Shelly grabbed one of the Hefty bags filled with the dried leaves they were going to use as fuel for the fire. It felt full and weighty in her grasp, satisfyingly full. Next to her, Hal Newman, the old man with the beard, grabbed his cans of gasoline. 'Let's fry us up some chink,' he said.
Shelly grinned at him. 'Let's do it.' ' gasoline
Sue was awakened by the smell of smoke and
Her first coherent thought was that the house was burning down. She tried to leap out of bed, but with the partial coordination of the half-awake, she got tangled up in her sheets and fell to the floor, landing loudly on her side.
She didn't know whether it was her fall or the smoke smell that had awakened her parents, but she heard them talking loudly and excitedly in their bedroom, and she caught the muffled words 'fire' and 'trees?'
She stood up, untangling herself from the sheets, and saw a thin wisp of smoke drifting through her open window from between the curtains.
She hurried out of her bedroom, down the hall to her parents' bedroom, and through their window she saw an orange-yellow glow in the front yard..
The willows were on fire.
Her father was already dressed and hurrying out of the room, yelling for her to call the fire department, but she stared out the window, transfixed. There were two fires, one at the foot of each tree, and though the blazes were large and growing larger, they had not yet engulfed the trees. They seemed to be burning built-up piles of garbage and debris at the foot of the willows. Across the street, lights were on in the Malverns' and Chapmans' houses, and, silhouetted figures were standing at the windows. There was no sound of sirens, not even from across town, and Sue realized that none of their neighbors had bothered to call the fire department.
'Call!' her father ordered as he ran down the hallway, and she hurried to obey. Her mother was crying, gathering up photos and mementoes, shoving them into her oversize jewelry box.
Sue sped out of the bedroom, down the hall, into the kitchen. She found the list of emergency numbers next to the phone and quickly dialed the Rio Verde Volunteer Fire Department. Chief Simmons answered, 'Fire station,' he said sleepily.
'There's a fire on our front lawn!' She was practically shouting into the phone, her words all running together. She forced herself to slow down. Behind her, she heard bare feet running across open floor. Her mother, brother, and grandmother. 'There's a big fire on our front lawn. My name's Sue Wing. I'm at ten-oh-one East Shadowbluff.' : :,
'East Shadowbluff?' The captain was Instantly wide awake .....
'Yes.'
'We'll be right there.'
By the time she ran outside, where her mother, her grandmother, and John were standing on the stoop---her mother desperately clutching the overstuffed jewelry box--she could already hear the sirens. Her father had turned on the hose and was attempting to spray the fire at the foot of the smaller tree, but the water seemed to be having no effect. They had not gotten to the blaze in time. It was spreading, burning out of control.
Sue caught her grandmother's eye. The old woman was tightly holding on to John's hand. He was staring at the fire, the colors of the flames reflected on his face, and he was smiling.
Influenced.
Her grandmother nodded once at Sue, turned her attention back toward the blaze. She understood. The fire had been deliberately set. The cup hugirngsi wanted to destroy the willow trees.
Sue ran back into the house to grab some pots and pitchers they could fill with water.
The fire truck arrived a few moments later. The flames, by this time, were a high as a man and had blackened the first six feet or so of each trunk. Individual branches had also caught on fire and looked like drooping sparklers, the thin willow leaves igniting quickly and in sequence. The fire lit up a full half of the block, and in its glow Sue could see their neighbors standing in front of their own houses, watching, waiting--not volunteering to help.
There was no hydrant nearby, Sue realized as two fire men jumped off the back of the truck, pulling a large canvas hose.
'Stand backt' one of the men ordered. She and her father moved back onto the porch with the rest of the family. Another man ran around the side of the truck, flipped some levers, pushed some buttons, and a powerful jet of water shot out of the hose held by the other two men, drenching the tree on the left and almost instantly dousing the fire.
Three minutes later, both fires were completely out, and the hose was shut off.
A man walked toward them across the scorched grass, and she recognized Mr. Buford from the burger stand. She and her father met him halfway.
'Thank you!' her father said, taking the fireman's hand and pumping it' Thank you very much for putting out fire!'
Mr. Buford smiled, embarrassed. 'That's what we're here for.'
'Thank you!' :
'Thank you. This is the first time we've gotten a chance to try this new pump outside of practice.' He looked from her father to the rest of the family. 'Are you all okay? 'We're free,' Sue said.
'Thanks.'
Chief Simmons walked over. Sue was suddenly embarrassed to be outside and in her pajamas. Neighbors were coming out now, coming by to survey the damage. She saw curiosity on the faces, interest. But no sympathy.
The chief took off his hat, wiped his forehead. 'Do you have any idea who might have done this?'
Sue shook her head.
'This was arson, you know.'
She nodded. 'I know.'
'But you don't know who did it? You can't think of anyone who would want to do something like this?'
The cup hugirngsi, she wanted to say, but she sensed that this was neither the time nor place to bring that up. One look toward her grandmother confirmed the rightness of her decision. 'I don't know,' she said.
'We'll come back in the morning, go over everything, see what we can discover. We're only volunteer, but we're not bad at investigating arson, and we may be able to come up with something. So don't walk out here or touch anything until we go over it first, okay?'
She nodded.
'That goes for your neighbors too.'
'No one will touch anything.'
'We'll fill out a full report in the morning, too, Your father will have to sign it.'
'Then tell him, not me.'
The chief looked embarrassed. 'I just thought--' 'I understand English,' her father said, offended. 'I'm sorry,' Chief Simmons said.
'That okay,' her father said.
Sue nodded to the chief, to Mr. Buford, left them talking to her father, and walked back toward the porch. Her mother was still clutching the jewelry box, as though she had not yet realized the fire was out and the danger was over, and her grandmother was still holding tightly on to John's hand John was staring dejectedly toward where the fire had been. She realized that he had not spoken, had not uttered a single word, since he had come outside. Sue moved to her grandmother.
'That was close,' she said.
Her grandmother nodded, did not look at her. 'Yes,' she said. Her voice was flat, completely devoid of emotion. 'Yes, it was.'
Huell Hinkley had never liked working the lot at night. It wasn't because business was slow at that time, though it was. It wasn't because he would rather be home with Ellie, though he would.
It was because he could never be certain that someone wasn't hiding behind one of the cars.
It was a weird phobia, and not one that should have affected a grown man, but there it was. Although he would never admit it to a living soul, not even to Ellie, that was why he asked Steve to stop by on the nights he worked late. He pretended it was for the company, claiming that he got lonely working at night by himself with no
