The moment turned surreal when Seth realized his building-his apartment-was the subject of the attention as smoke belched from his living room window.
They passed a group of local youths who raised their arms pushing against the sky and in unison chanted, “The house-the house-the house is on fire!” Then they broke into laughter.
Seth didn’t see the humor. He checked his watch. They’d only been gone for three hours. How could he lose his home-again-in such a small span of time? No one should be so unlucky as to have his home burned twice in one lifetime. He hid his ziplock full of pot behind a neighbor’s trash bin and approached a police officer who ordered him to step back behind the line.
“That’s my place, man!” Seth shouted.
“When we get the all clear from Fire, we’ll let you up, sir,” the officer said.
Seth spotted two of his neighbors, Ramone and Chad, huddled beneath a quilt under Mr. Cho’s awning. Ramone held Hoshi in his arms.
“Oh Seth! Thank God you’re okay,” Ramone said.
“What happened?” he asked them.
“Explosion,” Chad said. “It tore through our wall.”
“An explosion?”
Lelani stepped away from them to face the activity. From her satchel she pulled something that looked like a compact. Great time to fix your face, Seth thought.
“Where’s Joe?” he asked.
Ramone and Chad looked at each other, expecting someone to answer.
“Where’s Joe?” Seth asked again.
“We thought you… we heard shouting from your… We didn’t realize…”
“Where is he?”
Chad pointed to an ambulance outside the cordoned off area. Sobbing, Ramone braced himself on Chad’s shoulder. Seth ran toward the ambulance. The surreal scent of barbecue permeated the air. He saw a draped body inside. The paramedic held him back.
“Whoa, where do you think you’re going?”
“My roommate is in there. How he’s doing?”
“He’s not- Look, I’m sorry. There was nothing we could do.”
Seth felt punch-drunk. His breakfast clamored to come up. “But… I just talked to him an hour ago.”
“It was a powerful explosion. He died instantaneously.”
Seth burped. He could taste his stomach acid. It was short warning-he threw up on the street, just missing the paramedic’s shoes. The medic pulled paper towels from his truck and handed them to Seth.
“Sorry,” Seth said, then hurled again.
“Don’t worry. Here, take these with water. They’ll settle your stomach.” Seth accepted the tablets. “You should talk to that detective,” the paramedic added, pointing to a fiftyish-looking man in a brown trench coat. “And I’m sorry.”
Lelani joined him as he approached the detective. She looked concerned. “We should leave,” she said. “It’s not safe here.”
“Shut up.”
“This fire was not an accident.”
He faced her. With a stiff accusatory finger he said, “What did we say about the crazy talk?”
Lelani bit her lip and remained quiet. She looked up and down the street, examining the crowd surrounding them.
“Hey you!” Seth called to the detective. “The guy in the ambulance is… was my roommate.”
“Sorry,” the detective said. “If it’s any consolation, Mr. Raincrest died quickly.”
“I’m Raincrest. My roommate was Joe Rodriguez.”
“Oh,” the detective said. He scribbled the correction into his notepad. “Good thing I hadn’t started the paperwork yet.”
“What happened?”
“Near as we can tell, the gas line erupted and a fireball engulfed the place. Took out your neighbors’ apartments, too. They said they heard some yelling and your name came up a few times. Maybe that’s why they thought it was you in the blast.”
“Joe and I had a disagreement before I left, but we weren’t yelling. Maybe he was on the phone.”
“Where were you?”
“At a friend’s house. I was with her…” Seth realized that Lelani wasn’t behind him. She was scouring the crowd again.
“Who?” the detective asked.
“Her.”
“The redhead?”
“Yeah, that’s the one.”
“She a roommate, too?”
“No, I just met her today. I think she escaped from Bellevue.”
“Lucky you. Look, I can’t let you in yet. Once the Fire guys give the okay…”
“Thanks.”
Seth walked over to Lelani.
“We should go now,” she repeated.
“Hey, nutjob, my goddamn home was fireballed! I’m not going anywhere. I have to see what I can salvage.”
“Do it quickly.”
“We can’t, yet.”
Lelani took him by the arm and led him toward the entrance. She mumbled as they walked. Seth expected to be stopped at any moment. They were already up the stairs before he realized they’d snuck through. When they got to his floor, she told the firemen they had permission to be there. The city workers handed them face masks.
“How’d you do that?” Seth asked.
“They teach us these things in Bellevue,” she said, with a wry smile.
A gray haze saturated the room. Even through the mask, the acrid air made its way into his mouth and nose. Piles of black ash sat where walls once stood. Charred floorboards remained of varnished woodwork. They had to watch where they walked. Electrical wires dangled from the ceiling. Lelani hung back. Seth made his way to his studio. All the photos were melted into slag. His cameras were destroyed, his computer, his stockpile of film- everything was gone. A puddle of plastic sat where the phone used to be.
“Motherfucking goddamn shit!” he yelled. “It’s gone! All of it! Everything I own is shit.” He shoved his fingers into his hair and balled his hands into fists. Seth was on the verge of crying, but didn’t want Red to see him that way, so he swallowed the pain and pushed it into his gut.
Lelani pulled her compact out again. She held it before her and gingerly circled the room.
“Why are you doing that now?” Seth demanded.
“Pardon me?”
“You just had that compact out ten minutes ago. Your face needs less work than anyone I know.”
Lelani followed his line of sight to her hand. “I’m not putting on makeup,” she said. “I’m checking for residual… well, it’s more ‘crazy talk.’ I’ll spare you the details.” She handed him the device.
It was a heavy, ornate brass disk. There was a concealed hinge on one side and a clasp opposite it. On the inner lid was a mirror, but not the cheap kind mass-produced by Revlon. This was the cleanest reflection Seth had ever seen, pure liquid silver, as though you could stick your hand through it to the room on the other side. On the inner base were a series of assorted gems, and lines of pearls embedded in the brass. Around the jewels were intricate designs and patterns etched into the metal. Some jewels blinked, others remained lit. They cast a laser- like grid onto the mirror. It looked like a Victorian-era version of a Palm Pilot.
“What the hell is this thing? A tricorder? It must be worth a fortune.”
“It’s hard to explain. Just think of it as a Geiger counter for now. The gas line did not cause this fire. The explosion was the result of an attack. I’m quite certain you were the target.”
