“Let’s do it,” Steph said. They both put on their respirators and got their tools.
Eric did the thumbs-up signal indicating he was ready. They climbed through the east side window. The window itself had blown out from the blaze. Smoke filled the room and flames licked at the overhead beams. Steph estimated they had five minutes, tops, to find the kids and get out safely.
The room was large and wide open. Judging from the melted toys and burning wood cubicles, it had been the main activity room. Sam and Taylor were nowhere to be found. Steph looked over at Eric and gestured “Where next?” He pointed to the small office at the rear of the room.
He took two steps when an overhead beam fell from the ceiling. Steph grabbed Eric’s sleeve and pulled him back. The beam narrowly missed them, crashing to the floor not three feet away. They stepped around it and headed for the office.
Steph stepped inside first with Eric following. She saw the small pink sandal poking out from under the desk. She leaned down hoping for the best.
She breathed a sigh of relief when she saw Sam holding a very frightened little blond girl. Sam had taken his shirt off, somehow gotten it wet, then torn it to make face masks for both him and the girl. They then crouched down low on the floor, trying to avoid the rising smoke.
Steph noticed they were sitting in a puddle of water. A few feet away was a water cooler with its five-gallon jug knocked over. Sam had had the foresight to get them both wet and make the face masks. He’d been buying them time, trying desperately to construct a water barrier between them and the flames that were now crawling up the walls.
Damn, Steph thought, the kid was smart.
Eric squatted down next to her. Steph reached under the desk, took Sam out, and Eric grabbed the girl. The girl screamed and clawed at Eric. She didn’t want to be taken away from Sam.
“Go with him, Taylor! Go with him!” Sam yelled over the roar of the fire.
Taylor immediately obeyed Sam. She clutched frantically at Eric, wrapping her legs around his waist and her arms around his neck.
The ceiling buckled and a large chunk of drywall crashed to the floor. The remaining ceiling groaned. They had only seconds before the rest of the ceiling collapsed.
Steph and Eric, with the kids over their shoulders, raced through the door just as the office ceiling gave way, engulfing the room with flames. They’d gotten out with not a second to spare.
They ran through the main room and crawled back through the window just as Ruth rushed around the corner, shooting water at the building, fighting back the encroaching flames.
Steph and Eric made it to the safety of the street as the east wall of the building crashed to the ground.
Two paramedics swooped up the kids. Steph whipped off her mask. “You did good, Sam!” she called out to him.
Over the shoulder of the paramedic, Sam smiled big and gave her a thumbs-up.
***
Rosa was on the yoga mat, doing her deep breathing exercises when her cell phone rang. It was sitting next to her coat on the long counter that served as Parker’s work bench.
“Want me to get it?” Parker asked. She said it not like Rosa couldn’t get up to get it, but more as a courtesy. Rosa appreciated that about Parker. That’s why she made such a good workout partner. She treated Rosa like an equal, not a cripple.
“Sure, go ahead. Tell whoever it is I’ll be there in a minute,” Rosa said.
Parker picked up. She didn’t say anything. She listened, said “uh huh,” a couple of times and clicked off.
“Who was it?”
“It was Chief Bob Ed. He said the day care on First Street is on fire.”
“On fire?”
“Actually, he called it a raging inferno.”
Parker’s cell phone rang next. She grabbed it and said, “Amy?”
Amy didn’t waste words. “The day care’s on fire.”
“I just heard.”
“Sam’s at that day care. Jeb and Clementine went to Kansas City for the day. Some court thing they had to do.”
“Oh no,” Parker breathed.
“What if…” Amy choked off the words she didn’t want to say out loud.
“Steph and her crew are there, they know what to do. It’ll be okay. There’s a park across the street from the day care. We’ll meet you there, okay?”
“Okay. Drive safely, please.” Amy clicked off.
Rosa was already halfway to Parker’s van. Oh, god, Rosa thought. Please don’t let anyone be inside. Steph can’t handle losing a kid again. That was how they had met, over a dead child that had been thrown from the car of a drunk driver. It had crushed them both. A day care full of kids was a potential disaster for everyone.
“Let’s go,” Parker said, throwing Rosa’s coat over her shoulders. She unlocked the brakes on Rosa’s wheelchair.
“There’s no time for the chair. I can use my sticks,” Rosa said referring to her walking canes, the ones that fit up her forearms. She’d been practicing using them. Now it was time to see how far, how quickly, she could move with them.
“Okay,” Parker said, grabbing the canes and fitting them to Rosa’s arms. She got the van keys and opened the garage door.
Rosa hobbled to the van. Parker nodded her approval as Rosa hoisted herself up into the van.
Parker started the van and reversed out of the garage. Rosa adjusted herself in the van seat. The seat back was high but had no lumbar support. Usually, she sat in her chair which they strapped into the back of the van. This was the first time she’d ridden up front since her surgery.
“You okay?” Parker asked.
“Yeah, it’s just weird sitting up here.”
“In other words, the seat lacks the necessary support of your back. We’ll need to remedy that. I’ll get a different seat cover with built in support.”
“You don’t have to. Usually, I ride in my chair anyway,” Rosa said.
“I don’t think you will be in the future.”
“What do you mean?”
“You just proved you can do it. Why get back into the chair? We only go forward,” Parker said.
“I wish I had your confidence.”
“Yeah, but then you wouldn’t need me.”
Parker and Rosa parked across the street from the burning day care. They saw Amy standing at the rear of an ambulance, talking to Sam, who lay on a gurney. He kept trying to sit up to talk while the paramedic kept pushing him back down.
Parker helped Rosa out of the van. They made their way to the ambulance.
Sam smiled when he saw them. “Hi, guys!” he said, then coughed.
“No more talking,” Amy ordered.
“But I have to tell them what happened,” Sam said excitedly. “Jeb’s going to be proud of me! Clementine and Luke, too!”
“They sure will,” Amy said.
"We got to take him,” the burly paramedic said. “Now.”
“Can Amy go with me?” Sam asked. “She’s going to put me in the paper!”
“Sure, but no more talking. And you have to keep the oxygen mask on. Deal?” the paramedic said.
Sam nodded enthusiastically, his lips pressed tightly together.
“How about Steph?” Rosa asked, grabbing the paramedic’s sleeve. “Have you seen Steph?”
He shook his head. “She was inside. Sorry, that’s all I know.”
Rosa looked at the burning building. There wasn’t much left now. Only one wall was still standing. The roof was completely gone.
If anybody was in there, no way they would have survived, Rosa thought.
“Babe,” Steph said, almost bowling Rosa over. Fortunately, Parker was standing next to her. Parker, still talking to Amy, stuck her arm out in time to keep Rosa from falling. “Oh, god, sorry,” Steph said.
“Steph!” Rosa said. Only then did she allow her emotions to surface. Tears sprang to her eyes. “I was so scared!”
The ambulance pulled away with Amy and Sam in the back.
“You smell like an ashtray,” Rosa sa
id. It was a standing joke between them. Rosa came home smelling of crime and depravity, Steph of smoke and burned embers.
“Well, yeah, that happens,” Steph said. She stepped back and took Rosa in. “Where’s your chair?”
“Oh, I thought it was time to give it a rest,” Rosa said. “These are doing a fine job of holding me up.”
“Good,” Steph said. “That’s what I like to hear.”
She embraced Rosa in a bear hug. Rosa’s sticks fell to the ground as she wrapped her arms around Steph’s neck. Rosa held on like she would never let go.
Chapter Fifteen
“So, I’m a hero?” Sam asked as Luke busily snapped photos from every angle.
“You sure are, buddy,” Steph said, standing next to him dressed in her full firefighting regalia. She put her arm around him while Luke took photos of them.
“Don’t you just need one?” Sam asked.
“I want a few to choose from,” Luke said.
“Because you want to get my good side,” Sam said.
“That’s right,” Luke said, chuckling.
Sam beamed. He coughed but tried to hide it. “I’m just glad that Taylor is doing okay. Clementine is taking me Christmas shopping. I want to get her a present but I don’t know what little girls like for presents,” he said.
Sitting at his desk, Jeb laughed. “You and me both, buddy. Take a tip from me…No lingerie.”
Amy whapped Jeb’s arm.
“What?” Jeb asked. “They’re never too young to learn the facts of life.”
Amy shook her head in a mock scolding gesture. “I don’t know how Clementine lives with all you men.”
Amy was so overwhelmingly glad that Sam and Taylor were all right. She imagined that losing a child must be the worst thing on the planet. Losing Sam would have crushed Jeb and Clementine. Amy knew they felt guilty for leaving Sam at the day care while they went into the city, but they hadn’t wanted him to sit in court while his mother was sentenced on charges of child endangerment. It was unseemly to even consider it. Tess had agreed. It wouldn’t do either of them any good. Tess had been there with them, mostly for moral support and a brief testimony.
“Okay, little man, you’re done,” Luke said, rumpling Sam’s hair.
“Will I get a copy of the newspaper? I’m starting a scrap book of my achievements,” Sam said. “Steph said I should set goals for myself.”
They all looked over at Steph. She shrugged. “I may have mentioned it. Goals are good things.”
Amy chuckled. “That is so like you.”
“I know. I can’t help myself,” Steph said.
Sam came over and put his arms around Steph’s waist. “Thank you for saving us.” He tried to hide his tears by quickly brushing them away with the back of his hand.
“No thanks necessary. It’s what I do, buddy,” Steph said, squeezing his shoulder.
***
Amy and Steph left the newspaper office and walked to Molly’s where they were meeting Millie and Bernie for lunch. It was a bright, sunny day and the snow flurries of last night had already melted away. Snow didn’t usually stick around in Fenton. It would be nice if it would snow on Christmas, Amy thought.
She wondered what Millie and Bernie wanted to talk about. Millie had told her they needed to talk to her, but refused to tell her about what. It was all very cloak and dagger. Millie told her not to be nervous. However, being told not to be nervous made Amy nervous. Her mind automatically imagined bad news. She hoped one of them didn’t have a terminal disease. Losing her mother to Alzheimer’s had been hard enough. She couldn’t bear to lose either of them, too.
“They’re not dying, so stop thinking that,” Steph said as they approached Molly’s.
“What makes you say that?”
“Because I could tell you were thinking it.”
“How can you be so sure one of them isn’t sick?”
“Because it’d be all over town by now. You know how it is here, everyone knows everything about everyone else,” Steph said.
“Susan would never reveal health issues about one of her patients. It’d be unethical.”
“No, but someone would see something like them going in for tests or multiple doctor’s appointments. Believe me, in this town no one is terminally ill without the world knowing about it. The town women need to know in advance to make the casseroles and offer condolences and do all manner of errands. They love it,” Steph said.
“I know I shouldn’t be thinking this way. Millie still goes to yoga every day. Bernie is still taking the girls out for shooting practice. Oh my god!” Amy suddenly exclaimed, stopping in the middle of the sidewalk. “You don’t think the drug lords are after them, do you?”
“I doubt it.” Steph opened the door for Amy to enter.
The bakery side of the café was booming with orders for Christmas parties. Molly barely had time to wave at them from behind the cash register. Molly always hired extra help over the holidays, usually in the form of college kids who were enjoying the month-long break from studying and ever in need of cashola. Molly gladly obliged.
Millie and Bernie were already at their usual booth. Amy and Steph waded through the dining room and slid into the seat across the table from them.
A young woman with a ponytail and flushed cheeks raced over. “What can I get you all?”
“Are we doing pie for lunch?” Steph asked the table.
“Damn straight,” Millie said.
“Don’t use that word around me,” Bernie said.
“Damn?” Millie asked.
“No. Straight,” Bernie said with a wink.
“I’m buying today,” Millie announced. “Pie for everybody.”
They each ordered pie and coffee—cherry for Millie, apple for Bernie, coconut cream for Steph, and lemon meringue for Amy.
“So, what’s the big news?” Amy asked after the waitress left.
“How about we wait for our order and then we’ll talk,” Bernie said, taking Amy’s hands in her own. Amy had been shredding her napkin without realizing it.
“Why am I here?” Steph said. “Am I the moral support if Amy doesn’t take it well?”
“No, we knew you had the day off and you like pie, especially since you’re on that silly no sugar diet,” Millie said.
“How’s that going for you?” Bernie asked as she pointed at Steph’s piece of coconut cream pie that the waitress had just set down.
“Sal has lost ten pounds and Ruth and I cheat whenever we can. We’ve both lost five pounds each. Sal figures that since we did the other ten that means he reached his goal. That didn’t fly with the Chief. He’s still got to do the other ten,” Steph said.
Amy took a sip of coffee and tried to be patient. She wasn’t sure if she could eat her lemon meringue pie until Millie and Bernie dropped their bombshell.
Millie, Bernie, and Steph had no such problem. “Oh my god, this is good,” Steph said. She moaned with delight.
“You have to tell me,” Amy said, her fork clanging down on her plate. “You have to tell me the news right now. My stomach can’t take this.”
“Then will you eat your pie? I can’t abide letting good pie go to waste,” Bernie said. She sipped her coffee and studied Amy over the lip of her cup.
“I promise,” Amy said. “Now spill.”
Millie looked at Bernie. “Do you want to do it, or shall I?”
“I’ll do it,” Bernie said. “Now, Amy, before you respond to what I’m about to tell you, I want you to pause and let it sink in.”
“Okay, I won’t be rash,” Amy said. She felt like screaming.
“Millie and I are getting together.”
Amy looked confused. “Getting together to do what?”
“Good grief,” Millie said with an exaggerated sigh. “Let me do it.”
“Yeah, I think I phrased it wrong,” Bernie said.
“I got it,” Steph said. She took a big bite of her pie.
Millie tried to rephrase it. “Bernie a
nd I are moving in together because…”
Amy interjected, “You’re moving into Bernie’s place in Scofield? Is it money? Because we can figure out how to help. I don’t want you to move out of Fenton.”
Millie patted Amy’s hand. “We’re not moving to Scofield. We want to stay close to you. Bernie, as you know, is so glad to have you in her life. And it’s not about money.”
“Then what is it?” Amy asked innocently.
“For God’s sake, Amy, they’re in love,” Steph blurted.
Amy’s eyes widened. “You mean, like, you’re a couple that…” she couldn’t quite bring herself to say it. Elderly people having a sex life had never occurred to her. “You mean you’re like together, together…like,” she stopped.
“Yes, honey, we’re lovers,” Millie said. Bernie wrapped her arm around Millie and squeezed her.
“Oh,” Amy said.
“That’s all you have to say? ‘Oh?’” Steph asked.
Amy leaned across the table and whispered to Millie, “But I thought you were straight.”
“What can I say? I fell in love,” Millie said, laying her head on Bernie’s shoulder.
“Oh,” Amy said again.
“Now, you’re making me nervous,” Bernie said. “Do you disapprove?”
“No, no, no, I’m happy for you two. It just came as a bit of a shock. I never would’ve thought about it, but it’s good. I want you both to be happy. And if that means finding love later in life and becoming a lesbian, you two lesbians together, doing, you know, lesbian things, that’s even more wonderful, not that being straight is bad or anything.”
“Amy, you’re blathering,” Steph said.
Amy burst into sudden tears.
Steph put an arm around her. “It’s okay. Hey, Ames, it’s okay.”
“Oh my! I didn’t expect this reaction,” Millie said. Concern was etched across her face.
Amy grabbed several napkins from the dispenser and dabbed at her eyes. “I’m happy, I’m so happy that two of the people I love most are together now. My family is here,” she said, putting her hand on her heart. “These are happy tears.”
“Whew,” Bernie said.
“Oh, good,” Millie said.
Straight from the Heart Page 20