ALLUSIVE AFTERSHOCK (28 page)

I stepped out of the twine
noose and my jacket fell to the ground. I quickly untied Adela but not fast
enough as a sphere of flame the size of a baseball shot toward us, catching the
fur on the hood of her jacket on fire. I tugged the parka off, tossing it away,
as one of the backpacks slid down my arm to the blanket of pine needles
covering the ground. It was the one Adela had been carrying, the one with the
all the clothes, but not the one with the sleeping bag attached or the water. I
left it there and without thinking, lifted Adela into my arms again. She
groaned and put her now bare arms around my neck. “That’s it, baby, hold on. I
need you to hold on tight.” I thought she heard me as her grip tightened and I
ran, not caring that my ankle throbbed. The fire was on my heels and I wasn’t
sure how far we’d have to go to be safe from it.  

I headed to my left. The
unbelievable speed of the fire spreading caught me off guard as the wind
changed, not in our favor. The fire skipped over brush and caught another tree
right before we got to it. I stopped, not sure where to go; I turned to my
right, but the fire had already begun to surround us. The air became nothing
more than smoke, making visibility almost nonexistent and I was having trouble
breathing. I worried about Adela, still unconscious in my arms, and I positioned
her face so her nose and mouth lay close against my chest. I didn’t know how
long we would last with the air so thick with soot and smoke. I held my breath
for as long as I could. My eyes burned and teared, messing up my vision even
more. There was only one small flame-free patch left, about four feet wide and
sparks had already landed in the middle of it. We were doomed.

Fire was definitely not
my favorite thing. I did not want to go through the hellacious agony of being
burned again anytime soon. The pain in my ankle barely registered; whether it
was just numb or almost healed, I couldn’t tell. I was only a dull ache now and
the least of my worries, but enough of a reminder for me to avoid putting all
our weight on it, a nearly impossible task.

Adela squirmed in my
arms and I almost dropped her.
Shit
. “Hold on tighter!” I yelled over
the roar of the fire, praying she could hear me. “I don’t want to drop you.”
God,
please give me strength to get us out of here.
My arms ached under her.
Yeah, Adela didn’t weigh much, but try carrying a hundred pounds in your arms
while escaping the wrath of a forest fire tight on your heels.

“Ah, crap!” The wind
picked up—a sometimes inevitable turn of events during a wildfire. The fire developed
a wind pattern and fed the spread of the fire. I sank down on my knees for a
moment, just a few seconds to catch my breath. Something flashed in my mind and
a brief snippet of my limited knowledge of wildfires surfaced. Intense heat during
a wildfire could generate winds called fire whirls. I remembered hearing about
them as I watched one of those tornado-like vortices form before my eyes. I crouched
in horror as the huge swirl hurled a flaming log and burning debris right
toward us. I almost swallowed my tongue as it all soared over our heads, just
missing us by a few inches. If we’d been standing, we’d surely have been toast.
Fate had a funny way of working. Were we spared from dying in the cellar and
from that flaming log just then only to incinerate in the fire spreading around
us in a few minutes? I prayed not. I prayed to God, I prayed to my mom, my dad and
I prayed to the Great White Spirit of my ancestors. I didn’t want to leave any
of them out just in case.

It took every ounce of
strength I had in my legs to muster up enough energy to stand with Adela in my
arms but I did it. I headed toward the last bit of unburned area around us and
ran as if the devil was chasing me. Maybe he was. I probably wasn’t moving all
that fast, but it was the best I could do and I kept running for what seemed
like a mile or more. I glanced behind us and only saw smoke in the air. The
fire was behind us but I didn’t want to stop just yet, not knowing how quickly
it might be spreading.

I slowed a little,
probably to the speed of mere crawling, but I still forged ahead. I’d thought
my arms ached before, but they were about to fall off now. I sank down on my
knees and placed Adela on the ground. The backpack I had slung over my shoulder
hit the ground with a thump and I gasped for breath. Unfortunately, the air
wasn’t much better here than it had been at the heart of the fire. I coughed
and puked up what was left of the rabbit in my stomach, wiped my mouth and
glanced back at Adela, glad she hadn’t witnessed that little moment of
humiliation. I sank back on my butt, every muscle, every bone, every cell in my
body hurting like a son of a bitch. I shook my arms out, willing the
circulation back into them. How far from the fire were we? I had no idea, and
not wanting to be anywhere close to it, I got back up, slung the backpack over
my shoulder again and scooped Adela up in my arms. She grunted as I juggled her
positioning. The fact that she made a sound was reassuring to me. I kissed her
forehead, her skin alarmingly warm under my lips. “Hold on Adela, please hold
on.”

Then, as though we needed
even more obstacles, I heard thunder again, coming from ahead of us. We had
fire behind us, thunder and most likely more rain before us. Adela was sure to
catch pneumonia but there was no way in hell I’d go back toward the fire. The further
away from the fire we went the rain got heavier. To make matters worse, since I
couldn’t see the sun, I had no idea if we were heading north, south, east or
west. I hoped we were heading north because east would put us up in the
sierras. But even if we were headed east, it was better than south or west, the
location of the earthquake’s epicenter.

My concept of time
became more obscured with each step. Water dripped off my nose and wet hair
hung in my eyes. I looked down at Adela; she was soaked to the bone and
wheezing with each breath. My legs started to rubber out again but I couldn’t
stop. Being careful where I stepped, my focus had been down at the ground. I
looked up as a sudden gush of cold air mixed with rain pelted my face and I
collapsed onto my knees.

I held Adela against me
as tightly as I could so I wouldn’t drop her. We had no jackets anymore to
shield ourselves from the wind and the rain. I pulled her hair over her face,
thinking that would help. I wanted to stay there and rest for a while, but I
knew if we didn’t get shelter soon, I might lose Adela. I stood up at almost
the same time the rain let up. Not sure if the break would last, I walked. I
walked, limped, hobbled. I hoped we were heading out of the forest—we had to
be.  I followed my instincts and the air became clearer and easier to breathe.
I walked on for what felt like another hour and the smell of fire and rain became
a faint memory. We finally came to a narrow six-inch path, most likely a deer
trail. As we rounded a corner, I spotted a small building just beyond some tall
redwoods.

Please let it be a
whole house with a roof. Or anything with a roof.

My prayers were
answered as we came within a few yards of the structure and I saw it was fully
intact. Earthquakes were strange the way they could completely destroy one home
and leave another standing. My own home had still been standing when the fire
started. I supposed my dad figured it was safe once the shaking stopped. He’d
been asleep when I left that morning, so it was quite possible that he awoke
with a hangover or still drunk and didn’t comprehend the danger.

I carried Adela to the
front of the house and trudged up the three wooden steps to the porch. I gently
placed her on the wood deck and knocked on the door. I glanced at Adela, noticing
each short breath she took ended with a heavy wheeze. No one answered and I
knocked again and waited a few moments. Still no answer. I tried the doorknob
but found it locked. I went to the window, peered in and didn’t see anything,
not even any furniture.

I tried several
windows, all of which were locked. I walked to the back, tried the windows
there, but no luck. I hunted around on the little back cement patio for some
sign of a hidden key, checking under a ceramic planter that no longer housed
anything living, but no key. I walked around toward the front again and
stumbled over a small rock. It seemed to jiggle when I kicked it so I picked it
up and discovered it was a clever fake that actually contained a key.
Thank
you, God
. Of all the rocks that could have been in my path to kick, my toe
caught the lucky one. I went to the back door and held the key up to the lock
ready to stick it in, but it wasn’t even the right size for the slot. I prayed that
my premature exclamation of thanks hadn’t been in vain. I walked around to the
front and stuck it in the lock and it turned. I let out a breath of relief and peeked
in to check around. It was vacant without a stick of furniture.

I picked up Adela, carried
her across the threshold and placed her down next to the fireplace. She was
drenched and covered with wet soot. I needed to get the fire going but I didn’t
see any wood.

Leaving Adela on the
floor, I went back outside as I remembered seeing a small shed attached to the
side of the house. My ankle throbbed a little just to remind me that it needed
to rest, but I limped to the small building only to find it had a rusty padlock
on it.
Jeez, these people didn’t trust anybody.
Who did they expect to
rob them up here? No neighbors to speak of, and besides, the house was vacant.
Nothing to steal.

I picked up a rather
large rock and slammed it against the padlock; it fell to the ground with a
clunk. I yanked the door open and stepped inside to find it mostly empty save
for a small stack of wood in the corner, enough for a couple of days anyway.

I gathered up as much wood
as my arms could hold and took it inside. Once I got the fire started, I went
to Adela and placed my hand on her forehead. She was still burning up and her entire
body shivered. I frowned at her wet clothes; they had to come off. I was
worried she might wake up and be embarrassed or think the wrong thing; not that
I didn’t want to take her clothes off and explore that body of hers. I did,
under vastly difference circumstances. I debated this for quite some time
pacing around the room like an idiot. I rubbed my hand through my hair over and
over again, thinking I might come out of this bald if I kept it up. I stood
over her, staring, until she stirred and opened her eyes.

“Where are we?”

“In a house. Nobody
lives here. We’re safe.”

“Good,” she said and
closed her eyes again.

I crouched down beside
her and whispered, “Adela …” I paused not wanting to sound eager about wanting
to remove her clothes. “Adela, your clothes are wet and full of soot. I need to
get them off.”
Jeez, could I sound any more enthusiastic?
“Um … they’ll
dry better if they’re off and you need to get dry too. You have a fever and
you’re having chills.”

“’Kay.” She kept her
eyes closed and groped for the zipper on her jacket that was no longer there.

“Here, let me.” I laid
her back on the carpet. She was soaked through to her bones and barely
conscious. First, I removed her boots and wet socks. I unbuckled her drenched pants
and found her underpants to be just as wet. I took the sleeping bag and placed
it over her before tugging off her jeans and her panties. I was being a saint,
but then only a real low life scum would take advantage of a situation like
this.

Her shirt came next.
That was a bit tricky since I had to lift her up to get the flimsy black tank
top over her head. The bra with the hook on the back wasn’t easy either. I didn’t
look. Well, not on purpose, but only caught a glimpse.

The rain had been
fierce so the entire outside of the sleeping bag was wet. I made sure Adela was
covered and snug inside the dry part and scooted her close to the fire. Man, there
I was in my dream situation and Adela was too sick to do anything. She squirmed
a little and coughed, still shivering. Hell, I was shivering and looked down at
myself standing there in my own soaked clothes.

I shrugged out of my
wet shirt and jeans, lined up all of our clothes on the floor to dry by the
fire and scooted close to her. I stayed outside of the sleeping bag though, which
meant I was still freezing. I picked up the edge of the bag and slid down
inside next to her. The minute my skin touched her warm body my breath caught
in my throat and I had to think of something else, anything else.

That was almost
impossible, but I managed to stay calm. Well, most of me anyway.

Within a few minutes, we
both stopped shivering and I lay staring at the back of Adela’s head while she
slept, trying to keep that one part of me under control and away from brushing
against her.

I awoke staring at a
fireplace. The heat warmed my cheeks. Court had his arm draped over my shoulder
and his hand held mine. I looked up at a ceiling, an actual ceiling. Were we
safe? I closed my eyes and smiled. I must have moved a little because Court
moved his arm slightly. His bare arm.
Wait!

I stuck my hand down
into the sleeping bag and touched my bare skin. I was totally naked. I panicked
a little until I remembered he said I had wet clothes or something. Court’s
warm chest was against my back, skin to skin. I didn’t know if he was completely
naked or not and I wasn’t going to try to find out, afraid to move for fear I
might touch him in the wrong spot.