I’m going to jail. Isn’t that what happens when you start fires? I’m going to jail. Especially fires that burn houses? I won’t see my family! Or Aaron. Oh no, my life… I can’t pay.
She felt desolate. It was over. She was a wretch, a wreck.
Dad caught hold of her around her shoulder with his arm.
“Come on babe! We’ll survive this. Don’t worry,” he said.
What does he know? He didn’t start this monster. We did, Mike did, I didn’t stop him. I, I was there too. They’re going to find out. I’ll just give up.
Somehow she kept her mouth shut. She didn’t tell them what she had done. She thought she should, maybe had to. Tell them what they had done.
~~~
The next morning Rose woke on a cot in the gym at DP High School. Joe was shaking her shoulder.
Joe called, “Come on, breakfast. Come on, they have breakfast ready!” He shook her shoulder. “Rose.”
Rose felt terrible. She hadn’t slept until what seemed like hours and hours. Now she just wanted sleep. She smelled smoke in her sleep. She smelled it now and she thought she saw it inside the gym. She struggled and saw she had on clothes from last night. She remembered, they came here to wait out the night. Maybe they would hear about their home. Rose remembered the lava-flow fire coming down the canyon and all her regret and self-recrimination flooded back. She staggered to stand up. Joe helped her, thinking she might fall.
A radio was providing fire news.
“Streets closed…. Schools closed…..” Announcements went on about evacuations, what areas, what streets were included. How big the fire was now.
“Now this. It looks like the fire started somewhere near West Camino Cielo sometime before dark last night. The exact location has not been found but fire authorities believe they have the general area pinned down.”
We are going to jail. All of us. This is what happens when you don’t follow the rules. Mike should have known better. I shouldn’t have let him light the fire! She shouted inside. Her face went ashen as she hid her face in her hands.
Her phone rang. It was Aaron. She turned aside to take the call.
“Our fire Aaron, it got away,” she whispered quietly so no one could hear her. “We started this, this beast!” She whispered harshly.
“Rose! No! it didn’t happen like that, we got it out. I was there until Mike got it out. You went to the car. No! It couldn’t have been our fire.”
“I know it was, I know it, I know it, Aaron, I don’t want to go to jail!”
“Look, just chill! It wasn’t our fire. Don’t tell anyone! Give them some time, see what they find. I just know it wasn’t. Mike was even down on his hands and knees going through every spark! As soon as I can get up there, Mike and I, we’ll go look at our campfire. We can tell if it started there. I am sure it didn’t.”
Aaron sounded more authoritative than she’d ever heard him. He usually just went along with things. Now he was commanding. It was the right thing for Rose. She grew calmer, more collected.
“I want to come too, then.”
Maybe it wasn’t our fire. Maybe it started somewhere else. Fires start all the time. We didn’t do it. She continued the dialogue in her head, got it slowed down after talking to Aaron.
She calmed a little. She was dog-tired, exhausted.
“It’s going to be Ok Rose,” Dad put his hand on her shoulder. It felt reassuring.
~~~
Two months later Rose heard a news report. She had managed to put the fire behind her and to accept what Aaron said. They went back to look for their fire but weren’t able to find the place. Everything burned out. Aaron and Mike said the fire didn’t start there anyway.
“No way. It would look different. Always looks like it burns away from the location. This looks like it just burned through here.”
Ok she thought. Probably true. What else started it?
Rose and her family were lucky. Their house escaped damage while others nearby burned to the ground. Some were damaged, but not completely destroyed. It seemed so random. She had alternating guilt and elation about still having a home to come to at the end of each day while friends and neighbors had to move to rentals or stayed with relatives. Some were going out of town, maybe forever.
Later that day on TV Rose heard, “Now this. A group of students have been identified who started the $16 million dollar Canyon Fire. Yesterday, fire officials discovered a fire ring where the fire began.”
Rose was gasping for breath.
It was our fire! Oh no! I’m dying here. We’re going to jail. No more…
Jail seemed the only thing she could focus on. It was hard to hear anything else the commentator said. Rose was faint, her head hung with her hair in her eyes. All she could see was the commentator’s mouth moving but she heard nothing more until her brain cleared.
“A group of students had a campfire along West Camino Cielo the night before the Canyon Fire broke out. Apparently they didn’t get it out and it began the Canyon Fire. A young entomologist from out of town discovered the fire ring this week and called in her suspicions. She found the area while looking for ants. Forensic investigators found unequivocally this is the origin of the fire. Identifying materials were found and the students have been indicted for their part in the fire.”
Rose stood icy still.
Wait! What? What? They caught them? They didn’t call me?
She thought for a minute, trying to focus.
Aaron. Aaron musta told them I wasn’t there? What? Why? Why? Oh, Aaron. Oh no!
She moaned. She imagined Aaron behind bars. She imagined Aaron protecting her from the law.
Oh no!
Rose called Aaron, “What happened? Did the police talk to you? Did they take you in?”
“Hey, what happened to ‘hello?’ What’s this about?”
Aaron sounded calm. He was joking with her.
“Aaron, it was on the radio, they said the police or someone caught the students who started the Canyon Fire. Where’s Mike?”
“Hey, no one told me about this. I just talked to Mike before you called. So they didn’t get him. He woulda told me.”
Silence. They both stopped talking.
“You don’t think it could have been another bunch of kids do you?” Rose asked. “What’s the possibility of that?”
“Not great, but the three of us didn’t get tapped. I’ll call Neil. You call Angela. Call back, ‘K?”
A few minutes later Rose was talking to Aaron, “We’re meeting at the Daily Grind in 15 minutes. I talked to Angela and Cindy too. Neither of them heard anything.”
“Yeah, that’s what Neil said too. I’ll get Mike and meet you there. Keep your voices down!”
They gathered around an outside table. Mike slurped his coffee, black. He looked confident to Rose.
Quietly he started, “Looks like it was some other group. We weren’t the only ones out having a little break that night!”
“How do you know?” asked Angela. “The news just broke.”
“Called the sheriff. The dispatcher said they have ‘em all in for questioning already. Won’t identify. I even told her I’m a reporter. There were 10 of ‘em and they talked to all of ‘em. That’s not US! Go figure!” Mike replied with a big smile.
Matching big smiles all around.
“So Mike, you really, really got it out?” asked Rose.
“Yeah, I did. I knew it wasn’t smart, having a fire that night, but there was no wind while we were out. It was dry, but I cleared the area first and I made sure we kept that fire small. I fought fires last summer. Learned what to do to really put ‘em out. We did it all. Dirt, water, smashed out the embers. All of it. I smelled like smoke for a week !”
“I’ve been so worried. I expected we were all going to jail every night! Man, I’ll never start another fire ‘less it’s during a rainstorm!” exclaimed Rose in a hoarse whisper.
On her face, was a half smile and twinkle in her eyes. It wasn’
t over for her. The guilt was still a metallic bite on the back of her tongue.
“Yeah, I know how ya feel. Went through my mind like ice even though I knew it was out. Just the coincidence, anything could happen like that.” Mike’s long face punctuated the serious air of their experience. He looked at the table and then looked up and grinned.
“What a relief. Glad we aren’t them!”
They all laughed and finished their coffee.
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