Page 35 of Wait For Me

11

Tessa

“Your marshmallow is burning.”

“I like them burnt.”

Tessa’s eyes fluttered open and she groaned, trying to hold to the image of Landon’s face smiling at her over the campfire within her dreams. The smell of wood smoke was still in the air trapping her between the unconscious and reality. Gray morning light filtered through the window. Mason’s too big feet pressed against her back as he pushed himself up against the pillow and yawned.

Please don’t wake up. Her brain began to clear. It can’t be morning yet. I swear I just fell asleep.

She inhaled deeply as she came fully awake. There were a lot of decisions that had to be made today. The taste of smoke filled her lungs. Her eyes shot open and she scrambled out of bed.

Something was on fire but the smoke alarms weren’t screaming. Do the alarms work without power? She raced to the kitchen and checked the range, then ran outside but the grill sat covered in the shadows from the early gray dawn.

Backtracking, she searched the house for clues as to where the smoke was coming from. Her heart sank as she threw open the front door. Behind Sally and Arthur’s house, above the mountains to the south, an orange glow topped the peaks and black smoke settled above it. She coughed, inhaling the putrid air as she stepped bare foot outside. The smoke drifted over the valley below like a muted fog.

And on the horizon in the distance, thick gray clouds billowed above the mountains to the east where another fire was starting. Within the smoke was the rising sun burning red and angry. She ran back inside the house and slammed the door a little too hard as if blocking out the world could slow down time.

Fires are common in Southern California. Don’t panic. Except… Whatever guilt she had last night about needing to leave when Sally wanted her to stay was being replaced by a heavy fear. If she didn’t go soon, would she even be able to make it over the mountains?

“I smell smoke.” Mason was suddenly right beside her and Tessa screamed, jumping out of her skin. His gap-toothed grin widened as he laughed.

“You scared the crap out of me.” She pressed her hand over her heart, willing it to stop racing. “There’s a fire over the mountains, but it’s not close to us.”

“Like the fire when we moved here last summer?” Mason walked to the kitchen and pulled the refrigerator door open out of habit, frowning when the dark shelves with warm condiments stared back at him.

“Something like that.” Except last summer there were working vehicles, firetrucks racing down the freeways to join the fight and airplanes flying overhead to drop retardant on the flames. Now there was no noise. No one was coming. She closed her eyes and breathed deeply, the smoke in the air burning her chapped lips.

“We’re out of milk.” Mason closed the refrigerator door.

“I know,” Tessa whispered.

Smoke seeped its way into every moment of the morning routine and her anxiety grew with each breath she took. It was another taunting reminder of how powerless humans really were when the elements had their way. But she couldn’t close her eyes and pretend all of this wasn’t real anymore.

Mason finished the math problems she’d scribbled on a piece of spiral notebook paper and held it up for her to inspect.

“Perfect.” She ruffled his messy brown hair.

“Is mine?” Emily stood with her chest puffed out, shoving the drawing she’d meticulously worked on into Tessa’s face. She took a step back to see.

Stick figure Emily stood holding stick figure Mason’s hand next to an oversize stick figure Tessa with a mass of curling red lines on top of her head. Moose sat beside them with triangles for ears and a bright pink tongue. The four of them posed by a box shaped replica of Old Blue. And in the corner of the page, as far away from them as it could get, was a stick figure daddy with short spiky brown hair and the biggest turned C for a smile.

“It’s beautiful.” Tessa’s eyes filled with tears as she held the page in her hand and Emily skipped to the living room. She focused on stick Landon and wished he was a little bit closer, enough so he didn’t seem so out of reach, and stick Tessa could hold his hand too. Drops of tears fell onto the page and she tried to smear them off with her thumb.

The knock at the door made her heart stop.

“It’s Daddy!” Emily screamed, sending toys skidding across the tile as she and Moose flew toward the entryway.

“Don’t open that door,” Tessa cried as she scanned the room looking for a weapon. The pistol was still locked away upstairs.

“Mom?” Mason stood an arm’s length away and looked to her in confusion. She shoved him behind her back and grabbed Emily by her arm.

“You’re hurting me.” Emily tried to yank her elbow free.

“Stop.” The fear in Tessa’s voice was enough to silence them both. Moose’s bark echoed through the house as the knock sounded again.

“Temecula City Police.”

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