I walked out of my back porch to see what the commotion was only to find black clouds of smoke and flames just below them.
“Look at that” I heard from across the fence. It was Leah who was also viewing the spectacle. Milo came out to observe.
“What is that? Where is the fire?” Milo asked.
“I don’t know. Is it the water tower?” I asked.
“The water tower? Shit, I think it’s where the old gas station used to be,” Milo said.
“Look at those flames. I have never seen anything like that,” Leah said.
“It’s spreading. It’s spreading fast, we need to tell mom,” Milo said.
“She’s at work. I’ll call her right now.” Leah said.
Milo walked closer to my side of the fence “What do you think happened? Accident or someone starting trouble?” he asked.
“It sure is a big fire. If it was an accident, I don’t know why anyone would be over there messing with stuff,” I said.
“It wasn’t an accident. You’re right. There would be no reason to be working all the way out there. The flames are moving. I don’t think they’re going to be able to take it down,” Milo said.
“No? Do you think they’re going to get help from the county’s fire department?” I asked.
“Nope. I think we should probably get our stuff together. Maybe they’re going to evacuate us,”. The flames’ tips appeared to be touching the clouds. Beyond the mountains and careening down toward our homes it was an aggressive fire that seemed dead set on destruction.
“Mom said her car won't start. She’s stuck at work, and everyone is freaking out over there. There’s another fire on the Northside of town too,” Leah said with shortened breath after rushing outside to give us an update.
“Another fire? Someone’s burning this fucker down,” Milo said.
“Who would do that?” I asked.
“I don’t know. I’m sure there are plenty of people if given the opportunity. We need to get out of here, that’s for sure,” Milo said.
“Did your mom say where everyone was going?” I asked.
“They said they were getting the hell away from here. She said she can see the highway from her office and there are a bunch of cars trying to get out of town,” Leah said.
“This is big. Everyone in town is packing up and headed out. We must be in danger.” I said. Leah, Milo, and I wordlessly studied each other’s faces to pull any ideas from one another.
“I know. You take my car, Leah. Pick up mom and get Lori. She’s at Kevin’s house. Don’t tell mom that. Get her first,” Milo instructed.
“What about you?”
“I’ll go with Angie. Is that okay, Angie? Can I go with you and your mom?” he asked.
“My mom is, it’s a long story. I’ll tell you in the car,” I said.
“I can’t drive your car, Milo. It’s a stick.” Leah said.
“Take my car. It’s an automatic. Same plan just different car” I ran into the house, without saying anything else, to grab my keys and went back outside to hand them over to her. “The coyotes. Do you hear them? I’ve never heard them like this before. I hope they’re not watching their family die in the fire or something,” Leah said.
The coyotes, with their cries, hollered as if to give warning to all the foolish humans who were not aware of the danger that enveloped them. It was more than a warning it was a notification: You, humans, are going to die. You hide in your houses, your work, school, filling your days with trivial things. Spending hours laughing with friends, going to the movies, playing a pickup game after a long stressful day. The one inevitability that everyone busies themselves trying to avoid. The end is near, and there is nothing you can do about it.
Milo rushed around his room with nervous energy. He appeared focused on the task at hand but couldn’t hide the fact that he was as terrified and lost as I was. “What may be the most important thing to do is to get our families on board with us. There’s no reason to contact anyone in an authority position because most likely, they know exactly what’s going on. They would have to be, right?” he stopped for my reply, but I only nodded. He continued, “The question we need to ask ourselves is not why they’re in on it, but who exactly is in on it. If we accidentally alert the wrong people, we may end up like the desert girl, or all the other people who mysteriously disappeared.”
“Milo, I’m super into you.” Once the words escaped me, I didn’t want to put them back. It may have been the worst time to say something like that, and it was before I even knew I wanted it said, but once the words finally hung in the air, I knew it needed to be let out because there was not a better time. It may have been the last time.
“You’re into me? What is that supposed to mean?” he had a smile he was trying to push back.
“Never mind. How are we supposed to make sure your family doesn’t come back here after the fire is put out? This is the best excuse to leave, but what if the police and firefighters take care of it and convince them all to come back?”
“Well, I guess the best way to do it is to explain what we know, but in a way, that doesn’t make us sound insane. We could question all the things in this town, or our lives that never quite add up. Like the obvious, why we aren’t allowed to leave the town until we’ve graduated. That alone is insane. What kind of town doesn’t allow people to leave town for any reason?”
“Or how those who do leave have to stay gone. Clearly, they are hiding something from us,”.
“That’s one of the mistakes we may be making. We are assuming that the people we know are all rational. They can’t be that rational if they’ve been living like this for so long without any questions asked.”
“You’re right,” I said searching the room for more ideas. I didn’t want to look directly at Milo because if I did, he might remember what I had just said. It relieved me that he moved on so quickly from my revelation but also hurt that he didn’t care enough to press any further. The insignificant concern had monopolized a portion of my psyche partly reserved for the actual catastrophic event that was taking place in Manere.
Chapter 39
The town was becoming engulfed in a way that even the largest buildings became shrunken embers. The hundred-year-old drug store that was once a point of pride for the Manere’s Chamber of Commerce no longer held history, or a majestic architectural meaning, it was kindling. Skippy’s Used Cars fell victim quickly. There was nothing poetic about the rusty grocery getters and sleek convertibles being swallowed up by the unforgiving flames. Skippy’s entire life and source of income vanished before our eyes and there was nothing anyone could do about it, not even Skippy.
A stream of bicycles, cars, and trucks made their way down the single highway attempting to exit Manere with as much efficiency that could be summoned by a mob of people with the prospect of death looming so closely behind them. Never did that single two-lane road seem as insignificant, nor did the town ever seem as suffocating as it became after those first fire alarms began to belt throughout.
Milo had become agitated in the driver’s seat. He began extending himself from beyond his perch every few seconds to see the many cars ahead of him.
“Do you see anything on your side? Is someone blocking the exit or something? What do you see?” Milo asked impatiently.
I unrolled my window, stuck my head through to the outside, and leaned out as far as I could to check what was causing the obstruction, but in doing so, I let in the oppressive smoke. Hurriedly, I rolled the window back up as if Milo’s car was going to protect us from the horrific scene that surrounded us.
“I don’t see anything. It looks like everyone is just trying to get out,”.
“Well, why are we still here? Do these morons not know they need to put the little stick in drive and put their foot on the gas or is that too difficult for these dumb asses,”.
Milo wasn’t always the most even-tempered guy, but he wasn’t known for blowing up or falling into such a flustered state. In
fact, Milo was possibly the only person I completely trusted in a disaster situation.
“Milo, you need to calm down. Everyone is trying to get out the same as we are. Freaking out and name-calling isn’t going to help,”
Milo let out a frustrated sigh. “Maybe we should just drive on the shoulder. That fire is really moving,” Milo said as he sought after a new option.
“I don’t think driving on the shoulder is going…” Before I could finish my sentence, Milo withdrew from the line of cars and started making his way down the empty lane.
“Milo, what are you doing? This is the opposite side of traffic. What if a car comes through here, we’re going to hit it head-on,”?
“It’s not going to happen,”
“Milo! Look around us. If it wasn’t going to happen why aren’t the other cars doing it? Why weren’t they doing it in the first place? It’s because they don’t want to die in a head-on collision!
Milo, you need to pull over.”
“Angie! Those people are not in this lane for the same reason they have never left this town their entire lives. They’re afraid because they were told to be.” Milo continued rapidly fretfully.
“They stay on one side of the road because that is the law. Even though no one ever comes into Manere except for monthly food deliveries. No one dares to drive in the opposite lane because they were told not to and failed to question why. They never questioned why they weren’t allowed to leave this place, and if they did, why they would never be allowed to return. So as sure as shit they wouldn’t drive on a road that they were not granted permission to do so. Look behind us Angela, all those cars waiting patiently to leave, filled with people who are sitting in their cars terrified what awaits them.” Milo seemed certain of everything and yet, I had never seen him so terrified. I wasn’t sure if I wanted to stop him or first allow him to exhaust his tirade.
Milo careened the car through the traffic pushing through the soft sand shoulder of the road to pass the barrage of shiny metal. Recognizable faces passed, most with mouths gaping at the fire behind us, and the lines of cars ahead.
“Milo be careful. What if we get stuck in the sand?”
“We won’t. This car may not look like much, but she’s got power. Trust me, I have driven her through worse terrain than this. This is nothing,” On flashed the dummy light. “Oh no. This is like the worst time for that,” I said as my stomach twisted.
“It will be fine. It’s just overheated. It always does that when I ride her hard. It’s hot outside. The elements get to her. Calm. Stay calm,” he said to me even though I knew it was himself he needed to reassure.
“Come on girl. We can do this” Milo said talking to his car while petting the dash. He gave the accelerator a punch, which kicked the car’s speed enough that we drove toward a berm. I closed my eyes and gritted my teeth fearing the worst. Once I let my lids creep open, I saw we had made it up the beam and were tearing through the open desert.
“How fast do you think she’ll go?” I asked giddily.
“Much faster than this. Hold on tight” we slid through the desert without traction. It was bumpier and more exhilarating than the handful of times I had gone off-roading in Derek’s dad’s jeep. Milo slammed on the breaks; my body lunged forward
“What? What’s going on?” I looked behind us and around.
“Look, I didn’t want to hit them,” Milo said pointing toward a rabbit and two bunnies trailing behind. I laughed long and loudly which was contagious as Milo couldn’t help but find it hilarious too.
“Looks like we have company,” Milo said looking into the rearview mirror. My laughter abruptly ended fearing the worst. I turned to see it wasn’t a cop car. It was my car, and it was racing at a speed, I had known capable.
“It’s my sister! Yes! Look at her go. And they wouldn’t give her a driver’s license,” Milo yelled with glee as he pounded the roof in enthusiasm.
My Nova caught up to us and stopped on my side. I rolled down the window. Lori was in the front seat holding onto the door handle. Milo’s mom was sitting in the backseat looking green and grabbing on to everything she could.
“How’s it going kids? Your car is a beast, Angie. I love it,” Leah yelled.
“Sorry, Angela. My daughter drives like a maniac,” Mrs. McDonough yelled from the back.
“A maniac who’s saving our asses from burning to a crisp,” Lori said.
“Hey. Don’t talk to mom like that. It’s disrespectful.” Milo said. The banality of a family argument caused me to miss my own family but felt grateful that the McDonoughs always gave me the feeling I was a part of theirs.
“What do you say, big brother? Let’s ditch this hole,” Leah said.
“Here! Here!” Mrs. McDonough hollered.
“I’ll race you,” Milo said and threw his car into gear. “No” I could hear Mrs. McDonough distantly yell. We set out straight toward the mountains until Manere had become nothing but plumes of smoke in the distance. We made it toward the freeway. One by one, our cars cannonballed off the berm between the twenty feet, or so, that was fenced off and landed ourselves on the shoulder of the freeway. “Here we go,” Milo said as he put his left turn signal alerting the drivers behind us that he was merging, that we were all merging.
**
I turned to see the McDonough women dancing in their seats with their hands in the air. I leaned over and embraced Milo from the side, leaving a kiss on his cheek.
“Hey, hey now, I’m driving. That’s very dangerous” he said blushing. As I lowered myself to sit back in my seat, the small metal box, my great-grandmother left me, caught my eye. I leaned over the seat to pick up the box and placed it on my lap.
“What is that?” Milo asked
“It’s from my great-grandmother. She told me I couldn’t open it until I left Manere.”
“Well, look around. I think it’s safe to say we are no longer in Manere, Toto,”.
I leaned down to my feet to look through my backpack that had been sitting on the floorboards. I found the key in the front pocket and eagerly popped the box open. There were pictures, at least twenty or so. Most of them of my mom and dad when they were teenagers. Both sitting on the hood of an old car, with mom’s head resting on dad’s shoulder. Another one with them both dressed up for a formal dance. My dad in an icy blue tuxedo, and mom in a buttery yellow floor-length dress that had laughably puffy sleeves. Another one showed my grandparents decked out in tennis clothing, while mom and dad stood next to them wearing bell bottoms and my mom in a halter, but all of them had tennis rackets in their hands. Another one was on a beach, my dad drinking soda from a glass bottle while my mom kissed him on the cheek.
There were more pictures of them as young parents. My father holding me over his head while standing in a pool. Another with me laying on his chest while he rested in a hammock. My mother holding me up on her legs. Another with me, no more than a few months old on my tummy with my mom, also on her stomach, kissing my nose. I couldn’t fight the tears, and I sniffed loudly.
“What is it?” Milo asked.
“My family. I’ve never seen these pictures.”
Milo leaned over and glanced at them. “Cute. Is that you? You were so pudgy.”
“I was.”
“You were way cuter than I was when I was a baby. Some things never change I guess,” Milo said. I continued through the pictures until I stopped on a piece of paper. I picked up the paper to find stacks of bills stuffed at the bottom.
“What the?”
“What is it?”
“Money. There’s a bunch of money in here,”
“Really? That’s awesome.”
“This can’t be right. She must have given me a box and forgot her money was in here.”
“Or maybe she just wanted to give you a present.”
“Milo, there are thousands of dollars in here, like many thousands.”
Nestled among the bills was a folded piece of stationery paper. Inside read a note
My eyes brimmed with tears as I looked at the road ahead and never looked back.
Chapter 40
One Year Later
Just as I suspected, there was a good deal more to life than Manere. The first few weeks after leaving was one new experience after another. The McDonough family stayed with us at my Aunt Kari’s house. After Milo and I went off to college, with me in Pittsburgh and Milo in New York, my mom and his two sisters decided to move to the east coast to join us.
Mrs. McDonough stayed with Aunt Kari in California. The two became fast friends and now have plans to open a vegan bakery together. Mrs. McDonough makes a drive north to visit Katie and her grandchildren almost every weekend. When I found out that Milo’s dad was living in a motorhome in Katie and Jeff’s driveway, I couldn’t believe Mrs. McDonough didn’t mind running into him so often. Sharing grandkids seemed to have mellowed them both.
Lucy and her family had a tough going for a while. After moving in with distant relatives in Missouri, Lucy got a hostessing job at an upscale restaurant and moved into a small apartment with her coworkers. She called me a few weeks after getting settled there and told me she was afraid to contact me because she was embarrassed by how we had left things. I told her that it was both us of being immature and we reminisced about all the meaningless fights we had over the years. Now we text because we can. She also told me she was applying for college and wanted to get into hospitality management. It was her boyfriend’s idea she said, but I knew it was her own, and it was a good one.
All That Remains (Manere Book 1) Page 20