of the workers and regular guests, she had never really spent time with her dad learning about his job and what he does. It was Jessica's dream to eventually work with her daddy, and she was overjoyed at the idea of spending the entire day with her daddy and learning his job.

They started off early, Jessica in a nice blouse and skirt, and her father in his usual business suit. She said hi to the women behind the front desk, Jessica's face radiant with a smile. They started off in his office, grabbing his inventory checklist and invoice list and headed to the elevator.

"Well, we are going to start with the unpleasant stuff first honey," Bill told his little girl as he turned the key that opened the door for the service elevator. "I have to check our inventory and make sure everything we need is in place or has been ordered." He explained that they had several banquets scheduled for the weekend, and there were several special items that had been requested. Jess felt special as her daddy took her to the employee's only section. None of her friends had ever been this deep into the hotel, even the friends who came all the time with their parents, and she radiated with pride as the elevator whished to the basement area.

The massive hotel was designed with large freezers and storage space throughout the basement. Several gigantic refrigerators greeted them as they left the elevator, and Jessica's eyes grew large and wide as she took in the large interior of the hotel. The area was empty of people now, the space they were looking at used to handle the huge banquets and parties. There was a smaller kitchen and restaurant on the upper level to handle the usual needs of the guests. Although it was big by normal standards, it was tiny in comparison to the huge room they were in now.

They walked into the huge kitchen, the tiles shiny on the floor. She was taking in the clean machines when everything shook with a mighty tremor.

"Daddy!!" she shrieked as she fell to the floor.

"Honey, are you OK?" asked Bill as he rushed to his daughter, hugging her in his arms as he picked her up from the floor. "Come on!"

He knew what was happening, and they had gone through many emergency procedures in preparation for one of the inevitable earthquakes that rock Southern California. He wrapped his arms around his crying daughter, and he rushed them over to the large doorway that led into the storage area. It was the strongest area in the entire basement, and he braced his daughter against him as they held to each other and the wall.

"It's OK honey," he told his sobbing daughter in reassuring words. "We will be fine, this is the safest place in the whole building." ......(cont)