Fire in the Woods (2 page)

A few guys began walking toward the thruway. One of them held a cheap, pocket camera in his hand. He had to be kidding. What kind of shot did he expect to get with that?

I let the curtain fall. Staying in the house was just too much to ask. This was the story of a lifetime. I couldn’t let it slip by without getting something on film.

Grabbing a black elastic band off the end-table, I twisted my hair into a pony tail. One brown lock fell beside my cheek, as it always did. I clipped that sucker back with a barrette and slung my camera case over my shoulder.

I hesitated at the front door. A picture of my parents hung askew beside the window. I straightened the frame. Mom’s smile warmed me, but Dad’s eyes bored through me, daring me to face his wrath if I touched the doorknob. I stood taller, strengthening my resolve. He’d understand after I got into National Geographic.

The odor of smoke and something pungent barraged my nose as I opened the door. A fire truck wailed in the distance, warning me to keep away. But I couldn’t. I pulled my collar up over my nose to blot out the smell and headed toward the main road.

A parade of emergency vehicles whipped by at the end of the street. Lights flashed and sirens blasted through the neighborhood.

The cacophony froze me for a moment. Nothing like this had ever happened before. We lived in New Jersey for goodness sake, not Saudi Arabia. I glanced back at the house. Keeping it in view made me feel safe, but I knew I needed to get closer to get a good shot.

This was it. The big league. I could do this.

Turning left toward the airstrip, I watched the last fire truck become smaller before its whirling lights passed through the gates onto the tarmac. The fire blazed well within the tree line, maybe even farther than I originally thought. The smoke reached into the sky, blotting out the sun. I raised my lens and waited for the clouds to shift and give me the perfect lighting—until a smack on my arm ruined my setup.

Maggie.

A smirk spread across her face. “Hey, Lois Lane. I figured you’d be out here.”

I sighed, watching a flock of fleeing birds that would have maximized the emotion of the shot—if I’d taken it.

“Lois Lane was a reporter. Jimmy Olsen was the photographer.”

“Whatever.” Her golden curls bounced about her face. “This is like, crazy. My dad took off like World War Three or something.”

“Yeah, mine, too.”

I shielded my eyes. The smoke rose in gray billows. Almost pretty. I raised my lens.

“You want to know the scoop?” Maggie’s perky form fidgeted like a toddler who couldn’t hold in a secret. She loved eavesdropping on her father, the general. Unfortunately, that kind of gossip could get you carted off by the MPs. Never stopped her though, and I adored her for it.

“You know I do. Spill it.” I brought the clouds into focus and snapped the shutter three times.

Her grin widened as she feigned a whisper. “It’s not one of ours.”

“What do you mean?” The stench in the air thickened. I covered my nose.

“The plane. They don’t know whose it is. Isn’t that exciting?”

“Heck yeah.” I raised my camera and clicked off ten successive shots. If a terrorist got shot down over American soil, Jess Martinez was going to have pictures to sell. This was the kind of break every photographer dreamed of.

I adjusted my camera-case beside my waist. “I’m going in closer.”

The air around us grew hazy. Maggie coughed. “Are you nuts? This is close enough for me.”

“Stop being such a wuss.” I tugged her wrist. It never took much more to convince her.

Maggie prattled on while I shot off round after round of gripping photographs. My heart fluttered as each preview image appeared on my screen. For once I was actually doing it. I was being the journalist I was meant to be, not the caged-up little girl Dad wanted. And boy, did it feel good.

The closer we came to the chained-link fence surrounding the runways, the more people gathered around us. A man, ignoring the whimpering Labrador on the end of his leash, gawked at the clouds.
Click.
Two women caught excited children and dragged them away.
Click.
The MP from down the street shouted, “Yes sir, right away sir,” into his cell phone and jogged from the scene.
Click—
all amazing images to add to my portfolio.

Pushing to the front, I slipped my fingers through the metal fencing. The paved tarmac sprawled before me, backing up to the trees. Soldiers on the far side of the airstrip formed barricades against the tree line. I centered my lens between the silver links and chronicled their maneuvers.

A breeze whipped up. The heat slapped my face like sitting too close to a campfire. I covered my lens to protect the glass as the people around us flinched and backed away. One woman ran, crying into a hankie.

“Should we be able to feel the heat from this far away?” Maggie asked, shielding her face with her arm.

I shrugged, unease settling on me as the smoky cloud arched toward us. The breeze stretched the formation, driving it north over our heads and toward the houses.

My stomach did a little fliperoo. The spunky, fearless photojournalist slipped away, leaving a scrawny, slightly-unsure-of-herself teenager behind. “I gotta go.”

“Why?”

“My Dad told me to stay inside. He’ll be calling on the house phone any minute to check on me.”

“The major’s getting more neurotic every day. You’re almost eighteen for goodness sake.”

“I know, but I still get the
While You Live Under My Roof
lecture every day.”

The ground rattled. Another billow of fire wafted into the sky. I steadied myself, transfixed by the sheer magnitude of the ever-growing bank of smoke.

Wow, did I want to just stand there and use up my memory card—but I wanted to not get grounded more. I began walking backward, snapping off shots with every step.

Maggie strode beside me. “Do you ever stop taking pictures?”

Click.

“Not if I can help it.”

***

I shimmied open the front door. On the far side of the living room, the corded phone rattled on the receiver, mid-ring. My keys clanged to the wood floor as I sprang toward the table to grab the handset. “Hello?”

“Where’ve you been?”

“Nowhere. I was—in the bathroom.” I clenched my teeth, holding my breath. Would he buy it?

“Are you okay?”

“I’m fine. Why?”

I could imagine his Major Martinez no-nonsense expression on the other side of the phone. “Listen, it’s really important that you stay inside tonight. I’m sorry I can’t be there, but I need you to lock the doors, and stay away from the windows.”

I crinkled my forehead. Sweat settled across my brow. “Why? What’s wrong? There’s nothing, like, nuclear or anything, right?”

There was a pause on the line. “No—nothing nuclear.”

I drew the curtain back from the rear kitchen window. The smoke cloud over the woods had darkened
.
The smell of burning pine tickled my nose as a humming tone on the other end of the call agitated my ear.

Dad spoke muffled words to someone else. “Jesus H. Christ,” he whispered, returning to the phone.

“Dad, is everything okay?”

“Please just promise me you’ll stay inside tonight.”

Yikes. His Major Tomás Martinez voice had drifted away. That was his ‘daddy’s scared’ voice. I hadn’t heard that tone since the night Mom died. I shuddered. “Dad, if things are that bad, shouldn’t I be with you?” Silence lingered, and a scratching noise reverberated in the background. “Dad, is someone else on the line with us?”

“Jess. I am asking you to stay inside and lock the doors. Can you do that for me…Buttercup?”

Buttercup?

My breath hitched. Crud. That meant something. Buttercup was a word he and Mom used when something was wrong. Something was definitely up.
“I got you, Dad. I’ll stay inside. I promise.”

“Thank you.” He paused. “I’ll be home as soon as I can.”

“Yeah, okay.” My hand trembled as the phone clicked back into the cradle.

I checked the front and back door and ran to the stairs. The fire cast a magnificent glow behind the trees outside my bedroom window. I slid down the screen and clicked off a few rounds of shots, hoping to catch the eerie blues and pinks behind the shaded leaves. Whoa.
New favorite sunset shot for sure
.

Settling down on my bed, I started scrolling through today’s pictures. Something was weird about the fire, but I couldn’t quite place my finger on it. Flipping through June’s National Geographic, I glanced through the photographs of the explosion in Nanjing, China. The colors in my shots were so much more vivid, more dynamic, more, well,
colorful
. Not that I knew anything about explosions, but something itched that little button inside that told me I had something special.

The lights suddenly flicked on. I gasped and laughed at myself. Perfect timing. I settled at my computer, hooked up my camera, and started the upload. I couldn’t wait to enlarge those babies.

Trumpets!

My eyes popped open as round after round of incessant choruses of Reveille echoed over the base PA system, shocking the world and demanding everyone get up and take notice that the ungodly time of O-six-hundred-hours had arrived.

A groan escaped my lips as I pushed up off my desk. Every muscle in my neck and back screamed at the same time. I must have fallen asleep waiting for my pictures to upload. Rubbing the back of my neck, I stood as the last trumpet bellowed its obnoxious call.

God, I hated that stinking song.

The screen-saver flicked off when I jiggled my mouse. The website from last night was still waiting for me to confirm my order. I smiled and clicked the button. I’d be a few hours before the store opened and I could pick up the pictures that would change my life. Once I added the best of yesterday’s shots to my portfolio, no one would dream of refusing my college application.

The sun sparkled through my windowpanes. In the distance, three dark birds circled over the forest in a beautiful, blue sky. A thin tendril of smoke trailed from the trees, a small reminder of yesterday’s chaos. The coolness of the glass enlivened my skin as I pressed my forehead against the window. Despite the unbelievable shots I’d taken, I was glad it was finally over.

I stumbled through the hallway and peeked in dad’s room. His bed hadn’t been slept in. So much for his day off. Ignoring the grumbling of my impatient stomach, I treated my sore muscles to a shower and got dressed.

The digital clock on my dresser blinked four-seventeen. So much for the fool-proof back-up battery. I made a mental note to fix the time later.

While liberating a few knots from my hair, I made a beeline to the refrigerator. Fruit, eggs, milk…Boring. I shoved aside a few food savers and smiled.

“Bingo.”

I slid out a plate of German chocolate layer cake. Smacking my lips in anticipation, I plopped back in front of my computer and scanned the photos I’d sent to the drugstore print shop. I could hear Dad now, “Why don’t you just send the pictures to the PX. It’s cheaper.”

Yeah, they’re cheaper all right—and pixely.

Not to mention the fact that they might confiscate a few of the shots I’d taken of the soldiers. My brow furrowed as I scanned the photos of the platoon gathered near the edge of the forest. In every shot, the soldiers were facing the woods. If they were there to keep the people safe, wouldn’t they be facing out?

Swallowing down the last bite of cake, I walked downstairs and peeked out the front window. No sign of Dad yet, but I wasn’t about to sit there and wait for him. I dialed up his cell, but his voicemail answered.

“Hey Dad, it’s Jess. Everything’s fine. No problems last night. I’m going to walk down to the drugstore to pick up some pictures, okay? Don’t worry, I’m going in completely the opposite direction from where the fire was, so I won’t be anywhere near the cleanup. See you later.”

I hung up and grabbed a notepad and pen. Standard Major Martinez protocol dictated a note as well as a message. I flipped to an empty page and let him know where I was going, sealing it with a smiley-face.

Outside, a summer breeze caressed my face. I inhaled the crisp morning air and crinkled my nose at the slight hint of smoke lingering from the fire. Yuck.

Quiet greeted me throughout the compound, as if yesterday’s calamity never happened. Funny, how quickly everything adjusts back to normal. I guess the fire really wasn’t as big a deal as I thought.

The heaviness still hung in the air, though. Not that I thought a plane crash would take it away. Everything about Maguire, and the other three military bases I’d lived on, stifled me like a prison without walls, and the pressure seemed to tighten every day.

Day trips with Mom used to help, but now that she was gone, and with Dad sinking further and further into his shell…Well, things just weren’t the same without Mom.

Relief swept over me as I passed the guard shack and walked into the real world. I laughed at myself. I was only a few feet away from military ground, and most of those houses were probably still Army or Air Force families all squashed together since they merged Fort Dix with Maguire. It was civilian land, though, and it smelled like freedom. Well, smoky freedom at the moment, but still freedom.

I headed toward the woods and allowed my thoughts to drift up and away, clearing my mind and letting it wander. Senior year began in a few weeks, and I’d have to start looking for colleges.

Looking…funny. There was only one choice. Columbia. Their arts department was the tops. My application was already filled out, and these photographs were going to cinch it for me.

Dad dreamed of me going to West Point. We’d already sent in the paperwork, but I didn’t care that every Martinez since my great-grandfather went there. I had to live my life, not his.

A larger than life advertisement on the side of a passing NJ Transit bus made me smile.
Fire in the Woods, starring Jared Linden and Chris Stevens. In theaters September tenth.
Jared leaned forward in the photo, ready to pounce off the side of the bus. Chris Stevens stood beside him, shirtless with hands in pockets and beautiful blond tresses falling seductively toward one eye. I loved Chris’s new haircut, and Jared—Yum. Five foot ten inches of pure tall-dark-and-handsome. They were both just to die for.