by Ann Gabhart
An animal bounded out of the trees and jumped straight at Kate. She screamed and fell backward. Then paws were on her chest and a big tongue was licking her face.
“Poe!” Kate sat up and pushed him away from her face. “You crazy dog. You nearly scared me to death.”
“Sorry about that, Kate,” Graham said as he followed the dog out of the trees. “I should’ve told Poe to bark before we got here.” He snapped his fingers once, and the dog backed away from Kate. “He was glad to see you. Truth is, so am I. You find the girl?”
“She’s here.”
“Hi.” Lorena peeked out from behind Kate. She laughed when Poe ran toward her to wash her face with his big tongue too.
“No time.” Fern came back down the trace of a path they were on. “Fire’s bigger.”
The smell of smoke was getting stronger, and they could hear the fire crackling and popping now. It didn’t sound all that far away.
“Fern was showing us the way home,” Kate said. “But then when we got out of her cedar house we smelled the smoke. Is it bad?”
“Bad.” Graham’s voice sounded sad. “The whole place may go up in flames.”
“The house too?” Fern asked.
“A possibility.” Graham and Fern stared at one another.
“What about Mama’s picture?” Fern said. “And the money?”
“You and the girls matter more than a picture,” Graham said, but he sounded even sadder. “More than money. And the men may stop the fire before it gets to the house.”
Fern raised her head and listened a moment. “No stopping this. Too dry.”
“We better get moving.” Graham picked up Lorena. “You lead the way, Fern.”
“You take them, Brother. I’ll get the picture.”
“No, Fern. It might not be safe.” Graham grabbed her arm as she turned away.
She pulled away from him. “I thought the woods was safe, but nothing’s safe. Nothing.” With that she was gone.
“Fern, come back,” Lorena yelled after her. When Fern didn’t answer her, she started crying.
Graham patted Lorena’s back. “Now, now. Don’t take on so. Fern’s tough. She’ll keep out of the way of the fire. You just trust old Graham and Poe on this one. We’re all going to be fine.”
“But what about Fern’s trees?” Lorena whimpered.
“Trees grow back,” Graham said. “Tell her, Kate.”
“Right. Trees grow back.” Kate kept her voice steady and calm, but she felt anything but. The fire seemed to be on all sides, closing in on them. “We’d better go, hadn’t we?”
They took off through the trees. Graham carried Lorena and held her head down close to his shoulder as he ducked under the branches. Kate followed on his heels. Behind her the fire was roaring, and she imagined she could feel the heat of the flames. She had no idea where they were in the woods with the smoke swirling around them. She could only hope that Graham knew where he was going.
Then the fire jumped the way Fern warned it would, and instead of running away from the flames, they were running toward them. The fire was coming toward them from every direction. Kate could barely get her breath. She didn’t know if it was from the smoke or the running or the fear. She tried to pray, but she was too scared. Fern’s words from earlier popped into her head. God’s big. He could save them.
Graham leaned over and spoke right into her ear. “We can make the pond. Grab hold of my shirttail. Poe will show us the way.”
Up ahead she heard Poe bay like he was on the trail of a coon. They ran after him, not paying any mind to the bushes grabbing at their legs and arms. When they came out on the pond bank, the water looked red in the light of the fire chasing after them and coming in from the other side. Poe stopped on the bank, but Graham didn’t slow down. He plunged right into the water and kept walking until the water was waist deep. Kate was right behind him. Her shoes got stuck in the mud. She pulled her feet out of them and kept going. The mud squishing up between her toes was the most wonderful thing she had ever felt. Poe swam in after them.
41
______
Nadine stood at the fence and waited. She’d done as Victor asked and told the men to go home, but Father Merritt had pushed past her and led the men on across the pasture field and into the trees. She hadn’t stopped praying since.
When she saw the first flames rising up out of the trees, she sent Evangeline and Victoria to Gertie’s house to sound the alarm. The church bells were still pealing. Over and over. The evening air vibrated with the sound. With danger.
Behind Nadine, doors were slamming and people were yelling, but she stayed by the fence, staring at the edge of the woods, straining to see Victor and Kate and Lorena come out of the trees and run across the field to her. Night was falling, but there was enough light to see.
Father Merritt came out first. He walked across the field to the road in front of the house without glancing once toward the fence where Nadine stood. Nor did he look behind him. She called to him, but he didn’t raise his eyes from the ground in front of his feet as he kept walking. He didn’t seem to be aware of the church bells ringing or the fire blooming up out of the trees behind him or the men yelling at him as he passed.
A few minutes later the other men broke free from the trees and hurried across the field toward their houses. Victor was with them, but Kate and Lorena were not. His eyes were fastened on her as he came straight toward her.
When he was near enough, he asked, “Has Graham brought the girls out?”
“No.” Her heart leapt up in her throat so that she could barely push out the next words as he stopped on the other side of the fence in front of her. “So you saw them? They’re all right?”
“I did not.” He put his hands on the top rail of the fence and lifted himself over. He put his arms around her for a moment. “But Graham went for them. He’ll find them. He thinks they’re with Fern. That she must have been the one who rescued Lorena from Ella’s closet.”
“We never should have let your father take her from us and give her to Ella.”
“My father.” Victor’s voice was flat. “He’s the reason for this.” He waved behind him at the fire.
“What do you mean?”
“No time to explain now. I’ve got to get my axe. We need to cut a fire break to slow down the fire.”
Nadine looked over Victor’s shoulder. The fire had tripled in size already. “Will you be able to save Graham’s house?”
“The big house maybe. I don’t know. As dry as it is and the way the wind’s blowing, the cedar thickets will go up like tinder. There may be no stopping it.” Victor tightened his arms around her and then turned loose. “I’ve got to get my axe.”
She followed him around the house. “I can go with you. Help somehow.”
“No, you stay here and wait for Kate.” The door creaked when he opened the shed to pull out his axe. The cow heard it and began bawling again. “You’d better milk her or else her bag will go bad and we won’t have milk. Just don’t leave her in the barn.” He started back toward the woods.
Nadine grabbed his arm and made him turn back toward her. “Surely we don’t have to worry about the fire getting the barn. Do we?”
“No, I don’t think so. We’ll stop it. But if we don’t, no sense losing the cow.” His voice softened as he touched her cheek. “Kate will be all right, Nadine. I know she will.” Then he was gone, running across the field back toward the fire.
Nadine didn’t bother putting the cow in the barn. She just poured some corn out on the ground and milked her where she stood. The old cow had always been extra gentle, and even with the smell of smoke in the air, she only lifted her feet a couple of times to show her uneasiness. Each time Nadine took hold of the cow’s leg and gently pushed her hoof back down on the ground. The barn would be dark. She didn’t want to light a lantern and take the chance it might get knocked over and start a new fire.
It was bad enough the fire was growing by leaps and bounds
in the woods right across from her. Bad enough that she had to worry about Kate and Lorena somewhere in the middle of that. She leaned her head against the old cow’s side and patiently stripped the milk out of her teats into the bucket. Some things had to be done no matter if the world was burning up around you.
And hadn’t she always done what had to be done? So had Kate. She was the one child of Nadine’s who was most like her in that way. Kate knew what had to be done and did it. That’s why she’d run away to the woods to get Lorena. She knew Lorena would need her. That was why now she’d be running away from the fire and finding somewhere safe. Besides, Nadine didn’t just have to depend on Kate’s own good sense. Graham would have found her. He knew every tree in Lindell Woods. He’d find a way out. He’d see that the girls were safe even while his whole world was burning down.
Poor Graham. He’d already been through one life tragedy back when the influenza had taken his parents and the same as taken Fern. He’d had to give up his dream of being a doctor to care for Fern. Such a gentle man with such a kind spirit. Nadine had never seen him be hateful to anyone. Even when they made fun of him or Fern and the way they lived, keeping the big house as a shrine to his mother. Now it looked like that might all go up in smoke.
She patted the old cow’s rump to let her know she was through milking her and carried the bucket of milk into the house. She left it sitting on the kitchen table. She didn’t bother lighting a lamp, but she did light a lantern now. She’d told the girls to stay at Gertie’s, so she was alone in the house. She couldn’t go search for Kate and Lorena. She couldn’t be all that much help on the fire line. She thought about her father and how the church bells ringing and the sight of the fire moving closer to his house and the church might upset him. She’d go there second.
First she walked across the field and straight toward the Lindell house. The fire wasn’t there yet, but the smoke was. She had time. She could hear the men shouting back and forth as they felled trees and worked frantically to clear a firebreak. The noise of the flames consuming the trees was terrifying, and Nadine prayed out loud and walked faster.
The house was still standing, but it would take a miracle for the men to save it. The woods had edged too close on all sides since the house had held a family. She looked over her shoulder at the flames lighting the sky as she pushed open the door and stepped through it into the front hall. Here Mrs. Lindell had once greeted people and held lavish parties for her father, the senator. She had been a beautiful woman with a heart as kind as Graham’s. The air in the house felt too still, as if the house itself was holding its breath as it awaited its fate.
Nadine had the eerie feeling she wasn’t alone, but she shook it away. The spirits of Mr. and Mrs. Lindell had long been gone from this place. Long removed from the worries of this world. She had come for one thing and one thing only. It was the least she could do for Graham while he was saving Kate and Lorena. She had to believe he was saving Kate and Lorena.
The painting of his mother hung in the parlor over the mantel. Nadine had never been in the house with Graham when he didn’t show her the painting and talk about how beautiful his mother was. Sometimes he talked to the painting as if the woman gazing out at him might even yet hear his voice. He’d be heartbroken if it was lost. Nadine set her lantern down on the hearth and pushed a chair over to the mantel.
She ignored the feeling that she was being watched and resisted the urge to talk to the woman’s face in front of her the way Graham did as she lifted the painting off the wall. It was heavier than she had expected and awkward to hold. The chair that had seemed steady enough when she’d first stepped up on it now felt wobbly as she tried to shift the painting in her hands to set it down on the floor.
“What are you doing?” The voice spoke right behind her.
Nadine jumped and would have fallen if rough hands hadn’t grabbed her and lifted her off the chair and set her on the floor. She kept hold of the painting and looked around at Fern. “You scared me, Fern.”
“I scare a lot of people,” she said. “What are you doing with Mother’s portrait?”
“I wanted to save it in case the men couldn’t stop the fire. I know how much it means to Graham.” Nadine looked at Fern in the dim light of the lantern. “And you.”
“Brother says paintings don’t matter. People matter.”
“Where is Graham?”
“That’s why you’re here. You think if you save his painting he’ll save her. Like a trade.” Fern stared at Nadine for a moment before she shook her head sadly. “But it doesn’t work that way. People die no matter what you try to trade.”
Nadine moistened her lips and tried to mash down the panic growing in her. Kate and Lorena had to be with Graham. They had to be safe. “They aren’t going to die.”
“Maybe not,” Fern said. “Probably not. Brother had them. He’ll get them out but not because of this.” She pointed at the painting.
Relief washed through Nadine and made her legs weak. She set the painting down against the wall and held onto the back of the chair.
Fern grabbed Nadine’s arm again to keep her from falling. “I used to swoon. Stopped that.”
“I never swoon.” Nadine straightened up.
“Could be the smoke, but looked more like a swoon.” Fern let go of Nadine and went to push open a window and lean out it. “Fire’s not here yet, but it will be.” She pulled her head back in and went to the middle of the room. Her shadow in the light of the lantern stretched across the room and up the wall. “Laughter here. Once.”
“Did you come back to say goodbye to the house?” Nadine asked softly.
Fern turned to Nadine. “Houses don’t have ears.”
“Maybe not, but their walls ring with memories.” Nadine looked around at the faded rose wallpaper and sheet-covered furniture. There was something so lonesome about an empty house.
“Bad memories too.” Fern went over and leaned the painting out from the wall to pat the back of its canvas. She stood up and stared toward Nadine. “Brother keeps money there. If you bother it, I’ll know. Got to get my box.” Without hurrying she went to the hall where the stairs climbed up to the second floor.
Nadine picked up her lantern and the painting to follow her. The smoke was getting thicker, and she couldn’t keep from coughing a little as she said, “Hurry.”
Fern stopped halfway up the stairs and looked down at Nadine. “Go home before you swoon again.”
“I won’t leave you,” Nadine said.
“That’s what he said. I didn’t believe him. The boy came and I ran away. I shouldn’t have run away. I could have stopped it. Kept him from knocking the boy into the water. Kept Brother from hitting him. Stopped it all.” She stared over top of Nadine’s head, seeing something that Nadine knew nothing of. “Boy came up and Brother saved him, but the water took my love away. Stole him from me, but it wasn’t the water’s fault. It was mine. I want to blame that man, but it was my fault. All mine.”
So many words seemed to empty Fern out, and she had to grasp hold of the banister for a moment before she gained the strength to keep climbing. Nadine stood at the bottom of the staircase and tried not to think about the thickening smoke as she waited for Fern. She could hear the woman walking around in the room above her, and Nadine wanted to run up the stairs and grab Fern and pull her out of the house. But the fire hadn’t reached the house. There was surely time for Fern to get whatever dear possession she wanted to save. Nadine wouldn’t deny her that when the poor woman had been denied so much already.
She blew out a breath in relief when Fern started back down the steps. Fern almost smiled when she got to the bottom of the stairs and looked at Nadine. “Faithful like Brother.” She thrust a small wooden box at Nadine. “Here. Take that and Mother. I can chop trees. Stop the fire.”
Nadine took the box, but before she picked up the painting, she surprised both Fern and herself by grabbing Fern in a hug. “I’m sorry.”
Fern pulled loose. �
�For what?”
“I don’t know, but you do.”
Fern looked at her for another minute before she went out the front door, picked up her hatchet, and started toward where the men were working against the fire that was leaping out of the trees toward the sky now. The men looked small in front of the flames.
It was awkward carrying the painting, the box, and the lantern. Halfway across the field back toward Rosey Corner, Nadine blew out the lantern and set it down on the ground. The fire was throwing enough light her way that she didn’t need it anymore. She didn’t stop at her house but carried the painting and Fern’s box to Gertie’s house in the middle of Rosey Corner. If Gertie’s house burned, all of Rosey Corner would be lost.
Gertie and the girls ran down off the porch to meet her. They were full of questions Nadine couldn’t answer, but she told them Kate and Lorena were safe with Graham. She needed to believe it was true as much as they did. Then she left them with Gertie and walked to her father’s house. Here the fire was much closer, only a short open field away.
Carla and her father were on the porch in their rocking chairs. Carla was rocking furiously and talking nonstop. Nadine could hear her before she went through the yard gate. Nadine’s father wasn’t rocking at all as he stared out toward the fire.
“Nadine!” Carla jumped up out of her chair when she saw Nadine. She ran down the steps to grab Nadine’s arms. “Tell your father we have to leave. He won’t listen to me. For a while he kept praying the Lord would keep the church building safe, but then he sat down and now he won’t say anything. Just sits there.”
“Calm down, Carla,” Nadine said.
“Calm down!? How could anybody be calm with that right on their doorstep?” Carla gestured wildly toward the fire.
Nadine pushed Carla’s hands away and stepped past her to the porch. She knew why her father was so silent even before she went up the steps. The fire had claimed its first victim.