The Town Hero

Mandela Effect: an unusual phenomenon where a large group of people remember something differently than how it occurred. Conspiracy theorists believe this is proof of an alternate universe, while many doctors use it as an illustration of how imperfect memory can be sometimes.

This was not any day. This was the day. It had been ten years already. Nobody would forget, no matter how much John Davis wanted them to.

After all, Franklin was a small town. With less than two thousand people in it, anything relatively unusual would become rumor, anything mostly unusual would become news, anything like what happened ten years ago became history.

Today, the mayor had prepared a big commemoration event. And John was the main guest.

It was totally understandable, in any case. The mayor was an interested party on what had happened, and John had become the town hero that day.

Without spoiling much the story, the short version of the event is that the house of the Robert Mitchell Sr. - the richest investor in Franklin, hence mayor for decades - had caught fire, and John jumped into the mansion through a window and rescued the mayor's son, Bobby, who was two years old by then.

Events like that do not happen twice in such a small town. There are not many mansions, for starters, and they do not usually catch fire with a lonely toddler inside. And not every citizen jumps into such a fire to rescue a baby.

John looked at his reflection on the mirror, which looked very elegant, wearing a tuxedo that he would not had bought if it was up to him. And he did not have to buy it, it had been a present from the town tailor.

The first word that came to his mind was Irony. Ten years ago he could not afford a simple shirt. And the series of events since then had him wearing the most luxurious suit in the store.

He looked at his watch, and decided to run, he could not be late to his own homage.

That night John felt like he was the accused on a historic trial, as he was the center of attention in the event, and there were several witnesses scheduled to give their versions of the story.

- Witnesses' statements - John thought.

The first witness was Stephany Moore, the nanny. She was no longer the pretty young girl that had taken care of the mayor's son - and some say also the mayor when the wife was not there, but that rumor was never proven by his few political opponents. 

She was still imposing, though. She wore a majestic red dress tonight, as she was the first to speak - probably a gift from the tailor too. She had a beautiful face, emphasized by the strong expression she had developed during years of disciplining spoiled children.

- I still remember that day as it was yesterday - she started - and my heart sinks just by thinking what would have happened, if John had not been there.

Her voice gave for a moment, and she had to take a sip of water before resuming.

- I had been playing with Bobby during the morning, and by midday, it was his nap time. He was tired, so he got asleep in the game room, so I took him to the studio and set him on the couch, because he liked napping there.

Another sip of water.

- He normally napped for half an hour, so I had time to go to the store and get some milk for my tea. There was milk in the kitchen, but I was doing a diet at the time, and wanted skim milk... I cannot imagine how stupid I was... the tragedy that could have... just for vanity...

Stephany's voice was breaking and she had to grab a handkerchief to continue.

--- ---

That day, Stephany was not having a good morning. She was hungry, because of the diet, but she had gained three pounds during the winter, and the nice days were coming, and she wanted to use beautiful (and slightly more suggestive) clothes.

On top of that, Bobby had overslept, and now he would not get asleep for his nap time. And she wanted to go for some milk, because she desperately needed a cup of tea.

She had tried some games that were more active than the usual ones Bobby played, to see if the exercise would tire him enough for a short nap at least. But it did not work. As it was getting too late, and she was risking a headache without her tea, she decided to let Bobby play a few minutes in the garden. She could run to the store and be back in five minutes.

So she took Bobby and a couple of his favorite toys and sat him on the grass, not far from the door. It was a safe place for a few minutes. Then she left quickly to the store.

There were not many people in the store, Cassy, the owner wanted to talk as usual, but Stephany told her she could not stay longer, as Bobby was alone at home.

She started walking back, when she saw the smoke. It come from the mayor's block... was it possible it was coming from his house?

She walked as fast as she could, until it was clear that the smoke was coming from the mayor's house. Then she ran like her life depended on it. Well, Bobby's probably did.

When she was almost there, she saw the people already gathering in the block. Several of them surrounded a young gentleman and were very excited. When she looked at him again she noticed he had Bobby in his arms.

She almost fainted at that moment. She was weak because of the diet. And all the tension lifted in that second exhausted her.

--- ---

The second witness was Mike Benson. Mike was around John's age, maybe a little older, closer to forty. He was wearing a nice suit, with a matching tie. Nothing extra fancy. It seems not everybody had been given fancy clothes for free for the event.

Mike was one of the first people to arrive to the place during the fire. Some say that he was the one that called the fire department, but when the fireman that received the call heard that the mayor's house was on fire, he panicked and did not even think on asking who was calling. He could only think that the mayor's house was going down on the day he was on duty.

Mike grabbed the microphone and started his testimony.

- I was on my way to Cassy's store, looking at my list. I still remember part of it: a dozen eggs, bacon, flour for a cake... Sorry, not relevant. I was coming from work, during my lunch time, so I decided to walk the six blocks. Halfway there I noticed the smoke...

--- ---

John was walking quickly on the short street on the side of the mayor's house. There was not much signs of smoke or fire yet, but he had seen the fire through the back window. He wanted to be as far from that fire as possible. It was going to catch really fast, the house was fancy and expensive, but also old and mostly wood.

When he was going around, he saw the toddler sitting on the grass. He was sure that the nanny was not in the house, but he could not understand why she had left the boy alone out there. If the house caught fire as fast as he thought it would do, the boy was in danger.

He checked and the gate was unlocked.

- Good - he thought - this is going to be quick.

He opened the gate and walked in. The boy was distracted, but when he noticed John coming he started crawling back to the house. John had to move quickly and grab him. There was no time to be nice and gentle. Bobby started crying almost immediately.

John looked at the house again, and could see a black column of smoke coming from somewhere. Probably from the back window.

He turned around to go out of the garden, with the boy crying in his arms, and he saw a few people looking at the house. Most probably they had seen the smoke too.

Mike was one of them. He was on the phone, one of those bulky cellphones of the time. It seemed to have just finished talking with somebody when he saw John, and then started calling to everybody.

- Oh my God! He's carrying the baby! ... He's taken the baby out of the house!

--- ---

Mike was reaching the end of his story.

- And there he was, carrying the baby out. At the moment we didn't worry about the details, the only important thing is that the baby was ok and out of the house. He was crying of course, but safe. I then took a his savior, John. He looked nervous, of course, with all that what happening. His eyes were red, and he was still coughing a little, because of the smoke he inhaled while he crossed through the house.

Sip of water.

- We started collecting several small details by chance. John was too shy to tell the full story. Terry... do you all remember Terry Brown? he was eight or nine by then... well, Terry told me later that he had seen John looking through a window on the back of the house, a little concerned, and then he grabbed a big rock, threw it through the window and jumped into the house.

Pause.

- Stephany told us later that back window was one of the studio windows, where Bobby was sleeping.

The whole room was silent. You could almost hear the silent surprise. Even when most of the presents knew the story.

- I had not thought until then how John knew that the baby was alone inside the house, or how he had entered. But now everything was clear. He saw the baby sleeping and found a way in. Into that fire!... Please, everybody, raise your glasses. To John!

- TO JOHN! - everybody responded.

Terence Brown was one of the many raising his cup. He was not the naughty boy it was that day. He was now in college. He had become a very popular boy, and with a promising future some said. He was planning to go for an Engineering degree.

He was not wearing a suit, but he had a nice buttoned shirt and a colorful tie. As the voices started to decrease in volume he moved to the center and received the microphone from Mike. It was his turn to talk, it seemed.

--- ---

John was not having a good day. Or, to be more precise, he was not having a good year. 

Everything started with his father's accident, seven months before.

His father fell asleep while driving and flew out a bridge. He somehow survived, but was in the hospital for several weeks recovering. After that, he could not go back to work. It was then when John's mother learned that they did not have health insurance.

John's mother had to start working on whatever she could do to get some money, and obviously John started helping her. He stopped renting a room to save money, and moved back with his parents. He helped take care of his father, who could not move by himself.

John had studied Accounting in college. And had been doing relatively well as a clerk first, then as a bookkeeper, and by then he was assisting the chief Accountant in a small company in the city. Now that he had moved back with his parents he had to spend several hours commuting each day, but he was happy to help.

Just four months after the accident, the company where he was working was suddenly sued for fraud. The main accountant had disappeared, at the same time that a couple million dollars. John not only lost his job, as the company had to close, but his reputation was seriously damaged.

So, by that day, John had been seven months helping his parents, four months commuting for hours, three months unemployed. And now, to top his bad streak, he had been denied a credit extension at the bank, and had just received another rejection to his last job application.

He was desperate, walking around the town, with no desire to come back home and tell his mother that he did not get the job. That would not only break her heart, but put a lot more strain on her, as she was the only source of income in the house.

Also, telling her would make it more real, and he felt a complete failure not being able to land a job and do something to help the family.

He was turning the corner on Main street, when he saw Stephany pass him towards Cassy's store.

- That's weird - he thought - isn't that the mayor's nanny? Why is she not working today? Is there nobody at the mayor's house?

And there, he had an idea. He would be ashamed forever for just thinking about it, but he was desperate. There was nobody at the mayor's house. It was an old house, most probably with no fancy alarm system. The mayor would not miss a little bit of money... And his family needed it.

He walked around the house and looked for a window that was easy to climb. There was one, but it was closed. He searched for a boulder, found one. Then he threw it through the window and waited for an alarm. Nothing happened. He was about to climb the window when he saw the boy.

John did not know his name then, but Terry Brown was looking at him, and then ran away. John started running after him, but then he changed his mind. He had gone this far, he better tried to get something out and disappear before the boy told anybody about him.

He walked back to the window, and then he noticed. He had seen a fireplace through the window before, but the full room looked reddish now that he was coming closer. He peered inside, and breathed a mouthful of smoke immediately that filled his eyes with tears. When he was able to see again, he could see that the boulder he threw had toppled over a coat-hanger, full of clothes and some of them had reached the fireplace. Now they were all aflame.

He looked at the rest of the room, it was some type of studio, with a nice desk, chairs and a big couch. And bookshelves, full of books. The house was doomed.

He realized that he could not be found here, still coughing and crying, he started walking as fast as he could towards the front, and then he saw the baby.