Faith
By
Mark Elswick
* * * * *
PUBLISHED BY:
Faith
Copyright © 2013 by Mark Elswick
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This book is a work of fiction and any resemblance to persons, living or dead, or places, events or locales is purely coincidental. The characters are productions of the author’s imagination and used fictitiously.
Readers:
Sometimes, to Rock the World we just have to let go of all our fears and have faith that
we’re doing the right thing. No matter what people say, what you see or don’t see, if it’s real or not real, your faith can propel you to greatness. But, first, take that leap of faith, or you’ll always wonder.
Basically, that’s what I did by following my dream that took me over 1,000 miles from
home. Even though I didn’t see an end or my goal in sight, I believe it’s there. Really, isn’t that what matters?
Rock Your Day!
*****
Faith
The sirens were screaming. The noise of the fire trucks was nearly deafening. The plethora of lights lit the block like a football stadium at night. Quiet Elms Street was quickly becoming Helter Skelter Lane. Droves of people were rushing to the house.
“Back door!” the fire chief shouted instructions to two ax-wielding rookies. “I said back door, now!”
“No! Keep it at the rear window, Jim!” another voice bellowed from near the house, “or he’ll never make it.”
“Tylerrrrrrrr,” the little boy’s mother screamed in the direction of the window upstairs.
Frantic and in tears, she had 1 1/2-year old Pammy clinging to her left leg. The single mom, Danni, was wearing no make-up and only a housecoat. Her appearance was the furthest thing from her mind.
Little Pammy didn’t really understand what was happening, for she was still a baby. However, the commotion and Mom’s tears made it impossible for the spirited, blue-eyed, pony-tailed, pajama-and-diaper-wearing child to keep from being scared.
“MA’AM,” the chief loudly shouted in Danni’s direction, in front of the frantic crowd’s chaotic commotion. “What do we have upstairs? Just a boy? How old? Any animals? . . .”
Danni tried answering, but her words were muffled by cries, yelps, and screeches for her little man. After a moment, she was able to answer the fire crew’s leader by shaking her head and giving a muffled answer, “Just Ty,” while showing six fingers.
“He’s six? We’ll get him,” Chief Lipke softly reassured her as he returned to the quickly-becoming-engulfed two-story home.
Picking up Pammy, Danni hugged her little girl so tightly that the Jaws of Life could not have pried her loose. She simply bawled into Pammy’s neck. Sadly, there was nothing to prevent Danni from battling the grotesque idea of losing her other baby.
Then, out of nowhere, the window appeared to scream.
“Mmoooommmmmmmmyyyyyy!!!”
Ty was finally trying to communicate. Even though he couldn’t be seen because of all the fire and smoke, the sheer terror in his voice was evident. With all of the noise from the onlookers and the fire crew, to go along with the crackling of wood, nails, and paint, it’s no wonder why his yell was but a faint cry.
Like a magnet, the sound of her little boy was pulling her to him. After nearly dropping poor Pammy to the ground, Danni tried to sprint to her son. Thankfully, an officer was there just for that sort of thing. He wrapped Danni in his arms as she tried in vain to escape.
“NO! Stop ma’am,” the officer ordered her as he forcibly held Danni. ”They’ll get him. I know it’s hard, but PLEASE try to remain calm, ma’am.”
Meanwhile, as the rookies returned to the side of the house, there was some bad news.
“Sergeant Lipke, we can’t get in. It’s about to blow. This little guy’s going to have to jump, fast!”
For the first time, Lipke looked concerned. Following a brief pause, he instructed the men to . . .
“Sir, there’s no time,” one fireman boldly interjected, angrily cutting off his boss.
With that, the disobedient fireman sped to the side of the house, below Tyler’s bedroom window. Before he got there, he was already yelling to the boy.
“TYLERRRRRRRR,” he screamed as his body came to a rest. “Don’t be scared, buddy, but the fire is almost to you. There are three of us firemen down here. You can do this, buddy.”
Silence was returned as the anxious firemen waited.
The crowd was silent. All eyes looked to the second-floor window. Every member of the neighborhood was holding their breath, hoping for the best but expecting the worst. With clenched fists, they anxiously hoped to hear a reply from the window.
“TYLERRRRRRR,” the man in red and black screamed two more times, hoping to elicit a response.
The smell of burning wood and the sound of it crackling was all that filled the clear night air. What was still standing of the house was on the verge of crumbling. Like sand falling to the bottom of an hour glass, time was nearly expired as the house slowly flaked to the ground.
Surprisingly, Tyler’s voice suddenly knifed through the air like a dart.
“NOOOOOOO!!!!!” he suddenly yelled back. “I want my mommy. I’m not jumping. I can’t see you.”
The wood was burning more and more as the seconds passed. Everyone was listening to that familiar sound, but no one actually heard it. There was just one thing on their minds. What had started as sparks from a faulty outlet was nearly enveloping the entire house. The left side was engulfed, and the right side was minutes from collapsing—if not just seconds.
As a sidewalk full of optimistic onlookers begged God for mercy, the harsh reality was that the neighbor’s emergency call may have dispatched the fire department too late. Her tired and panic-stricken fingers searched wildly for the three, emergency digits when she saw flames coming from her neighbor’s house. Thankfully, Danni was already racing the fire out the front door with Pammy in one arm.
As they escaped, surprisingly, Danni wasn’t aware that Tyler was upstairs. She thought he was at a friend’s. Despite that, there was still a good chance for his survival when the call was made if he would have been awake. Unfortunately, however, that chance was becoming slimmer and slimmer by the second. The house seemed to be burning as quickly as a stack of newspapers in a fireplace.
“Tyler, c’mon, buddy. I’m here,” the fireman screamed from the ground with more emphasis. “Your mom is right here with me. Please!”
Silence!
Suddenly, almost as if a magic wand were waved in the sky, the chaos stopped. Nobody was running down the street. Nobody was talking. The chaotic mob grew quieter than a theater audience at a horror film nervously awaiting the outcome of a suspenseful scene. The thick silence was the crowd desperately hoping for a sound--any sound--from Ty. Everyone in the charismatic-turned-silent gang held their breath. Then, as if the house were talking--as if it were God, Himself--a voice came from nowhere.
“NOOOOOOOOOOOO! I CAN’T SEE YOU,” the loudest cry, yet, came from the inferno, begging for help. “WHERE ARE YOU, MOMMY? I CAN’T SEE YOU!”
“Tyler, jump! I can see you,” the fireman loudly pleaded in a trying-to-remain-calm, matter-of-fact manner. “It’s the black smoke. Please, jump, son. We’ll catch you.”
The next ten seconds must have seemed like an hour. The firemen, Ty’s mom, a
nd a crowd of at least 30-some people was holding their breath. They hoped for a faceless response from the window.
The kids’ grandparents had arrived by that time. They had the one-year old under control. However, Danni was quite opposite. She felt completely helpless.
The crowd was in tears, anticipating one of the most gruesome things imaginable—the death of a child. Quietly mourning and praying, many stood with their hands folded in front of their faces. They were feverishly begging for mercy.
“MOMMMMMMMMMMMMM. I CAN’T JUMP,” Tyler unexpectedly cried out. “I LOVE YOU, AND I’M SORRY. I’M SCARED, MOMMY. MY DOORS ON FI . . .”
If any of the neighbors weren’t crying before, they started. Tears flooded the faces of virtually everyone on the street that night. Even neighbors who didn’t know one another were trying to console each other.
People often remember where they were at the exact moment news of epic proportions occurs. This would surely be one of those times. The smell, the chill, the sight, and the darkness of the 2:00 a.m. night were things that were going to live in every neighbor’s memory forever.
“Get his damn mom over here, NOW!” Lipke ordered the officer restraining Danni when Ty’s words ended.
The officer finally let go of Danni’s arms. Trembling, she sprinted to the house where Lipke was standing. Her heart was breaking in two. The fire cut off her baby’s words. It was a silence that no parent should ever have to endure.
“I CAN’T SEE YOU, MOMMY,” the obviously too-scared-to-move little boy’s muffled voice barked through night air, even fainter. “MY BED’S ON FIRE. WHERE ARE YOU, MOMMY?”
Upon his voice, the crowd erupted louder than a football crowd as if they were cheering their favorite football team to a last-second victory. They were also charismatically using their hands and bodies, begging Ty to leap.
Ty then screamed, louder than anyone thought he could. He began to yell, “Mommy,” but his words were interrupted by morbid silence.
“MMMMOOOOOO”
. . .
. . .
Everyone knew why his word stopped.
. . .
A loud crackle of wood popped. They all watched another portion of the house collapse into ashes. Very little of the house hadn’t melted away.
The mourners went silent, again. All eyes were fixated on that window.
Following the momentary sense of hope in the onlookers’ faces, silence surrounded the house. Save the sirens and the popping sound of wood and nails, any member of the sobbing group could have heard a pin drop. All eyes shifted toward Danni.
Burned alive at six? What a gruesome fate that no child deserves.
Even the most macho of men gathered was weeping like a schoolgirl. With no father-figure in the two children’s lives—ever—the neighborhood dads all pitched in as adopted fathers to the two Scott kids. After all, there were only a handful of small children living on Elms Street, so the youngsters were welcome additions to the neighborhood. It was the type of close-knit community that is only seen on television.
“CATCH MEEEEEEEEEEEE!” the window suddenly spoke, again, with newfound energy.
Everyone exhaled. The hanged heads shot skyward. The cheers amplified. Those tears became tears of joy. As if in unison, the entire crowd was encouraging the sports-crazed kid to jump. The entire block bonded together.
Unexpectedly and from out of nowhere, Tyler appeared to be spit out of the upstairs window. As if he were flames from of a fire-breathing dragon’s mouth, he shot about eight feet out and began his descent to the ground, screaming and flailing his arms as if he were on a roller coaster. Flames followed the boy--even chased him--out the window.
. . .
Not even three seconds after Tyler jumped, the remaining bits of the house crumbled. A loud crash erupted when the highest boards and ashes broke apart and tumbled to the ground. If Ty hadn’t jumped when he did, he would have been burned to ashes with the rest of the boards.
Meanwhile, his black hair was blowing in the wind, his eyes were closed tightly, and his arms were flailing. Ty was free-falling into the arms of awaiting firemen, hoping they’d be there with his mom, like they said. It was a question of what would crash to the ground first, Ty or the remains of the house. In actuality, it was pretty simultaneous.
Crying hysterically, Danni was upended by the trio of firemen trying to catch the youngster. If they had not knocked her out of the way, they would have never caught the falling star. At the exact same time of the collision between the firemen and Mom, the boy descended to eye level of the rescuers. All three clumsily caught him, breaking his fall and ensuring his safety.
Out of fear and the fact that the fire pressed him against the window, Ty simply took a leap of love and trust when he plunged to the sound of his mom. It was, literally, a leap of faith.
Danni practically belly flopped Ty once he was safe on the ground. She nearly smothered her boy with kisses and hugs. He didn’t mind because he was as equally pleased to see her, his sister, and grandparents. The five of them were their own little pool just outside the fire.
Behind a sea of smiles, the crowd was celebrating, crying uncontrollably. Kisses, hugs, and triumphant cheers swept through the community. Norman Rockwell could never have painted such a heart-warming scene.
Ty, Pam, and Danni went on to live happy, prosperous lives. Danni remarried three years later; now, her last name is Lipke. Unlike Ty and Pammy’s biological father, Jake Scott, their step dad played a vital role in every aspect of the youths’ lives. In addition, he and Danni had a child of their own. Today, Emily Lipke is seventeen and class valedictorian.
As for the kids, well, one could say they both became successful in their own ways. Pamela leads a band. As for Ty, well, he is doing quite well, too. After completing law school, he is working for a prosecuting attorney’s office. Even more impressively, he’s working toward becoming a lawyer--with his own firm.
What about the new husband?
Well, remember the fire chief, Sgt. Lipke? As it turns out, he had a very available son who was one of the two “ax-wielding rookies” at the fire. It turned out that he has a little boy of his own, who lives outside of the country. Therefore, he rarely gets to see his son. Subsequently, he treasures every moment with all the kids.
The story of Tyler Scott goes a long way toward getting to the heart of an often-overused term that people really don’t understand. The firemen tried and tried to get him to leap. However, he wouldn’t because he couldn’t see his destination or “safety net.” However, the thing that made the story successful was one word. Ty made the leap in faith that his mother would be there for him. He had learned to trust her. He had the utmost faith in anything she said. Ty would have jumped off of a building for her—and he did.
Whether it’s family, religion, friendship, relationship, love, career, or anything else--even someone traveling across the country to devote 100% of his or her life to a dream (writing in my case)--faith needs to present for anything to be a success. No matter how many people tell you that you can’t do something or your dream is crazy, if you feel that it’s obtainable, that’s the faith you need. Have faith in whatever you do or it’s simply not worth doing.
Dream! Hope! Believe! and . . . keep the faith!