Page 43 of Embers of Love

10

JOSEPHINE

“You’re leaving?!” Doctor Gale sputtered. “Why?! You just got here! Did somebody at the hospital offend you?!”

“No.” Josephine tried to placate the man before he fired an innocent health worker. “It’s not the hospital, I promise.”

“We’ve been careful not to overwhelm you with work. You didn’t take that to mean we were underestimating you, did you?”

“Again, no.” She shook her head. This was an obstacle she hadn’t foreseen when she decided to leave Phoenix Ridge.

“It’s not the hospital. My time here has been some of the best times of my life.”

“So why are you leaving?”

The old man sounded almost whiny when he asked that question.

“It’s complicated. I need to leave for personal reasons.”

Her father hadn’t objected or even tried to dissuade her when she’d given him the news. He merely asked where she wanted to go. Josephine had no idea; her things were still in a storage unit in New York, so she resolved to start from there. Her father offered to take her on his jet.

All that was left was to quit her new employment at the Phoenix Ridge Hospital. She didn’t realize that was going to be one of the hardest parts of her decision. Hospital admin was insistent on keeping her at the hospital, far more than they had been in New York.

She couldn’t stay, though. The itch had grown unbearable in the last few days. It was constant, ever present. It urged her to move or something terrible was going to happen soon. That foreboding feeling never left her. It receded somewhat when she finally decided that it was time to leave Phoenix Ridge, but it was replaced by grief. A hollow feeling tugged at her on the drive to the airport.

“Are you okay?” her father enquired.

The entire interaction with Doctor Gale had left a bitter taste in her mouth. It wasn’t like when she was saying goodbye to her former colleagues in New York. That had been exciting. This was just…sad.

“I’m okay,” Josephine lied.

“Really? Is that why you look like a young pup being separated from its mother?”

Josephine turned to look outside. She didn’t feel like continuing the conversation. She noticed black smoke in the distance.

“What is that?” Already dreading the answer.

Her father glanced up briefly before turning back to his tablet.

“A wildfire, looks like.”

He didn’t look particularly worried.

“But isn’t that a little too close to town?” The fire looked like it was burning within the city limits.

“Looks closer than it actually is. Don’t worry, it shouldn’t interrupt our flight.”

Josephine wasn’t worried about their flight. Ember is going to be out there. Josephine was incredibly worried, and given the young firefighter’s tendencies, a knot was already beginning to form in her stomach.

“Should we be leaving?”

“I’m sure their firefighters are capable of taking care of it.”

But who would be looking out for the firefighters?

With disasters like these, there were bound to be injuries. Even if the fire didn’t get to them, accidents were prone to happen when people panicked in the face of such a terrifying phenomenon. She thought about Ember again, imagining her sprinting into the inferno, a blank look on her face even as the fire consumed her.

She managed to restrain herself. They eventually got on the jet and were soon in the air. From above, Josephine got an aerial view of the disaster. Her breath hitched. The fire was massive, spanning from the shoreline where the dried grass provided ample fuel, all the way over the rolling hills and down into the river that eventually fed into the ocean. To her, it looked like a giant spreading rot, reaching its infernal fingers toward the city. She could see some homes on the outskirts had already succumbed to the flames. No doubt, there would be injuries. The firefighters were on the front lines, they needed support.

---