Broken Wings 02 Midnight Flight (31 page)

We could see the fire inside the house eating away the walls behind them. M'Lady Two, stepped out of the window and turned toward Natani's nephew, who was now at the top of the ladder, beating at the flames. She lifted her left arm protectively and edged forward in his direction, but the roof, weakening all around that window, gave way and in the same instant we saw her fall into the belly of the fire. She went down without a sound. It was a sight so unreal. I had to convince myself I wasn't still asleep on my cot in the barn.
The flames as if in a march of victory rose to heights above the windows. Through them. I could see M'Ladies One and Three. They were screaming, but we couldn't hear them. It was a silent movie in vivid color. The roof above them caved in and the house seemed to crumble and fall into itself. Natani's nephew leaped from the ladder as it, too, fell forward. He hit the ground nimbly and Natani helped him up.
All of us stepped back farther and farther. The waves of heat were burning our faces.
"Get back." Natani shouted at us. "Back, back."
We retreated to the center of the yard, where we stood and watched the house burning. Off in the distance, like lanterns in the night, two revolving lights appeared. Someone was coming, but far too late.
I
thought.
Behind us, the horses were neighing in fear and kicking at their stall doors. Natani rushed back, his arm extended upward, his hand tracing the embers that were being carried in the smoke. I realized his concern immediately. They were moving toward the barn and the barn was dry, especially the roof.
I
joined his nephew and him and we got the horses out of the barn and into the corral.
"They'll still be very frightened," Natani said.
He ordered his nephew to open the corral so the horses could go as far as they needed. Then he turned his attention to the other animals.
I
worked at his side far what I later realized was hours. Robin and Teal began to help as well. Natani's foresight proved correct. A section of the horse barn caught frt. His nephew tried to contain it with their water hoses, but it was too little and had limited reach. It wasn't long before the horse barn was too far gone to save,
The lights
I
had seen belonged to a fire truck and an ambulance with two paramedics. There wasn't much for them to do but stand by like us and watch the hacienda burn to the ground. Soon after they had arrived, a sheriffs patrol car drove up and then another.
Exhausted from our efforts to save all the animals. Robin. Teal. and I sat in front of our barn barracks, which had escaped the embers because of the wind's direction. We watched the police, firemen, and paramedics conferring with Natani. It all remained unreal to me. Their faces glowing, the flames, the crackle of the fire, the tower of smoke that the wind carried into the desert. Through it, the stars twinkled as if heavens approved of it all.
'Where's Gia?" Teal asked. and Robin and I looked at each other.
During all the excitement, our frantic activity and terror, none of us had thought about her.
"I haven't seen Dr. Foreman either." Robin said.
We turned back to the dwindling conflagration and stared at the flames like three hypnotized people, no one speaking, no one moving. Finally. Teal leaned against me. I put my arm around her and Robin put her arm around me. It was the way the police and the woman from the social service agency found us. We were like three girls frozen, discovered at the top of some very, very high mountain.
I'm
sure we looked as if it would take a crowbar to pry us apart.
We had sat there together throughout the night and into the first morning light. The fire had burned the house to its foundation. It still smoldered enough to send up a significant tower of smoke I was sure could be seen for miles and miles.
Strangely, other Indians appeared out of the desert as though they had always been out there.
I
couldn't imagine from where they had all come, but at least a few dozen men and women and some children were on the property.
I
saw from the way they circled Natani and spoke to him that they respected him greatly. Later.
I
would learn that he was actually a descendant of a famous Navajo medicine man, and the Indians had high regard for inherited powers.
The woman from the social service agency introduced herself as Mrs, Alexia Patterson, but insisted we call her Alex. All three of us had been through enough layers of the juvenile system to understand it was her way to get us to see her as a friend and not a bureaucrat. A sheriffs officer was with her when she first approached us.
I
could see that he knew exactly what the ranch was used far and who we were. He wore a hard look of accusation and suspicion and wanted to talk to us first.
"Let them clean themselves up," Alex told him. "They've worked hard helping with the animals and everything. Lieutenant."
He hunted a reluctant okay and we walked in a daze to an outside sink where we washed our faces and hands, our necks and arms. The stench of smoke and burned wood was so thick it was deeply embedded in our very skin. It would take more than a rinsing to get it off our bodies. It would never wash off our souls and hearts.
While we cleaned up. Alex and the sheriffs deputy stood off to the side talking and watching us. The terror and shock we had experienced leveled off, but rushing in to replace it were waves of anxiety. What would happen to us? What had happened to Gia? What did the authorities think about us?
"How are you doing. girls?" Alex asked, walking over to us.
"Ginger peachy." Teal told her.
Alex didn't blink. She smiled and nodded. "That, um, barn or building over there?" She pointed to our barracks. "That's where you girls slept?"
"Yes," Robin said. "It's the first-class accommodations here."
"I
think." the sheriffs deputy said, stepping up beside Alex. "that the time for smart talk is well over," He glared at us and no one spoke.
"This is Lieutenant Rowling, girls. He and
I
have to ask you questions. Why don't we all go into that building then and have a talk," Alex said in as sweet a voice as she could muster. Lieutenant Rowling nodded his approval, but kept his eyes fixed on us with the accuracy of a pair of well-aimed pistols.
We all walked to the barracks.
After we entered. Alex stopped and looked around the Spartan quarters. She was truly surprised that the floor was covered in straw and all the cots but one were without mattresses, pillows, or blankets.
"I
don't understand." she muttered, and looked at the sheriffs deputy, who just shrugged. "Let's sit here." she said, nodding at my cot, which was the closest.
We sat on it and Lieutenant Rawling pulled another one closer. Alex sat on that, but he stood glaring down at us,
"How many of you are there at present?" she asked.
"There were five of us when we three came. There were four of us last night. Mindy's dead. She committed suicide," I told her.
Alex looked at Lieutenant Rowling, who smirked. "Who committed suicide?" he asked.
"Mindy."
"Mindy Levine." Robin said.
"You saw her commit suicide?" he asked.
"No. Gia told us that happened. We were out in the desert," I said.
"Who's this Gia?" he asked, looking from me to Robin and Teal. "She was the other girl, the fourth girl." Robin told him.
"You said you were out in the desert. What does that mean?" Alex asked.
"We were being punished. We were taken out there and left to find our way back." I explained. "Teal got bitten by a rattlesnake. Natani saved our lives." I felt like I was repeating a recording, speaking with little or no emotion, just reporting facts.
Again Alex's eyebrows hoisted and she looked at Lieutenant Rowling.
He shrugged again. "You guys should know more about this place than we do,," he said
defensively.
Alex nodded. "We should. But, we obviously don't."
"Yeah, well, that's for later. Right now." he continued, bearing down on me especially. "what do you know about this fire?"
I shook my head and the other two did the same.
"We woke up and saw the whole place illuminated, so we dressed and stepped out and saw the house was in flames. We ran around back and watched Natani and his nephew, the cook, try to save the buddies."
"Buddies?"
"Assistants, I suppose you would call them,," Teal said dryly. "We had better names for them."
"Do you know anything about Gia?" I asked.
"What about Dr. Foreman? Was she in the house or what?" Teal followed, her arrogant, demanding tone making her sound more like the Teal I knew,
"We're asking the questions here," Lieutenant Rowling said so sharply it was as if his tongue were made of razor blades.
"Okay, girls," Alex said, giving him a stern look and then turning back to us. "For now. I want you to rest. We'll get you something to drink and tat. I'll return soon."
She and the lieutenant left the barracks.
"How come they didn't know about Mindy?" Teal asked. "If someone dies, especially like that, wouldn't the police know?"
"It's all very weird," Robin said.
I agreed and then my eyes went to Gia's cot. The edge of her notebook could be seen just under her pillow.
I
went to it and pulled it out.
I
opened the cover and sat on her cot to read.
"What?" Robin asked when
I
shook my head.
"I guess she returned to being Posy. She starts this off with a 'Dear Mother.'"
I started to read on. "No. wait. Maybe not."
"Read it aloud," Teal said.
I
looked up at them, then did what she asked. "
Dear Mother,
"Did I ever tell you about the first day I saw you, when I was ten and they brought me to you? How does a girl get over the fact that her real mother and her real father gave up on her completely and agreed to give her away, give her to you, let you adopt her and make her your daughter?"

"What an imagination she had," Teal said, shaking her head. Robin nodded.
I
continued reading.
"I never understood it all, of course. I always expected I would go home someday, no matter how you explained it You told me you wanted to be my mother, how I would be a shining example of your powers, your abilities. You would be sitting out there on my high school graduation day and my college graduation day and you would be so proud of me.
"I'm very smart, you said. You said you could tell that and you were sure I was going to be an excellent student once I was cured.
"I must tell you I never thought of myself as sick so I never understood why you called it being cured. Sick to me was sneezing and coughing, bellyaches and headaches, but not being angry. and afraid and alone. How is that being sick? From what I had seen of other kids my age, and especially the ones who were brought to you, being angry, afraid, and alone is more normal these days than being
^-
sick.
"There you go, I'm sure, shaking your head and pursing your lips. More proof that I'm sick, more proof that I'm sick. That's what you're saying and what you 'e been saying since the day I
^-
was brought to your home.
'I understand my parents being afraid of having me in the house after the fire, but I never stopped believing they would come back, for me someday. Not until now. Now I know they won't. You wouldn't
want them to. You wouldn't want to give up your prize patient, would you?
'You made fun of my Posy. You did everything you could to kill her, to crush her like some insect, but she got away, just like Mindy. We can get away from you, but not all of us. Not all of us can stand up to you and your little army of so-called buddies.
"You know
^-
what frightens me the most today, Mother? That I'm finally calling you Mother. That you got your way with that, but now I'm terrified that you will win, that you really will be sitting out there on my graduation days and I will be your little protege, your shining example, and you will use me to get rid of every Posy who is out there and every Mindy.
"I was thinking I would give you this to read, but then I thought, if l do, you will find a way to overcome. You always do. You're the best at what you do, Mother. You will always win. You will always have your way with us.
"Guess who has come back tonight?"
I read, and looked up at Robin and Teal. who were sitting there mesmerized. I looked back at the notebook.
"That's right, Posy. And guess why? She has a plan. I don't know why I didn't think of it on my own. You've had me spinning in circles, I guess. Anyway, she's here to help. She hasn't forgotten me. She couldn't leave me behind after all.
"We're on our way to activate our plan, Mother. You'll know it all very soon.
"I wonder if my real mother and father ever really asked after me. You said they didn't, but maybe, maybe you were lying to me. Maybe they haven't forgotten me completely. Maybe they'll think about me how Posy says they will.
'And Posy knows,
"Posy always knew."
I closed the notebook.
"I feel so sick inside." Teal said. "So sick and tired."
"'What's new about that?" Robin muttered, then quickly added. "So do
I."
We all looked up when the door opened and a female sheriffs deputy entered carrying some sodas and a bag of sandwiches and candy bars.
"Hi, girls," she said. "Brought you something to eat and drink." She set it all down,
"Chocolate bars?" Teal said, opening the bag. "And subs. They look like they have everything on them!"
"They do." the deputy said.
"I
didn't know what you liked, of course. so
I
got the works, Enjoy. Mrs. Patterson and Lieutenant Rowling will be back to speak with you all scion."
She left and Robin dug into the bag, "Roast beef, And a Coke. I think
I
forgot what that tastes like. Look." She held up
a
bag. "Potato chips!"
Teal was already eating and closing her eyes with pleasure. I was the most surprised of us all that I had an appetite after what we had just been through, but nervousness burned calories.
I
guess.
I
ate as fast as they did and enjoyed what I was eating just as much.
When we were finished, we went to the doorway because we heard
a
loud roaring sound. We saw a helicopter landing. Two men in suits and a uniformed policeman who looked like a general emerged, bent aver to avoid the propellers, and ran toward the ruins of the house. Many more patrol cars, another ambulance, firemen and police were moving about the rounds and around the smoldering hacienda. Off to the left.
I
saw Natani and his nephew surrounded by policemen, who were listening to them answer questions.
"Who's that in the helicopter, the president?" Teal wondered aloud.
"What's going to happen to us now?" Robin asked.
Bath Teal and I turned and looked at her. Funny, I thought, how
I
had never even considered it until she had just mentioned it. What would be done with us?
"Whatever it is, it'll be
a
vacation compared to this." Teal replied.
Somehow,
I
didn't believe a vacation was what was ahead for us.