In my head, I pictured myself bursting through the swinging door and into the shop like some hero ready to save a damsel in distress. What happened was an entirely different story.
I must have stepped in the flour that I was using to dust the countertop. Something nobody bothered to tell me was that flour is crazy slippery on hard flooring.
Even my grippy boots were no match and before I hit the door I skidded into the frame of the door, bonked my head, and collapsed with my head halfway into the front of the shop.
The fall didn’t quite knock me out but I tasted blood where I must have bit my cheek a little. Man, that smarts!
There it was again, louder this time. The sound of something breaking and something that smelled like rotten eggs. I pulled myself together, crawled into the front of the shop and used the sturdy counter to get to my feet.
That was when I saw it. Glass, sparkling like diamonds spread all across the floor. I looked up and for the first time put two and two together.
The windows were missing from the front of the shop, rocks and bricks were spread across seats, tables, and one had gone up against the metal hulk of that register and broken to bits.
Served it right.
I was halfway through the shop, dumbly staring at the carnage like some tourist in a warzone.
I looked up and saw the woman hurling stones. It would have been hard not to notice her. She had been outside A Game of Scones for a while now protesting with a band of angry old people who didn’t understand that the town was dying.
Our eyes locked and like everybody else, she didn’t register me as a threat. She continued throwing stones through the shattered windows that gaped out at the street like mouths full of broken teeth.
Because I was the coward everybody thought I was, I ran. My feet skidded on the glass and I nearly went down but I braced myself on a nearby table and beat a hasty retreat to the kitchen.
I pulled out my phone, hovered over 911 and stopped myself.
What would Thomas do if he were here? Would he let somebody vandalize his shop he works so hard at? I’m the only one here now, it’s up to me to do what he would.
I pocketed my phone and turned back toward the door but couldn’t go through. Fear gripped me so tightly I couldn’t move. I could hardly breathe. I’m better than this. They trusted me to mind the shop while they were gone! It’s not right what’s going on.
My mind made up, I bulled through the swinging door back into the shop. Intent on giving that Beth Ingvar a piece of my mind.
It all played out grandly in my mind. I would stride out there, chest puffed up. She would freeze, there’d be a small chase in which I would catch her and perform a citizen’s arrest.
Then the Sherriff would come and take her away. We’d no longer be hassled by her every day.
Yes, it all came together rather nicely in my head.
Too bad then, that as soon as I took two steps into the stink-filled front of the bakery I strode right into the path of a sailing brick.
An explosion of pain burst white-hot across my brow. There was a sensation of falling. And then everything went black.
26
Thomas
I was down the steps in seconds. Dave fast on my heels, shouting, “You said you wouldn’t run!”
There was no point in replying. He wasn’t going to catch me. Right on cue, the crowd parted to let me pass then surged to block the deputy.
A pang of guilt was all I had time to feel for the man. What I had seen became clear a split second later. The orange glow that didn’t quite fit with the mid-morning light, the smudge that might have been fog or a cloud or something wrong with my eyes was neither.
It was smoke. Something was on fire and I had a sinking suspicion I knew what.
Sam caught up to me as I rushed through the crowds. “What’s going on? Are we making a jailbreak? Oh, please, Thomas tell me we are! Did you know this was on my bucket list?”
“Sam, there’s a fire. I need you to call the fire department.” At some point between giving my speech at the public forum and being dragged out of there, I must have lost my phone because that was the first thing I searched for.
My hands frantically patted anywhere I thought I might have left it and came up empty.
Sam made it to my car with me. “Wait, seriously? This isn’t a jailbreak?”
“It is, and it isn’t. So you still get to cross that off your bucket list.” I threw open the car door and jumped inside. “Sam! The fire department, call them and tell them to come to A Game of Scones. Even if I’m wrong about where the fire is, it’ll be near there.”
I started up the car and peeled out of there before she could answer.
By the time I started to recognize the buildings on this side of town I could see the thick column of smoke that billowed like a chimney into the sky. The whole block must have caught fire.
My heart sank. My worst fears had come true. The bakery was on fire. Thick gouts of flame belched out of shattered windows and crawled up the brickwork in thick black patches.
I pulled up on the opposite side of the road not sure what to do. And that’s when I saw her. Beth, in the middle of the street, looking panic-stricken.
I was out of the car and grabbed her by the shoulders, hauled her to her feet and shook her. “What happened?”
“I-I didn’t mean to!” She was sniveling, her face a wreck of running mascara and makeup. Her hands looked slightly burned.
My mind nearly went black with rage, I managed to hold it together somehow. My vision washed with red but even through that, a thought came to me that filled me with fear, like a shard of ice lodged itself in my heart. “Beth. Where is Gavin?”
She shook her head, kept mumbling the same thing over and over. I dropped her to the ground and ran towards the bakery. From halfway across the street I could feel the intensity of the heat. It was like a wall that pushed me back with searing pain and I wasn’t even up to the sidewalk yet.
Through the flames, I thought I saw something in the back. I tried to get closer, put up my forearm instinctively and tried to peer through the gaping windows. There. Something white and large on the ground in the shop.
This is going to fucking suck.
Before I could lose my nerve I pulled my shirt over my head and tied it in an impromptu scarf over my nose and mouth. It wouldn’t do much good but if Gavin was still in there, I had to get him out.
He was just a fucking kid for chrissake. Barely old enough to drink.
I charged into the opening like a bull. The glass was all gone letting me leap through the opening. Jagged white-hot searing lines of pain etched across my arms. A quick look back and I realized my mistake. The glass was broken but it was still hanging on like jagged daggers in the frame.
Keep going.
Flames sprouted everywhere. The heat felt like I was melting and the smoke poured thickly around me in a blinding haze. The filter of my shirt barely did anything except make me struggle to breathe.
Gavin was on the floor some twenty feet ahead of me. The entire left wall was nothing more than a sheet of flame. The fire climbed up to the roof and spread in a hypnotizing display of beauty. It was like I was underwater in a sea of fire.
Step by agonizing step I closed the distance to Gavin.
There was a loud snap and on instinct I dove forward, narrowly missing a wooden support beam that ripped through the ceiling and collapsed, barring my way back.
Yeah, don’t need to tell me twice to get lost.
Beyond the insanely loud roar of fire - nobody ever told me how loud it was up close - I could hear the old building groan and creak ominously.
It wasn’t going to last very long at this rate. I knew for a fact that most of the interior was aging wood, the fire would eat through it in no time flat. I had to get out before then.
There was no use in trying to rouse Gavin. I knelt by him and wrapped his head in my impromptu mask.
I turned him onto his back, and g
ot him into position so I could roll him up and onto my shoulder in a fireman’s carry - oddly appropriate given the circumstances - and pushed on towards the kitchen hoping the fire hadn’t spread too far.
Of course, it had.
The difference the mask had made was painfully apparent. I thought it was hard to breathe before. Now it felt like I was breathing fire. Air filled with embers scorched my throat and chest.
Unlike the shop front which had plenty of stained wood, the kitchen was mostly tile and stainless steel which gave the flames very little purchase.
Unfortunately, a lot of the appliances in the back ran off gas, making them a ticking time bomb. I ran flat out as fast as I could with Gavin across my shoulders.
My legs felt heavy like bags of wet sand. It was hard to breathe. I wheezed and coughed through the blinding smoke that filled the kitchen, moving towards the back door I knew was there.
This was my kitchen. I could navigate it with my eyes closed. And I pretty much had to.
Each step was agony, every breath felt like it would be my last but I kept going. I forced myself forward because all I could think about was Claire. Thoughts of seeing her again filled me like the air I so desperately needed.
For a brief few seconds, I swore I saw her through the gloom, waiting for me just out of reach. She stretched her arms toward me. If only I could get close enough. Claire was being pulled away, much faster than I could chase after her.
“I’m trying,” I pleaded with her. “Don’t go.”
I ran straight into the door. Burned my hip on the metal push bar and collapsed into the cold air that burned my skin. It felt like I had just leaped into a freezing arctic lake. Everything hurt and burned. I could barely breathe.
Somewhere in my head, I was dimly aware that this was wrong. Something wasn’t right. I staggered a few steps forward like a drunk and collapsed in the parking lot. Darkness dragged me down and I didn’t have the strength to resist.
I was suddenly so tired. Just a few minutes. That’s all I’d take. A quick cat nap and I’d be right as rain.
27
Claire
“I think we can use this,” I said, “But we still don’t have a resolution for how we would rezone-” My phone rang, I looked up at my business partners. “Excuse me a second.”
I didn’t know who was calling me. It wasn’t a number I was familiar with but I was more than willing to use it as an excuse to slip out and stretch my legs.
The last couple of days had been a nightmare of emergency meetings and scrambling to come up to solutions that, quite frankly, were not something that could be rushed.
“Hello?” I answered.
“Is this, Claire Walker?”
“This is her.”
“You’re listed as a Thomas Weller’s emergency contact, I’m calling you on his behalf. He’s currently in critical condition at Saint Mary’s Hospital. We’re doing everything we can but there’s no telling with the amount of smoke inhalation he endured what the prognosis will be just yet.”
My phone dropped from my numb fingers and bounced on the hard tiled ground. I stood there thunderstruck. Fear caused my heart to rattle in my ribcage and I felt like the Grim Reaper himself had just caressed a bony finger along the back of my neck, sending sickening chills down my spine.
As soon as I recovered, I stooped down and picked up the phone again, praying it hadn’t broken entirely. The case Thomas had gotten me did the job even though I had doubted it at the time. He was always so thoughtful. Clearly I heard the lady wrong. This was a prank.
Had to be.
“Hello! Hello? Are you still there?” I cried frantically.
“Yes, Miss Walker. Would you like a call once we know more?” The woman on the other line seemed quite sedate. Not bored, precisely, but her world most definitely was not crumbling around her like mine was.
“Yes, please. I’m coming back immediately.”
I was back on the winding, twisting roads entering into the valley not long after. Gary, Ryan, and Frank understood my distress. The plans were half-made and Sunrise Valley itself hung in the balance but nothing, and I mean nothing, was more important to me than being by Thomas’ side.
Everything else could wait. Or fall to ruin. I didn’t care.
Would it have happened if I had been there?
My mind ran through every possible scenario. They said he had smoke inhalation and was in critical condition, so that meant there was a fire right? I know everything was up to code because we just had an inspector out two weeks ago.
Somehow, as fantastical and unrealistic as it was, I blamed myself.
It was a superpower of mine. I found the tiniest, most insignificant thread and managed to tie myself to it as the cause. This was my fault. I knew it. If I hadn’t left. If I had stayed like Thomas wanted me to, none of this would have happened.
I could have prevented it. I don’t know how but I felt it deep in my bones and the roiling guilt in my belly made me queasy and cold.
By the time my phone started to ring again, I was an emotional wreck. The passenger seat was piled high with crumpled up, used tissues as I struggled to wipe my eyes and blow my nose without careening off the side of the mountain.
“Claire?” asked Sam. “Are you- You’ve heard?”
“Yeah, Sam. The hospital called me. Tell me what happened. Please.”
“Ah, yeah I’m not entirely sure myself.” There was a pause, a sob leaked into the car and I wasn’t sure if it was her or me. “We were at the rally - which, okay not important. Let me start again. Thomas saw something he thought was a fire from our side of town. When he realized what it was, he told me to call the fire department.”
Questions zipped through my mind. What rally? Why hadn’t Thomas called them himself? I stifled the need to know and waited for Sam to continue. Thomas was her best friend, I wasn’t the only one in a bad state after hearing what happened.
“And uhm,” she paused, cleared her throat a few times to get through the lump that choked her words. “He hopped in his car and took off before I could stop him. Thomas told me to tell them A Game of Scones was on fire or at least the area nearby. He wasn’t sure.”
I had a sense that we both knew what was coming next. Bubbling anger rose up in my chest and before I could stop the words that I knew would come, they were out. “Why didn’t you go with him?”
And the unspoken; Why didn’t you protect him?
There was a long, stretched silence. I thought I had lost the call for a moment.
“I’m so sorry, Claire.” Sam’s words were punctuated with sobbing. “By the time I got there, it was over. I found him out back covered in soot. He… he must have gone in to rescue Gavin because when I got there they were together.”
“Was he awake? What did he say?”
“Neither of them have woken up yet…”
“Oh.”
“He’ll be fine, Claire. We’re all pulling for him and he would want you to finish-”
“I’m already on my way back, Sam. Whatever the town decides to do can wait. Or not. I don’t care at this point. Sunrise Valley can eat itself alive if that’s what they want. The only thing I care about is Thomas.”
“You’ll probably hear about this sooner than later and… well I think you might want to hear it from me first. Are you parked somewhere?” Sam’s voice was gentle. This had to be the longest she’d ever gone without cussing.
“No, why?”
“You might want to.”
Fear lurched in my belly and made me sick. “I don’t have time, Sam. I need to get back and these roads don’t necessarily have a shoulder much less a scenic spot to park.”
When Sam responded, her voice was resigned. That was so unlike her. “They found Beth at the scene. I don’t know the specifics but I think she was involved somehow.”
The fear turned to white-hot rage and I choked the steering wheel with all my might trying to bleed off some of the anger that swept through me and filled
me up. I let it boil out of me. That bitch will pay.
I had been willing to work with her, for the common good. But now? Oh, no. If it took everything I had, I would ruin her.
The rational part of my brain woke up. You don’t know what role she had. Until then, maybe keep the murdering plots to yourself? Beth was a sneaky, dirty, underhanded little girl. Torching a building? That seems too much, even for her.
A few calming breaths through my nose and out of my mouth brought my anger under control. I still felt it there, sloshing around inside me ready to spill over at the slightest provocation.
With Thomas hurt and in unknown condition, it felt like my whole world was tipped on its side.
“What did she do?” I finally managed to ask.
“I don’t know, Claire. Nobody does. It’s an ‘ongoing investigation’ and they won’t talk to any of us. But we’re all here, at the hospital. We won’t leave him alone.”
“Are they letting anybody see him yet?” I asked.
“Not yet, no but whatever injuries he had it seems only minor. The little that I was able to wring out of a passing nurse was that he suffered only first degree burns. The real problem is the lack of oxygen from all the smoke inhalation. I don’t know what they can do to get that out of his lungs. If they even can. I’m so sorry.”
“Stop - just - stop apologizing Sam.” I could see the valley stretch below me on the right. The road wound down into it. I couldn’t make out much more than the riot of color from the sugar maples that dotted the forest in a spray of gold and red. It was Thomas’ favorite time of year. He loved the way everything turned the color of fire.
The thought sent my mind reeling back to Thomas. I could see him plunging into the fire, unheeding of the dangers. He was brave, even if he didn’t see it. I had always known it.
Sam spoke up again, “I’m sorry- okay, okay no more apologizing. Call me when you get here and I’ll come out to the lobby. We’re all waiting in a separate room since there’s too many of us.”
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