by Sandy Nadeau
Ronnie turned back and looked at the flames consuming the west end of the home. Steve is in there? Fear engulfed her heart. He wouldn’t stop until he found the child. A million thoughts raced as she fought to stay in control of emotions.
The fear from her father’s loss reared up. Her stomach twisted as she envisioned Steve’s funeral. She couldn’t move. The increasing heat from the flames eating away at her friend’s home warmed her face, but dreadful cold seeped through her gear. Snapping, popping noises seemed to echo in the air. The pungent smell of the swirling smoke twisted. Carrying its scent to her nose. Fire, destructive, all-consuming fire.
George’s yell broke through her distracted thoughts. “Ronnie! Come on.”
She shook her senses back into place and moved. She took Kelly’s other arm and led her to the waiting ambulance.
Kelly sat on the pram, her fear-filled eyes stared, the tears causing rivers of soot as they ran down her face. Her coughs attempted to rid her body of the toxic invader. The smoke continued to roll like fog over a mountain top out of the windows and the door the attack line went in.
Ronnie, Kelly, and George all stood watching. Waiting.
A vehicle pulled in behind them. Kyle practically fell out and ran toward the ambulance.
“Ronnie.” Then he saw his wife. “Oh, my gosh, Kelly.” He enveloped her in a protective hug. Looking around the area, his eyes went wide. “Where’s Stephanie?”
Ronnie’s eyes teared up at the thought of Stephanie in that smoking fire all alone. Her jaw wobbled, but she squelched the emotions. She had to be strong.
Kelly pulled the mask off as she threw her arms around Kyle. “I couldn’t get to her. She’s still in there.” Wrenching sobs wracked her body.
Kyle pulled from her grasp and turned to run.
George stepped in front of Kyle and put a firm hold on his arms. “Let them do the job, Kyle. You know you can’t go in there.”
“My daughter’s in there. Let me go!” Kyle fought against his boss, but it was useless with the hold George had on him.
~*~
It seemed like hours, but only seconds had gone by. Precious, life-giving and life-taking seconds. Find Stephanie’s room. I’ve been to the house. Stephanie dragged me up to see her room. I know where it is. Find it. He crawled up the stairs along the wall. Her room is the first door to the right.
The door was closed. He turned the knob, but it was difficult to open. Something blocked it. “Stephanie!”
He shoved against it. The smoke quickly filled the room ending his ability to see. His hand discovered a blanket, but no girl was bundled in it. The blanket was what hindered getting the door open. Good girl! She’d blocked the crack under the door, just as her firefighter father had obviously taught her.
“Stephanie,” his voice sounded muffled in the mask. He called louder as he crawled around the room.
She wasn’t under the bed or anywhere on the floor.
“Stephanie, where are you?” The noise of the fire’s destruction, the trucks outside, the spray from the hoses hitting the house with pressurized water and the sound of his frantic heartbeat filled his ears. The gray-filled room made it impossible to see anything. “Stephanie.” He found her closet door. “Stephanie!” A memory teased in his brain. “See my princess gowns?” Stephanie had flung open her closet door and shown him her prized possessions. He turned the knob and she fell out against his arm. A blanket covered her small body.
“Uncle Steve?” the child’s raspy voice was music to his ears. She coughed and grabbed at him.
He hugged her against his chest, blanket and all. His heart was in his throat, and tears leaked a little. He’d found her. Thank you, God. Hunched over his precious cargo, he felt along the wall to get out of the room.
Brian put a hand on his shoulder, acknowledging he was right behind them. Steve turned and ran through the thickening smoke, desperate to get Stephanie to safety, to her frantic parents. He followed the hose line out the door. Brian burst out after him.
Another team battled the blaze.
Once outside, Stephanie continued coughing.
Thank you God. He removed the blanket that covered her. “You OK, Steph?”
“You saved me, Uncle Steve.” She flung her arms around Steve’s neck setting his helmet askew. She coughed more.
Tears welled up again. “You did well, Steph. You blocked that door just like you’re supposed to.” He swallowed, his heart back in his chest, his thankfulness to God so intense that he felt wrung out.
“I ‘membered.” Coughing robbed the rest of her sentence.
He handed her to a waiting firefighter.
Kyle ran up and grabbed his daughter up in a hug that was almost heartbreaking, his relief was so plain on his face.
The captain was right behind him.
“Where’s Troy? Did he get out?” Steve asked George.
“We can’t raise him on the radio. He’s still in there. Greg and Matt are in looking for him.”
Steve ran back towards the door. He tapped Brian with the back of his hand and waved him into the inferno.
~*~
A firefighter brought Stephanie over to the waiting ambulance.
Kelly threw off her mask and engulfed her daughter in a hug. She patted the girl down, as if making sure that every bit of Stephanie had made it outside.
Covered by black smudges, Stephanie coughed violently.
“Baby, baby, are you OK?” Kelly brushed the hair back from her child’s face.
“Uncle Steve saved me.” Then coughing took over.
Ronnie assessed the child for burns while the paramedic got the pediatric oxygen mask in place. Once she was ready, they loaded both mother and child into the ambulance, which then took off, siren screaming. Kyle followed in his car kicking up gravel as he chased after his wife and child.
Ronnie wanted to thank Steve for saving Stephanie but she didn’t see him. The whole area was lit from the emergency flood lamps. She scanned the entire scene, not seeing Steve at all.
George spoke into the radio and requested another ambulance.
Ronnie rushed up to George. “Where’s Steve?” Panic began to well up in her gut.
“He went back in after Troy.”
Her head whipped toward the still burning house.
Thick black smoke rose and whirled around the tree tops intermingled with snaking flame.
“No. Please God, not again.”
21
Steve led as he and Brian searched for Troy on their hands and knees.
Troy’s carelessness would enrage the chief. The man’s future as a firefighter was probably doomed. Being reckless in such a dangerous situation, never accepting protocol, this would do him in. If the fire hadn’t already.
Steve was as angry as he was fearful for Troy’s life.
Water sprayed over them. Blackness overpowered the path ahead. The radios sputtered with talk as the other search team went up to the second floor. Steve and Brian crawled their way to the kitchen, staying close together in the search.
Steve desperately tried to remember the layout. He hadn’t been in their house for long the day they all went skiing. There was an open stair well to the lower level of the house. He felt for the opening. “I’m going down!” he hollered to Brian. At the bottom of the stairs, Steve bumped into a leg.
Troy’s helmet no longer protected his head and the mask sat cock-eyed on his face.
“Troy,” he yelled. Checking for consciousness and finding none, Steve quickly set the mask back in place so Troy would get air.
“Let’s get him out of here,” Brian said.
Steve hoisted Troy over his shoulder.
Brian led the way as they rushed to escape the burning home.
~*~
Memories flooded Ronnie’s brain. The day they got the news about her father’s death. Visions of her Steve-decorated apartment. Steve tossing her into the snow on the slopes. The fun they had with little Stephanie, the ice-skating, all
jumbled together in her mind.
He had to make it out. She could not bear to lose another. Why was she in this business? Why had she allowed herself to care about a firefighter? She knew better. The chance of losing him to a fire had better odds. It could happen this night, right before her eyes.
Ronnie chewed her lower lip, and her hands worked around each other in a wrestling match of fingers. Pacing in the driveway proved futile, but she had to keep moving. Tears began to escape. Traitorous tears that proved she had indeed fallen back in love. It could not be denied. Yet it had to be. Especially now.
George moved close. “Ronnie, I can’t tell you not to worry, but trust his abilities. He’s a great firefighter. He’s not alone, and I don’t mean just Brian being with him.”
“My dad wasn’t alone, either.” Her voice came out less than a whisper and she was unable to remove her gaze from the burning home.
George reached up and put an arm around her shoulders.
She barely felt the comfort.
His radio crackled and he stepped away as he spoke back into it.
She stood, waiting for some sign, some relief, the endless torment in her heart pulling at her stomach, turning it inside out. Her knees began to wobble. Tears flowed freely. Her ears no longer processed sound—as if someone had pressed the mute button.
Thick white smoke now rose into the tree tops instead of the black killer. White or black. It didn’t matter.
She knew all too well any color of smoke could be deadly. Life went into slow motion.
Crews on the outside sprayed water onto the dark, rough openings that used to be a section of roof over the back corner of the house. One hose line lay in the doorway, occasionally moving side to side with great effort as if a giant python struggled to eat its prey.
The smoke began changing as it poured out the front door. The billowing killer roiled and parted.
Ronnie’s heart rate kicked up higher with hope.
A foot broke through the curtain of smoke first. A firefighter flung over another’s shoulder. Who was it?
She took slow, heavy steps forward, straining to see.
A pair of firefighters broke through the heavy veil emerging into the clear air.
Paramedics with their gear and a pram were suddenly running past her.
All the noises returned. She ran toward them. Training kicked in. She had to help.
Steve. It had to be Steve.
The injured firefighter was being lowered onto the gurney. Paramedics fumbled against the soot blackened man who had carried him out. His helmet was knocked off.
“Steve!” She ran to him.
He stepped back allowing the paramedics to take care of the patient.
Her arms flew up and around his neck awkwardly finding a way around the mask, air hose, and tank which rested on his back.
~*~
“Ronnie,” Steve wrapped an arm around her. With the other hand, he pulled off the mask and dropped it. His breaths were short and rapid after carrying Troy out of the home.
Sobs racking her body.
The noise of the diesel trucks running, the hoses spraying, shouts of the crews battling the blaze, all of it seemed to fade away.
“I’m OK.” He stroked her hair gathering it at the base of her neck raising her face to his. He cupped the back of her head and looked in her eyes.
“I was so scared…” Her gaze went back to the fire, then returned to him, as if trying to determine if he was really standing there.
“It’s OK.” He lowered his face to kiss her lips and calm her heart.
Her hands came up against his chest stopping his motion. She stared into his eyes again, then pushed away. She turned and ran back to the truck.
Troy started coughing.
Steve stared at Ronnie moving away from him, and then returned his attention to the paramedic as he administered oxygen to Troy. “Is he all right?”
“Took in a lot of smoke, but I think you got to him in time. We’ll get him to the hospital and see how he does.”
Steve fell into place at the back end of the pram, helping to push it through the sloppy snow toward the waiting ambulance. He assisted them in loading the patient into the back, then stepped away. He looked at the rescue truck. Ronnie’s face was lit from the surrounding lights in the side mirror. Her arm rested on the door frame with her hand partially covering her mouth.
He didn’t know what to do. He understood she had been scared. But he was fine. Obviously. Why would she still be shaken up?
The ambulance lights came on as it pulled out onto the road and took off with Troy. The siren pierced the air, circulating colored lights bounced off the landscape of pine trees.
The smoke from what was left of the house was very light now as the crews finished spraying. The cleanup poles with hooks reached from the inside, pulling down the now charred ceiling, followed by debris coming out the window. Time for mop up.
His fellow firefighters needed his help. He headed toward the half shell of Kyle’s home. Reality for them now meant no Christmas, no decorated home, little Stephanie’s presents would be completely gone.
From Kyle’s and Kelly’s interaction with everyone, they were thankful they were all alive. Especially their daughter.
Thoughts of when she’d fallen into his arms out of the closet made his eyes moisten again. She’d followed her father’s instructions precisely, and her own actions had more to do with saving her life than his did. He’d simply gone in after her. He walked toward the door, thinking one day, he’d train any children he had to do the same. Despite her emotionally charged distance at the moment, he thought of the ring he still had hidden at home and dared to hope Ronnie would be their mother, too.
~*~
Relieved, Ronnie watched him walk to the house. She was done. Now for sure. This relationship ended as of right now. She would not take the risk of seeing something like this again. She couldn’t face the possibility of losing him like she’d lost her dad. This had been too close to home for her.
I am with you. Trust Me.
What did that mean?
I will not forsake you.
She shook her head.
Where the team worked, Steve was helping to carry smoldering items out of the house.
Matt climbed in the driver’s seat. “I guess we’re done here. Ready to go?”
“Huh? Yeah, ready.” She reached over her shoulder for her seat belt and buckled in.
22
Ronnie flipped through a magazine in the waiting room of the hospital, but she couldn’t really see anything on the pages. Only the memory of smoke pouring out of a home played in her mind. When she closed her eyes, she could envision Steve crawling, searching for sweet little Stephanie. The killer smoke could have claimed them both. Smoke that held the man she found herself once again falling in love with. A tear tried to escape from the corner of her eye. She flicked to the next page almost ripping it away.
They’d been told Troy would be under observation for the next couple of days.
Steve thanked the doctor.
She knew this would happen. Sure, he made it out. This time. What about the next time? She’d tried very hard to protect her heart. She had built up a solid, unbreakable wall after her Dad died. Then Steve worked his way back into her life and had to start taking her comfortable wall apart piece by piece until it couldn’t hold anything back any longer. Why did she let him in? She knew better.
Steve leaned up against the wall, staring at the door. A couple of times he looked her way, but she did her best to avoid his glance.
This had to end. She couldn’t fall back into the trap that would lead to nothing but heartache.
Kyle stepped through the doors with a big smile on his face. “Hey, you two. Kelly will have Steph out here in a minute. They’re both fine.”
Ronnie dumped the magazine onto the table in front of her chair. Rushing over, she hugged her friend. “Oh, Kyle, what a relief.”
“They’ve had Steph
on oxygen all this time, but everything looks clear in her lungs. She’s feeling better. Thanks to you, Steve, she’s going to be all right.” Kyle stepped away from Ronnie, reached out to shake hands with Steve, pulling him into a one-armed man hug. “I don’t know how I will ever repay you for saving her life, buddy.”
Steve hugged him back. “Hey, man, glad we got there when we did. She’s a smart little girl. She did everything right. Well, except that closet thing.”
“Yeah, we’re going to work on that ‘get out the window’ deal. If we have a home. Were you able to save any of the house?”
“Not much, Kyle.”
Ronnie put a hand on Kyle’s shoulder. “We’re all there for you guys. If you need help, you know that both departments will do whatever is needed.”
“I know. Thanks. We’ll figure it out. I’ll call our insurance agent and see what can be worked out.”
The doors opened again and Kelly came out, carrying Stephanie.
The little girl’s face lit up and she wiggled to get down from her mom’s arms. She ran to Steve, who scooped her up into a hug. “Uncle Steve! You saved me. You’re my hero!” She kissed his cheek, then her arms tightened around his neck, making his face go red.
Ronnie couldn’t help but smile.
Steve held the girl with one arm, rubbing her hair with his other hand. “I’m so glad you’re OK. I need my skiing buddy.”
“Yeah.” Her head bobbed up and down as she leaned back in his arms to look at him. Her nose wrinkled up. “You stink.”
Steve laughed, sniffing deeply at the strong smoke smell that radiated off him and making her laugh.
Ronnie reached out for Kelly and they hugged. “Kelly, if I can do anything, please, just ask. I’m so sorry about the house.”
“I assume it’s gone…”
“Pretty much.” Ronnie hated to tell her.
“It’ll be a challenge, but just knowing that Stephanie is OK, that’s all that matters to me. Stuff is stuff.”
“I admire your attitude.”
“Remind me of that when I actually see the place and burst into tears.” Kelly squished up her expression.
~*~
