The Hull Home Fire (12 page)

“I’m sorry, love. If Mike has the gall to come to the house, don’t let him in.
I have nothing to say to my brother.” A second icicle cracked off. Dr. Kennedy
picked up his medical bag from the coffee table. “Tom, I never thought you were
this selfish.” He gave Henry a glance and, with a tilt of his head, signalled
him to go down the hall. Henry followed him into the porch.

“Thanks for the help in there,” Henry said. “That was a close call.”

Dr. Kennedy picked up his coat from the bannister. “You’re well aware Mike’s
determined to have it out with Tom. Maybe you should warn your mother that he’s
decided to do it tomorrow night.”

Alice came out from the living room. “You think on your feet, Doctor,” she
said, “which I really do appreciate.”

“Anytime, Alice,” he said, buttoning his coat.

“I don’t know what to make of Tom. He becomes a stranger at the mere mention of
Mike.”

“Not a stranger,” the doctor said. “A spoiled brat who demands his own way is
more like it.” He half grinned. “If you don’t mind me saying so, that is.”

“Like my father used to be fond of saying,” Alice said. “The truth at all
costs.”

“Mom.” Henry lowered his voice. “Mike’s coming by tomorrow
night.”

“Perhaps it’s just as well,” Alice said. “I want to get it over with.”

“I can come over for moral support,” Dr. Kennedy said.

Alice brightened somewhat. “The coward in me is happy to accept your offer,”
she said, and went to the kitchen.

The doctor put on his gloves. “Henry, make sure Tom stays off his feet as much
as possible.”

A LOUD CRASH AND A
squeal from the kitchen devoured the doctor’s
last words.

“Mom,” Henry cried out, and flew down the hall.

Tom attempted to stand and toppled over. “Alice, are you all right ?” he
yelled, pulling himself into a sitting position.

“Stay where you are, Tom,” Dr. Kennedy said before hurrying after Henry.

Alice lay sprawled on her back, fragments of broken plates scattered around
her. Henry bent down to help her up.

“Don’t touch her,” the doctor ordered. He checked her back with practised
precision. “Nothing broken,” he said.

“I was getting dishes down from the cupboard and didn’t see the water on the
floor,” Alice said.

“What’s going on ?” Tom called.

Henry helped his mother to a chair. “Don’t make a fuss over nothing at all,”
she said.

Tom crawled into the kitchen and gaped at the mess on the floor. “Alice, are
you hurt ?”

“Embarrassed is more like it. I was a bit clumsy.”

Dr. Kennedy took her pulse. “You’ve had a hard time lately, with Dot’s passing
and your husband’s accident.” He gave Tom
a severe look. “It’s a
wonder your wife is not huddling in bed under the covers with all the stress
she’s under.”

ALICE LOOKED AT THE CLOCK
on the night table. Three in the
morning. She had slept for an hour. Thirty minutes more than the night before.
The house was colder than Dot’s homemade ice cream. She slipped out of bed and
tiptoed into the hallway. Henry’s door was open. He flung his arm over the side
of the bed, throwing the covers down to his waist. About to move on, she heard
him utter a name : “Mary.” Alice walked quietly to her son and pulled the
blankets over his shoulders. “I’m sorry, Henry. Life isn’t always fair.”

Henry moaned softly. Alice moved back into the hall, making for her mother’s
room at the front of the house. The scent of lilacs, Dot’s favourite perfume,
washed over her as she sat in the rocking chair her father had made when she was
a little girl. “How do I live without you, Mom ?” The
creak
,
creak
of the chair disturbed the silence. “I was depending on you to help with
Mike and Tom.”

A car chugged to a stop outside the window. Alice looked to see who was about
so early in the morning. Flora Norris and Dougie hurried from their house into a
taxi. “Please, God, not Mary, too,” Alice cried into the quiet, sleeping
house.

ALICE SHOOK HER SON
,
ALMOST
hauling him from the
bed. “Henry, wake up. You have to go to St. Clare’s right away.”

Henry bolted upright. “What’s wrong ?” he said, his voice groggy. His mother’s
face was a blur among shadows in the dim light.

Alice tugged on his arm. “Get out of bed.”

“Is Dad all right ?”

Alice pulled the quilts down. “Your father’s asleep. Hurry up and get
dressed.”

Henry’s heart pounded against his ribs. “I don’t understand,” he said,
shivering, his toes bunched up on the cold floor. “Are you sick ?”

Alice pushed him toward the closet. “Flora and Dougie are on their way to the
hospital. I saw them from the window. There’s nowhere else they’d be going this
hour in the morning.”

Henry faltered a step and reached out for the wall to support him, a dazed
expression on his face.

“Get a move on,” Alice said. “I’ll call you a taxi.”

Henry hauled on his trousers. “No. I’d walk there before
the
taxi got here.” He pulled a sweater over his head and shot past his mother down
the stairs.

Henry shoved his foot into a boot, hopping on the other one until he lost his
balance and teetered. He sat on the hall chair to put on the other one.

“Don’t forget to let me know as soon as you hear anything,” Alice said.

Henry’s coat, wide open, flapped in the wind. The tails whipped behind him as
he raced down the road like a starved wolf on the scent of food. He wore neither
hat nor gloves. His thoughts centred on Mary. What if she was dead ? No, he
shouldn’t waste good energy on what-if. Gran wouldn’t approve of that. To keep
his mind vacant, he counted the crunch of his footsteps.

One, two, three, four. His heart pumped at the same pace. Five, six, seven,
eight. Longer strides. Nine, ten, eleven. Running. His heart galloped even
faster. The moon kept pace with Henry, the orb’s face animated. Laughing ?
Crying ? The answer depended on the person who gazed up.

Henry started for the hospital’s main entrance and travelled several yards,
when he stopped abruptly. “Damn it,” he grumbled, remembering the emergency
entrance was the only door open after hours. He retraced his steps back to
LeMarchant Road. Five people sat in the waiting room. A boy about seventeen with
a handkerchief to a gash over his eye was called into an examination room as
Henry hurried down the hall to the stairs.

Stop
, the moon seemed to say when Henry reached the door to Mary’s
floor. He stared out the side window at the white ball.
What if she’s
dead ?
it taunted.
You don’t deserve to see her.

Henry gripped the door handle. Why didn’t he have the strength
to pull the door open ?

“Are you all right ?”

Henry gawked at a nurse.

“You’re the young man I let see Miss Morris before visiting hours began.”

“H... how is she ? I know Mrs. Norris was called here a little while
ago.”

“I can only give out that information to family,” Nurse Franklin said. She
opened the door. “Wait at the nurses’ station and I’ll tell Mrs. Norris you’d
like to see her.” She walked down the hall, her white shoes squishing softly on
the newly waxed floor.

Henry stared after her. A pulse pounded in his ears, his palms so sweaty that
water dripped down his fingers. The young nurse behind the desk looked up from
her paperwork to give him a reassuring smile. Henry looked down the hall once
more. Nurse Franklin reached Mary’s door and disappeared inside.

Flora turned to the nurse. The heavy circles under her eyes blended in with the
dark shadows, giving her face a mask-like appearance. She held Mary’s hand.
Dougie sat opposite his mother, his arms flung over the side of the bed, his
head nestled between them. The candy he had bought for his sister sat unopened
in a red box on the nightstand. “I don’t want to leave her yet,” Flora
said.

“That’s not a problem,” Nurse Franklin said. “There’s a young man here asking
about your daughter. What would you like me to tell him ?”

“Please tell him I’ll be out in a second,” Flora said. She gently released her
daughter’s hand.

“Mom.” Mary’s eyelids flickered open, her eyes heavy and
unfocused. She stared through the haze of a long, deep sleep. “Where are you
going ?”

Flora leaned in close to the bed. “Don’t worry, love. Henry’s here. I’ll just
have a quick word with him and be right back.”

Mary coughed. A sound like the scraping of a rusty barrel. She grabbed at her
chest, her face contorted in pain.

Dougie looked at his mother with big round eyes.

“I’m all right,” Mary said. “I ache a smidgen, that’s all.”

“Dougie,” Flora said. “Go tell Henry I’ll be a minute or so. You wait with
him.”

Dougie hesitated. “Mary, are you really all right ?”

She smiled as best she could. “Would I lie to you ?”

A broad smile lit up his face. “Henry will be some happy you’re awake,” he
said, and hurried away.

Mary rubbed the side of her head.

“I can have the nurse give you something for the pain,” Flora said.

“Nothing works.” Tears spilled down the sides of Mary’s face to the pillow.
“Mom, I’m sorry to put you through this.”

Flora smoothed hair away from her daughter’s bruised cheek. “My sweet girl,”
she said softly. “This isn’t your fault. Does Henry know ?”

Mary turned her head to the wall. “I don’t want him to.”

“You should tell him.”

“Oh, Mom. Don’t you see ? That’s the last thing I want. Especially now he’s
going away.”

“Don’t cry, love. We’ll figure out something.”

Mary sniffed. “It’s too late for that.”

Flora sighed. It sounded more like a shudder.

“Mom, I want to tell Dougie in my own time. He’s had enough to deal
with.”

“I’ll tell Henry you’re awake and send him away.”

“No. I want to see him.”

Flora kissed her daughter’s forehead. “Are you sure you’re up to it ?”

“Yes.”

MARY FORCED HER EYES OPEN
when Henry called her name. He stood
over the bed. The stubble on his face made him look older, tired, defeated. “Why
are you here ?” she asked.

“Mom saw your mother and Dougie leave the house. We thought...” He gulped, not
able to finish the sentence.

“Mom asked the hospital to call as soon as I woke up.”

Henry sat in Dougie’s chair. The urge to take Mary in his arms and simply hold
her made him tremble. “Mom and Dad will be beside themselves when they hear
you’re awake and on the mend.”

“Henry, I’m real sorry about your grandmother. She wouldn’t leave until all the
residents were out.” Mary shuddered. “Honest to God, she didn’t suffer. The
smoke got to her before the roof fell in on us.”

“The doctor in charge of autopsies told us.” Henry moved his chair closer to
the bed. “Mary, when you’re well enough, we have to talk.”

She coughed, a soft throat tickle at first, then it grew into a steady hacking
that tensed every muscle in her body and choked off her breath. Sweat drenched
her face as she struggled to take in air, her face redder than a fresh
sunburn.

Henry jumped to his feet. “I’ll get the nurse.”

Mary stilled him with the touch of her hand on his arm. “No,” she whispered. “I
have something to say to you.”

“It can wait until you’re home.”

“We aren’t going out together anymore, Henry. There’s nothing
left to talk about.”

“Mary, please.”

“My life will go on just fine without you. Be a doctor with my blessing.” The
words were laced with an edge Henry couldn’t define. “I really do wish you all
the best.” She closed her eyes. “I’m tired. Please ask Mom and Dougie to come
back in.”

ALICE SAT IN THE LIVING
room wrapped in a blue-and-red checkered
quilt. Four in the morning and still no word from Henry. Her mind invoked the
worst images, so she threw off the quilt and lit the hall and kitchen stoves.
She returned to the armchair and looked out the window at the empty street. A
scattering of snowflakes floated down. Her eyes fastened on a large one and she
watched its descent to the sidewalk. She looked up to see Henry walk toward the
house. His head low, his collar turned up, his face was a hidden mystery.

Alice said a silent prayer.

“Mary’s awake,” Henry said as soon as he came through the door. “I was going to
telephone but didn’t want to wake Dad.”

Alice took his coat, shook off the snow, and hung it up. “I’ll put the kettle
on,” she said, and set about making toast for both of them.

Henry drank the steaming liquid, savouring the warmth as it slid down his
throat. “Mary’s coming along, considering all her injuries,” he said. “She’ll be
in hospital for at least another week.”

“I was in a state the whole time you were gone,” Alice said. “It’s like a gift
from heaven to hear a piece of happy news.” She put extra Carnation milk into
her tea. “Did you get a chance to see Mary ?”

“She gave me her blessing to go away.”

“That bothers you ?”

The wind howled, rattling in the chimney, slamming into the house. Henry banged
his cup down on the table. Tea slopped onto his hand, scalding the skin. “Will
this goddamned winter ever end ?”

“Your grandmother would have a witty reply to that,” Alice said softly.

The thump of crutches on the floor heralded Tom’s entrance into the kitchen. He
wore rumpled long johns and his hair was in disarray. “There you are,” he said.
“When I woke up and found the two of you gone, I had the fright of my life. What
are you doing up this early anyway ?”

Alice related the circumstances. “It’s going on five,” she said at the
conclusion of the story. “I might as well get dressed and start
breakfast.”

“Henry,” Tom said when his wife left, “what’s on your mind ?”

Henry looked at his father but said nothing.

Tom pulled his chair closer to the table, making it hop like a jackrabbit. “I’m
well aware that things have been strained between us lately. A fool could see
you’re twisting in the wind about something which has nothing to do with that
issue between us.” He looked at Henry with kind eyes. “That doesn’t change the
fact that you’re still my son.”

“Mary believes my applying for medical school proves I never really cared for
her.” He shook his head as if the words ate at his very core. “She says I used
her.”

“Only you know the truth on that score, son.”

Henry glanced out the window to conceal his surprise to his father’s response.
The light snow had become a steady
downfall. “I’ve given it a
lot of thought the last few days, Dad. Maybe Mary has a point.”

“Which is ?” Tom said softly.

“I didn’t realize how much she meant to me until the fire. She deserves better
than I gave her.”

“The way I see it,” Tom said, “words are about as cheap as horseshit lying
about on the street when feelings are involved.” He sat back. “Show Mary what
you think of her. That way she’ll see right into your heart.”

“That sounds like the kind of advice Gran would give,” Henry said. “I still
can’t believe she’s gone.”

Tom smiled. “Who do you think taught me how to be so wise ?” The sparkle left
his eyes. “Dot was one fine lady who should still be with us.” Static replaced
the music on the radio.

Tom glared at the brown box. “Turn that damn nuisance off.”

Henry obliged without hesitation. “Mary said Gran tried to save as many
residents as possible.”

Tom balled his hands into fists. “It’s Hull’s fault your grandmother’s dead.”
He breathed deeply to calm down. “I heard the stove caused the fire. How often
did Mary tell us Hull tried to fix it himself instead of getting a proper
mechanic in ?”

“Mr. Freeman did warn him often enough about that,” Henry said.

“If there’s any justice in this world, he should be charged with
manslaughter.”

Alice put the
Daily News
on the kitchen counter. “Dougie’s a lot more
chipper this morning,” she said with a smile, glancing at the front-page
headline. Her smile vanished.

“What’s the matter, Mom ?” Henry said.

“The hearing for the fire begins the twenty-first. I didn’t
expect it to be so soon.”

“The hearing will be tough,” Tom said. “We’ll get through it as a
family.”

Alice sat in Dot’s place at the table. She smoothed down the cloth placemat her
mother had made a few months earlier. “It’s difficult to imagine that I’ll never
see my mother again.”