She Only Speaks to Butterflies (9 page)

“Suit yerself,” Kate smiled warmly.

Sarah was gawking at Lee as if she could size him up through his uniform. “So the fire’s out?” she blurted rudely.

“Yes, ma’am,” he nodded.

“The others can handle the rest?” she added, using the same blunt tone.

Mark intervened. “You’ll have to excuse her.” He rubbed her belly. “Hormones.”

“That’s quite alright, sir,” Lee said, good-naturedly. “Best be gettin’ back.”

Lee turned, almost running into Sherry and Denise. “Sorry, ma’am.” He touched Denise’s head. “Pleasure.” He tipped his head at Sherry.

“I best be headin’ back, too,” Alan said. “We’re just about done here. Y’all head on home now and we’ll see ya at the fire hall…say two o’clock?” He looked at Ned, who nodded assent.

Sherry caught up to Alan as he left the scene.

“Hi, Alan,” she murmured. “I just wanted to thank you for keeping things under control…ya know?” She tilted her chin toward the cordoned off area and then looked back to make sure she wasn’t in earshot of the townspeople. “I sure hope we figure out who’s doing this…ya know, before anyone gets hurt.”

Alan’s arm draped across Sherry’s shoulders. “No need to worry, Mrs. Little. Until the town steps in and develops that land, I’ll be sure to keep Mr. Little’s memory safe.”

Sherry blushed. “Thanks, Alan.”

“But we all gotta be on watch for whoever’s causin’ this trouble.” He changed tack. “Who knows what they’ll go after next.”

…

The Eldorado pulled up to Baker’s Farm. Sherry scrunched her nose at the stale, smoky aroma still filling the air. Ned and Kate were sitting on the front porch, talking to one of the farm hands. Noticing their arrival, Ned rose, bouncing on his toes playfully, successfully getting Denise to smile.

“Well, there’s my little darlin’!” He squeaked, helping her out of the car. “Did ya come to visit me, the cattle or the butterflies today?”

“Neither, actually,” Sherry smiled apologetically. “We came to see Doug.”

“He’s just inside.” Kate rose, smoothing her apron in front. “I’ll holler at him.”

Dale, one of the farm hands, dipped his head to Sherry in greeting. “Afternoon.”

“Same to you,” she returned. “Awful smell that fire left.”

Ned took Denise’s hand. “It’ll be gone in a coupla days.”

“Hey there.” Doug appeared, waving at Denise. “Your ear’s not actin’ up again, is it?”

The little girl looked at the ground.

“Come on inside. We’ll have a chat.” Doug gestured with his head.

The small hallway leading to Doug’s office was lined with periwinkle wallpaper. Doug’s makeshift office was the last door on the right, by the washroom. A peg board painted robin’s egg blue was telltale that the space used to be Doug’s childhood bedroom. Sherry sat on one of the adult-sized chairs while Denise took a smaller, wooden chair at a child-sized table, making herself at home coloring in one of the displayed art books.

“What’s goin’ on there, little lady?” he grunted to Denise as he sat, but addressed the question to Sherry.

“She had another bad episode,” Sherry answered quietly, as if it was an understanding.

“Oh?” Doug joined Denise at the table. He inverted one of the wooden chairs so he could lean his chest on the backrest. Observing her, he bent down so he could see her face. She looked up. “And what have we here?” He noticed Denise’s reddened eye. Gently tugging at her lower eyelid, he examined the red blotch painted across the white of her eye. He released her eyelid and looked at Sherry. “Nothin’ to worry about,” he frowned. “It’ll go away in a week or so.”

Sherry exhaled. “That’s a relief.”

Doug stood up and opened the door. “Why don’t ya go see my dad, sweetie?” he offered. “He’ll take ya to go see the butterflies.”

Denise didn’t wait a beat, she ran for the front door. Doug closed the office door, and sat opposite Sherry.

“Have ya had her in with Dr. Malcolm since?”

She shook her head. “No, but I will.”

“I’ll send him a report in case the eye clears up before ya see him,” Doug explained. “He should know about this.”

Sherry furrowed her brow defensively.

“Why? Do you think it’s serious?”

“The vessel break isn’t, no.” Doug said matter-of-factly. “But the fact that her emotional meltdowns are escalatin’ is.”

Sherry swallowed. “What do you mean ‘escalatin’’?”

Doug placed his left ankle on his right knee. “Was the break caused by screaming or exertion?”

Denise recounted the horrifying experience. “She held her breath and pushed hard. I was afraid her eyeballs were gonna pop out.”

“And she pulled more hair out?” Doug asked.

Sherry nodded.

“Dr. Malcolm will have more to say on this, but my guess is that it’s escalatin’ or comin’ to a head.” He scratched his chin. “She’s getting’ older and she may require more help, or she’ll soon get past whatever wall she’s put up for herself.”

Sherry digested the information for a moment. “So you think this could be a good
or
a bad sign then?”

Doug nodded. “I’d rather air on the side of caution myself, but I’m not a specialist.” Leaning forward, he patted her on the shoulder. “She’s healthy and happy, except when she has these episodes, am I right?”

Sherry agreed.

“Talk to Dr. Malcolm,” Doug urged. “He’ll have better input.”

Chapter 9

Sherry pulled into the fire station parking lot, noticing Martha’s car was there. She poked her head over, behind the passenger seat, addressing Denise. “Oh, look, Luke’s here too. You’ll have someone to play with while all the adults talk about borin’ stuff.”

Martha exited her car and both she and Luke walked to Sherry and Denise. “Feelin’ better?” Martha joked, referring to their drunken night at the bar.

Sherry rolled her eyes. “Fine.  Did you find the other fifteen dollars?”

“Shut up.”

Luke looked up at his mother, surprised at her use of the ‘sh’ word. “Oh, now, you go play with Denise, Luke.”

Denise took Luke’s hand as they ran inside the fire station.

“So I hear the new fireman and Jenny Martin have hit it off.”

“What?” Sherry was surprised. “He just moved here a week ago, how is that even possible?”

“Misery loves company,” Martha surmised. “They’re both divorced. Maybe he’s got a trouble-makin’ kid, too.”

“Who’s this?” Sarah said, eavesdropping from behind. “Who’s got a kid?”

Before Sherry could answer, Lina Groves’s head appeared out the side entrance. “You wanna come watch your kid, Sherry? We don’t need her poppin’ no veins today, ‘specially with all these people around.”

Sherry’s blood boiled. “How the hell did she find out?” she seethed.

“Find out about what?” Sarah asked.

“Is this about the grocery store?” Martha asked cautiously.

“How the hell did
you
find out?” Sherry gaped. “Is nothin’ that happens in my life sacred? Is my poor kid gonna be the laughin’ stock every time she has a bad day?”

Sarah butted in front of Martha, draping her arm around Sherry’s shoulders. “Now don’t you go gettin’ upset, sweetheart,” she soothed. “I’m sure Martha didn’t mean any harm.”

“I-I didn’t,” Martha pleaded. “I heard from Wendy in the bakery at the Food Mart,” she explained. “She was askin’ if Luke ever suffered somethin’ like that.”

Sherry shook her head in disgust.

“She didn’t mean any harm,” Martha insisted, trying to keep up.

“Hurry now,” Lina coaxed cruelly.

“Is that really necessary?” Sarah warned, glaring at Lina. “The child is no harm, she’d save a fly if it needed it.”

It took everything in Sherry’s power to stop herself from punching Lina’s lights out right there. As she passed Lina, she gave her an icy stare.

Inside, the fire hall was emptied of all trucks; they were lined up in the parking lot outside to save space in the garage for the meeting. On one wall was the fireman’s pole leading to the upper barracks and on the other wall was the lunch room where the kids were coloring. There was also a meeting room and a storage area on the same wall. All the doors were open to allow fresh air in on the hot summer day.

When they entered the fire station, Luke and Denise were sitting at a children’s table inside the lunch room, coloring in a book that said. ‘Fire Safety from Joe the Fire Safety Bear’. The room was partitioned off with a glass enclosure from the garage where the trucks were kept.

All the firemen wore blue cotton uniforms with ‘Fire’ written in yellow on the back of their shirts and ‘State of Arkansas Fire’ emblems sewn on their right bicep, their surnames were sewn on their left bicep. Alan, the Fire Marshall, was the only one wearing a vest with ‘Fire Marshall’ printed in plain white letters on the back.

There were no chairs in the hall, so when Alan noticed Sarah waddling in, he grabbed her an office chair from the meeting room, inviting her to sit. Sherry found Luke, Denise and a couple of other kids playing in the lunchroom, including Jenny Martin’s son, Kevin.

Karen Stainer walked in a moment later with her daughter, Lisa, who also joined the children. Karen noticed Martha and Sherry and joined them. “Better keep yer eye on that Kevin. You remember what I told ya about him,” Karen said to Sherry.

“He looks fine to me,” Martha said. “He just picked up a crayon that Denise dropped.”

“Keep your voices down, Jenny’s not far,” Sarah hissed.

Alan walked to the front of the room. Firemen were peppered throughout the crowd of townspeople.

Alan placed his hands in front, linking his fingers. “Thanks to everyone for comin’.” He cleared his throat. “I know y’all are worried about the fires that have been goin’ on lately, and that’s what we’re here to meet about, as you can guess.”

“We don’t have any way forensically at this time to determine who set them and why, but what we can tell you is that they’re bein’ deliberately set usin’ accelerants.”

Ned lifted his hand into the air. “Can ya tell us what kind of accelerants? Maybe we can figure out where they got a hold of such a thing.”

“Unfortunately they’re just usin’ gasoline and in the case of the one at the school, a can of butane.”

Ned shook his head in disbelief. “Jesus,” he murmured.

“So I think our best course of action in this case is to band together and form some kind of neighborhood watch,” Alan continued.

“What about a curfew? Would that work?” someone suggested.

“It would if the fires were bein’ set at night,” Alan answered. “But these guys aren’t too bright, and hopefully since they’re doin’ it in broad daylight, someone’ll catch ‘em.”

“So what do you suggest we do?” someone else blurted.

“Well, we all need to keep our eyes and ears open for any suspicious behavior, and report anything ya see that seems unusual, no matter how trivial.” Alan shifted his weight. “Now, I’ve spoken with Sheriff Douglas and he’s on board with this. The Sheriff’s department will not turn away any callers reportin’ any signs of unusual behavior.”

Sherry was listening to Alan’s speech with one eye on Denise. She was mesmerized by how kids communicated with each other. Sometimes they didn’t even have to speak, it was like they had ESP. Denise hadn’t looked up once for her mother to speak for her.

Suddenly, a familiar face entered the room. Lee Givens appeared in the lunchroom, offering the kids a snack of apple juice and chocolate chip cookies. When he placed the tray on the table, Denise’s eyes didn’t leave him. Sherry’s heart began beating a little faster.
Does she sense trouble? Does she need me?
Her first impulse was to excuse herself and go check to make sure everything was okay, but then she saw the ghost of a smile appear on her daughter’s face as Lee offered her some juice.

He bent down to her level to introduce himself. His hand extended to hers and she smiled, shaking his hand. Sherry’s hand went to her mouth as she tried to stifle a grin. Lee began talking to her and the other children, but he remained kneeling next to Denise. Sherry noticed his ease with the children and suddenly realized that he must have kids, how else could he be so natural with them?

It looked like Lee was explaining to the kids the rules to follow during a fire, as he was miming ‘stop’, and then he fell on the floor for ‘drop’, and then afterward he rolled around on the floor for ‘roll’. The children laughed at him, including Denise. Sherry couldn’t help but smile from ear to ear.

“So we’ve got a few extra eyes keepin’ watch on the streets. Sheriff Douglas has some rookies out patrollin’ until we get this straightened out,” Alan closed. “But in the meantime, everyone please keep myself and the Sheriff’s department informed if anything unusual is goin’ on anywhere. We’re all in this together and we don’t want to be pointin’ any fingers at anyone without good reason.”

“Well said, Alan,” Ned clapped. There was a brief applause.

Sherry left without waiting for her friends and entered the lunchroom. She smiled at Lee as she bent at the waist to speak to Denise. “Looks like you’ve made a new friend or two today.”