Spanish Run
Page 2
reflexes kicked in too and they raised the rope higher so I could go under but I was already sailing through the air. I heard the littlest girl say oh shit. Needless to say, yes I flipped and landed hard on my back on them godforsaken stone steps. One of the girls screamed. That’s when I knew the little Dora chick was real, and she was about to castrate me on the spot in front of three little girls. I threw up my hands, that’s all I could think of to do.
“Noooo!” I screamed. But nothing happened. I raised myself up, dismissing the pain. No scary Dora chick in sight. I did see my neighbors in front of their house, that's when I heard another scream. At first I thought the screams were coming from far away. But then there was more screams and no mistaking where they were coming from. My neighbors the three little girls. For one second I had the idea maybe I had bust my head open and I couldn't feel the blood gushing out of my head. Then I too saw the flames.
“Get back!” I yelled at them. “Get back!” I pulled out my cell phone to call the police when one of the girls told me their baby sister was still in the house. Before that could even register in my head my feet were already moving, headed toward the house losing my cell phone somewhere along the way. The front door was already off-limits. I could see the main door was open through the screen door. The flames were accumulating and rising quickly. I know I couldn't have heard the baby but it seemed I could hear the faintest cries in my head. I ran into the rear because I knew there was a back door. I turned the door knob but it wouldn't budge. I kicked it a couple times and lowered my shoulder into it, but I did not as much as dent the door. I am not a hysterical person but I was on the verge of losing it. There was a real baby in this burning house. I went to run back around front. Windows, there in front of me. They all had burglar bars on them. I looked closely to examine them. There were four screws holding each one in place. I tried the closest one to me and pulled with all my might. Thank God I did feel some give. I am a small man, have never weighed over one hundred and forty pounds. While pulling on the burglar bars I felt a surge of energy. The two screws in top pulled loose bringing wood siding with it. I turned into a maniac then looking nothing of heroic. Breaking a window is not as easy as I thought. I bent down the burglar bars and went to work on the glass with my fist. Hitting it over and over until it finally shattered. In my peripheral vision I saw the sisters huddled together. A few people had come out of the neighboring houses. In the distance I could hear the wail of a fire engine. Glass shards were all over the window frame. But I had nothing to work with. I pulled myself up cutting my hands immediately. I pulled my body through the window, gouging my chest and stomach as I went. The chant "gotta move, gotta move" kept going through my mind like a catchy song chorus. Once my hands were able to touch the carpet floor I did a front-ward flip into the room. Heat baking me I jumped up. I was in a bedroom but there was no sign of a baby. I can die right here I thought to myself, right here and right now. I would more than likely asphyxiate before the flames consumed me. I was going to kill myself anyway right?
Then I heard it. I ran into the hall and there stood a little girl no more than eighteen months old screaming and crying. In the unfortunate excitement, heat, and my pumping adrenaline I did not miss the fact the girl was dressed in a pink dress with the face of Dora the Explorer plastered on the front. I hesitated only one second. I scooped her up in my arms and headed left towards the back. The smoke was thick and hanging heavily all around us but I could see the floor just fine. I came into a small laundry room where I spotted the back door. I unlocked the dead bolt and staggered into clean air.
“I hear someone!” An unidentified person yelled. Someone I couldn't see because my eyes were burning. That someone or another someone, I couldn't tell took the girl from my arms. I remember being seated on the back of an ambulance and receiving oxygen from a mask. What I do recall quite well a fireman stopped by and said.
“You could have died in there young man. You are a hero.” He firmly grasped my shoulder gave it a squeeze and disappeared into the crowd.
The next day I was sitting on my porch looking at the burned skeleton of the house next door. I was able to save that little girl, to save a life. The firemen were also able to contain the fire and saved my apartment. I had stayed up thinking all night what if I would have killed myself, not just yesterday but the day before the fire. Would that little girl have died if I was dead? It was a lot to think about. Right now would be a great time to pray. I thanked God for the things I did have and asked that He bless me. As I got up to go into the house I saw a car pull up. It was the woman I was still in love with, Brittany.
“Brittany... you're alive?”
A tear slid down her face. “I'm sorry, I should have called first. I'm not Brittany, my name is Whitney her twin sister. We were adopted by different families at birth and we had recently found out we were twins. “She did care about you However I am the one that loves you.”
“Stop messing with me.” I almost yelled.
“I am so sorry but it's true. My sister Brittany really was a lesbian. I was the one here that night. I told you I love you. The story is true about my real mom and how Brittany started liking girls. I wanted to come out and tell you but Brittany told me you would hate her forever. You did go out with Brittany some nights but most of the dates were with me. Brittany thought it would be a good idea. Now I can see that it wasn't.”
“Why haven't I ever seen ya'll together?”
“I just moved here with my Dad two months ago. He lives all the way in Southwest Little Rock that's why you never saw us together here in Central. I wanted to meet someone really nice and Brittany told me it would be you. Can you ever forgive us?”
I was pretty pissed off. Some of the craziest things always happened to me. I looked at Whitney's hand. I could see something dangling from her car keys.
“What’s that on your key chain?” I asked.
She laughed. “Dora the Explorer, why?”
“No reason, I forgive ya'll.” I said.
“Come on let's go inside, everything I said still was the truth. I am a virgin.”
My eyes lit up and a smile came to my face and I lead the love of my life inside.