Читать книгу The Long-Shining Waters - Danielle Sosin - Страница 13

2000

Nora turns onto the avenue to find smoke billowing into the sky. There’s a siren coming in from the east, and all of it feels like a scene in a movie. The street is blocked off, and red lights are streaming across the faces of the buildings.

“Quick hurry Jesus Nora!” Willard was hysterical on the phone.

Nora abandons her car at the blockade, her legs shaking as she moves down the sidewalk. Fire is leaping from the two upstairs windows, like some cartoon building with flaming eyes. She steadies herself against the wall of the drugstore as a sickening sensation turns her stomach.

Thick torrents of water arc from the hoses. “Put it out.” Tears spring to her eyes. “Put it out.” She weaves through the shiny red trucks, mist from the hoses, fast-moving men.

“Nora. Get back. ”

It’s Willard shouting. He has her by the arm. She twists away.

“Nora, Jesus.” His arm wraps around her waist. “Stop. Are you crazy?”

She beats back with her fists and butts back with her head, but he has her now, and he holds her tight.

“There’s nothing you can do,” he whispers at her ear.

The flames are leaping through the roof, causing a ruckus among the firemen. Radio voices and static crackle in the air as the red lights stream around and around and black smoke twists up to the sky.

“Come on, honey.” Willard loosens his grip. “Nobody knows what happened. Shit. Come on now, we’ll go sit with Rose.”

Nora wriggles free. “Oh my God, where’s Rose?”

“Don’t worry, okay? See, right there.”

Nora lets herself be steered across the street to where Rose sits on a low cement wall. She’s wearing tennis shoes and her ratty fur coat, and has Buck’s accordion strapped across her chest. Willard puts her next to Rose, then sits himself, still holding on.

The ground surrounding her bar is a lake, reflecting flames and jumping with sound, trampled by men in big rubber boots. Nora thinks the heat feels good on her face, thinks that it’s strange for her to think that. Her mind is buzzing, it’s radio static. She rises, but Willard pulls her back to sitting.

“They got me out the window with a ladder, but I said I wasn’t going unless they took the box, too.” Rose fingers the pearly buttons of the accordion, then reaches over and gives Nora’s hand a squeeze.

Nora can’t take her eyes from the flames and the black cloud of smoke rolling over the rooftops.

“Hey.”

Jimmy D. stands before her in full gear, sweat beaded on his face. “We’ve got another truck on the way. But these old wooden buildings . . . well, we’re doing what we can.”

“I hope so,” she manages, “if you ever want another free beer.”

A smile passes over Jimmy D.’s face, then fades to an expression that makes Nora feel sick, and she lowers her gaze to his boots.

She can’t grasp what’s actually happening. She feels like she’s not really there, but somewhere deep inside herself, a place that’s round, and smooth, and mouthless.

“My piano’s up there. My piano’s burning,” says Rose.