Where There's Smoke There's Fire (sequel to "Apple of My Eye")

Not much had changed a week later. I still rode the bus home from the Dandridge County courthouse as I always did. Sometimes dinner would be at home, sometimes it would be at Sunny's house.

As it always did, the bus reached the top of the hilly slope on the opposite side of the highway that bisected the town. Fitzgerald Street was now Hancock Street. It was another several blocks to my bus stop, where I'd disembark, turn right, and walk homeward down Peterson Street.

As I was folding my newspaper and putting it into my briefcase, I looked over to my right. Parker Street was coming up; it was a few streets before Peterson Street. Sunny and her children lived several blocks down Parker Street. Their house wasn't visible from Hancock street, but something else was: a rising column of thick dark-gray smoke.

I quickly pulled the cord above my left shoulder and heard a ding. The bus pulled over at the next stop, about forty feet past Parker Street.

“What's the matter, Mr. Ngoma?” the bus driver asked, surprised. “You don't usually get off here. Your stop is still up ahead.” He pointed in that direction.

“I know,” I said. “But there's a fire down Parker Street.”

“You sure?” the bus driver asked, looking around the front end of the bus. “Can't see nothin' from here.”

Of course not. The view was blocked from here. If he'd stopped sooner, he would've had an unobstructed view down Parker as I'd briefly had.

“I'm quite sure,” I said. “Please call 911. Have them send a firetruck and an ambulance.”

“What are you gonna do?” the bus driver asked.

“I'm going to where that fire is and try to help whoever lives there,” I said, jumped down the three steps and out of the bus. Then I ran back to Parker Street, turned left and kept running.

Happily I was in decent shape. Which meant that I wasn't out of breath when I finally reached the source of the fire. It came from inside a house. And not just any house. Sunny's house.

I ran across the front yard and pounded on the front door. “Hey! Is anyone in there? Hello?”

The door opened and I saw Ruth there, in her pajamas, holding her teddy bear. She rubbed her eyes and coughed. I could see smoke behind her, both upstairs and downstairs.

“Mom's in her bedroom,” she said, sounding like she'd just woken up from a nap. “I think Esther and Sol are downstairs.”

“Go get them, Ruth,” I told her. “Get them outside as soon as possible. I'm going to get your mother.”

She nodded and scampered down the stairs. I could hear her yelling to her siblings and their tired responses.

“Keep yelling!” I called to her. “Don't let them go back to sleep! They have to get up and get out!”

Ruth raised her voice and screamed as only a little girl could. This time she got results.

I covered my mouth with one arm and ran upstairs. Down the hall to the right, the bedroom door was open. There was smoke here, too.

“Sunny?” I yelled. “Sunny, are you in there?”

I heard a muffled voice coming from near the bed. I ran inside and saw her on the floor.

“You've got to get up!” I yelled. “Your house is on fire!”

She opened her eyes and didn't seem to know who I was or why I was there. But she did let me get her to her feet and help her down the hall and down the stairs to the front door.

Sol was waiting at the front door. He got on his mother's other side and together we got her outside. Ruth and Esther looked relieved to see us. Off in the distance we could hear approaching sirens. Neighbors were already coming out of their houses and hurrying over to Sunny's house. Moments later, the firetruck and ambulance arrived.

While the firefighters fought the blaze, one of the neighbors loaned Sunny a chair and she sat down in it. She coughed a little, but otherwise seemed okay. The paramedics checked her out, as well as her children.

“What … what happened?” she asked me.

“Your house is on fire,” I said. “You were on the floor of your bedroom. You must've fainted. Probably from the smoke. Sol and I got you out of the house.”

“But how … how did the fire start?” she asked. “I mean, it happened so quickly. Everything was okay … and then smoke was everywhere.”

The captain of the firefighters came over to see how Sunny was doing. “Ma'am, my preliminary guess is that it was an electrical fire. The smoke was blue. Probably a short. It seems to have started in the den downstairs. Someone must have left something turned on.”

“That was probably us,” Sol said, looking sheepish. “Esther and I were playing a game. I think we took a break and I left it on. I'm sorry. Normally it doesn't cause any problems. I've probably done it a hundred times or more.”

“Maybe it's old wiring that finally failed,” the captain suggested. “Your house is pretty old, so the wiring could easily be forty or fifty years old. As long as it works, most people don't usually bother to check it regularly and replace it when necessary. Until a fire starts, that is.”

Ruth looked sad. “But where are we going to stay until our house is fixed and safe again?”

Sunny and I looked at each other. She seemed to be wondering something, but, like the first time that Cat and I had dinner at her house, she was leaving it up to me. Why didn't she just make the decision herself? Why did it have to be my decision? I sighed as quietly as I could.

“If it's okay with Cat, I suppose you could all stay at our house,” I suggested. “There are two unused bedrooms upstairs, and the sofa bed is in the living room.”

“You mean it?” Sunny asked.

I nodded. “After all, it's the least I can do for you and your family.”

“That's very generous of you, sir,” the captain told me. “Because it could take weeks, maybe a month or so before everything's ready for them to move back in. You sure you don't mind?”

“I'm sure,” I said.

“Thank you, Quentin,” Sunny said.

“Like you told me when we were ten years old,” I said. “That's what friends are for.”

“I don't know how I'll ever repay you,” she said.

“You already did,” I said. “Back when we were ten years old.”

She smiled.

I borrowed a cell phone from the captain and called home. Cat answered on the second ring.

“Pa?” she said, sounding worried. “I heard about a house fire on the local news. They said it was in the neighborhood, not far from here. Is everything okay?”

“It was at Sunny's house, actually,” I said. “That's where I am. All five of us, I mean. We're okay. The firefighters are putting out the fire.”

“Should I come over?” Cat asked. “I could pick you up and bring you all back here.”

“That's an excellent idea,” I said.

“See you soon, then,” Cat said.

We hung up. I gave the cell phone back to the captain and thanked him.

About a minute later, Cat arrived in the car. There was just enough room for six people.

“Come down to the firehouse tomorrow morning, ma'am,” the captain told Sunny. “There are forms to fill out and sign, a witness statement. The usual. Your home insurance company will need to know what happened and probably have their own set of forms to fill out and sign.”

Sunny nodded, not exactly looking forward to it. “But at least we're alive with the clothes on our back and Ruth's teddy bear.”

“Material possessions can be replaced, but not people,” I said. “I bet that most of what you lost in the fire is probably available at places like Goodwill. I'll treat you all to a shopping trip there tomorrow. Maybe after we have lunch. Get whatever you need. If Goodwill doesn't have everything you need, we can go to places like Target and Home Depot for the rest.”

Cat drove us all back to our house. I showed Sunny and her kids where the kitchen was, the bathrooms, the linen closet where the towels were, the laundry room, the bedrooms upstairs, and so on.

“I guess Ruth and I can stay in one bedroom,” Sunny suggested. “Who wants the other bedroom and who wants the sofa bed? Or do you both want to share the bedroom?”

“I'll take the sofa bed, Mom,” Sol said.

“Then I'll take the other bedroom,” Esther said.

“There's also a backyard,” Cat said. “Pa and I sometimes sit out there. There's a fence around it. No one will see you in your pajamas.”

“And plenty of books to read,” Sunny said with a soft laugh.

Cat rolled her eyes. “Definitely. You won't run out of reading material anytime soon. I'm still going through each bookcase. I think I have about another half dozen to go. And that's just on this floor. There are more bookcases upstairs.”

She led Sunny, Ruth, and Esther upstairs, while Sol stayed downstairs with me.

“This is really nice of you,” he said. “Letting us stay here, I mean.”

“Had things been reversed, I think your family would've done that same for us,” I said.

He nodded. “I've wanted to say that it's been nice getting to know you and Cat, but I keep forgetting to. Mom says I get my absent-mindedness from our father.”

“I wish I'd met him,” I said.

“He was really nice,” Sol said. “He would bring things back from overseas. Gifts that he bought wherever he happened to be, sometimes just from the airports he was at during connections between flights, sometimes from shops in nearby cities and towns. He bought me a really nice Japanese chess set. Hand-carved wooden pieces. Wooden chessboard. The shoguns are the kings and the castles look like the Medieval castles in Japan. I hope it survived the fire.”

“Same here,” I said.

He looked down at the floor, then glanced at the sofa bed and at me.

I nodded. “Go for it. You've had a hard day. Take a nap, if you need one.”

Sol laid down on the sofa bed, but facing me. I pulled up a chair and sat near him.

“Sometimes I wonder what it would be like to have you as a stepdad,” he said.

“I've never been one before,” I said. “Do you think I'd make a good one?”

He nodded. “You're sort of like Dad, but a little different in some ways.”

“I went into law instead of into the military, for one thing,” I said.

Sol grinned. “Besides that.” He sobered. “You're not loud and noisy like I thought you would be when we first met you. You're quiet like he sometimes was. Those crazy times that Mom must've told you about when Dad spent his leave time with us at home? They weren't always crazy. Sometimes they were relaxed. We'd watch movies on DVD in the den, or we'd go out to parks and walk around. I think Dad just wanted to do things that didn't remind him of his military work. He liked his job, but he also liked being with us. I wish he had been assigned to somewhere closer to home. And then –”

He paused, looked away from me. I wondered if he was listening to what was happening upstairs. But it was quiet up there. “There was the evening when we were in the middle of dinner. We were telling jokes and wondering what new things we could do with Dad when he got leave again. A car pulled up outside. Two people walked across the yard and one of them knocked on the front door. We looked at each other. Mom put her napkin down next to her plate and stood up. She went down the stairs and opened the front door. We snuck out of the dining room and hid in the kitchen. From there, we could hear soft voices. 'Ma'am, we're from the local Air Force base. We're sorry to have to give you some bad news. It's about your husband.' They told her what had happened to him, and when the funeral would be. She thanked them, said good-bye, and closed the door. Then we heard her lean against the door, crying. Then Ruth started crying. And so did Esther and me. Ruth ran down the stairs and hugged Mom. Then Esther and I did. Mom asked if we'd heard what was said and we all nodded. She said we'd have to do the best we could now that Dad was gone. But we were never, ever to forget him and our memories of him. And we never have.”

He looked at me. “Was it like that with you?”

I shook my head. “My wife wasn't in the military, for one thing. It was after Cat was born.” Like recalling a dream, like how Sol had recalled what happened to his father, I went on. “I think Cat was four or five years old. We were living here in this house. A happy family. We must have had arguments, but they must have been very rare because I can't remember any of them.” I heard a footstep at the top of the stairs. Then another footstep. Soft and careful. “It's all right. You can all come downstairs and listen to this.”

Then four sets of feet descended the stairs and they joined us in the living room.

“I don't know if I've ever told you about this, Cat,” I told my daughter. “Or if I have, maybe it was when you were just a little girl.”

“I don't think you ever did, Pa,” she said. “Like with a lot of things, you've kept it to yourself.”

“Discretion,” I said. “Something I learned from being a lawyer. You can't always discuss what happens in court. Juries are even more restricted from discussing court cases. Because when any jury member does talk about a court case, that causes legal problems. Usually that jury member has to be replaced. At least, until the court case is finished, the jury gives their verdict, and the judge makes their decision.” I paused. “In this case, I think it's because when things get difficult and painful to deal with, the brain defends itself by suppressing unpleasant memories. Otherwise, we'd probably go crazy, remembering everything all the time, the good memories as well as the bad ones. Sometime we're not even aware that we've suppressed any memories. Only to have them triggered many years later. Sometimes by something as simple as a photograph.” I glanced at Sunny, who nodded and smiled. “In my wife Yvonne's case, there are times when I dream about her. She sometimes looks much as she did when we were first married. Before Cat was born. Other times, she looks like she did when Cat was a little girl.” I looked up at the ceiling, trying to keep back the tears. “It would be easier if I didn't miss Yvonne so much. But then I'd have to forget all the joys we had together, including you, Cat.”

“ 'It is better to have loved and lost, than to have never loved at all,' ” Cat quoted. “I think Alfred Lord Tennyson wrote it.”

“How right he was,” I said and looked out the living room windows. It was dark outside. I wondered how late it was. “Yvonne was in a bad car accident. Head injuries. She spent most of her last few days in the hospital, her head wrapped in bandages and sedated. I would sit there, next to her bed. Sometimes she'd wake up, but most of the time she slept. Finally the doctor asked me if I wanted to turn off her life support. At first, I couldn't. But then I realized that it was best for her. She needed to be released, not trapped.”

“Was she anything like me?” Cat asked.

“Sort of,” I said. I took a deep breath, let it out. “If no one's hungry, maybe it's time we all went to bed.”

We didn't have much of an appetite, so we just ate a little. And then Sol and I pulled the sofa bed out, and he got in bed. Sunny came over and kissed him on the forehead. Then the rest of us went upstairs. Esther went into her bedroom, and Ruth went into the one she was sharing with their mother. Cat nodded at me and went into her bedroom. I went into mine.

As I got into bed, I heard a knock.

“Come in,” I called, thinking it was Cat.

Instead, it was Sunny. She came over to me. “I wanted to thank you again. For all that you're doing for us.”

“You're welcome,” I said.

She looked at me and leaned down. But instead of kissing me on the forehead, like she'd done with Sol, she kissed me on the lips. “Sleep well, Quentin.”

“You, too,” I said. “I hope you'll have pretty pink dreams.”

“I know I will,” Sunny said. “You'll probably be in them.” She left my bedroom, gently closing the door behind her.

I could still feel her soft, warm lips as I fell asleep.