by L. L. Akers
Puck’s eyes lit up. “I can burn it now! Where’s a lighter?”
“No,” Olivia told him firmly. “I don’t want you playing with a lighter.”
His shoulders drooped and he turned to walk away, kicking at a rock first.
He wasn’t asking to play this time. He only wanted to help.
29
The Farm
“Hi, Jenny!” Puck threw the hose onto the ground outside the barn and hugged his donkey, showering her neck with kisses. “I’ve missed you, girl. I had to be inside doing chores today. I was being helpful.”
He ran his fingers under her new paracord harness. “Your necklace looks good on ya,” he said, admiring his own handiwork.
He grabbed the handle of the yard wagon on wheels, and hurried through the yard, starting from the edge of the woods, all the way to the driveway, dragging the cart and loading it up with sticks, twigs, and brush, and bringing it the burn pile to dump several times. Jenny followed his every step, giving him encouragement, and Ozzie followed behind her, picking up any sticks that fell out of the wagon and running back and forth in front of Puck with them, begging for his attention.
Puck stopped and threw a stick for Ozzie a few times, until it felt like his hand had its own heartbeat, thumping and aching in rhythm with his real heartbeat.
In spite of his hurt, he was being very helpful, and hoped GrayMan would come out of the woods to see him. He stole glances over his shoulder as he strutted, proud as a peacock, back and forth and back and forth.
Elmer passed him, giving him a nod, and it felt like a good nod, to Puck.
Olivia and Gabby smiled and waved, which felt nice too, but he really wanted to see that nod and smile from GrayMan.
He worked himself into a sweat and then he was done, with nothing left to carry. The pile was very big though and he wondered if GrayMan would move it. If GrayMan didn’t need it, wouldn’t it be very helpful for Puck to burn it for him?
He looked around for anything else he could do and saw the hose still needed put away. He scooped it up and carried it into the barn and stood still for a moment, his eyes squeezed close. It was darker in there, with the bright sunshine glaring down outside. He opened his eyes, taking a moment for them to adjust. He closed them again.
He swayed, and quickly opened them again, laughing at the funny feeling.
Jenny kicked up hay and dust as she followed Puck around the barn.
Where do I put this?
There were no hoses to be seen. Everything hanging on the walls looked like yard tools or barn-stuff. He didn’t want to put it someplace wrong and GrayMan not be able to find it.
A door that led to a tack room was open and Puck poked his head in. The room was covered in cobwebs, but not dark like the rest of the barn. The tattered curtains were pulled back and the glass from the window was gone, letting the sun stream in. Someone had nailed a piece of plywood up, but it now hung from one nail, totally uncovering the window and letting in the elements.
Good thing it hasn’t rained, Puck thought.
One shelf held three plastic five-gallon food-buckets. Grayson had moved them in there that morning before starting his project with Jake, just until he could deal with the roof leak in the container, not wanting to trust all the food they had to left to a possible bad seal on a bucket not holding up to a roof leak. He’d split it up, taking the chance on rain in one place, but the chance of rodents in the other, as the barn had seen its share of rats. He’d left some in the basement of the house, too.
Puck stepped in and dropped the garden hose on a low shelf and turned to leave, when he spied the new window-toy that Jake and Grayson had built.
He walked around it, hoping to take a peek, but it was covered in a heavy, dark blanket.
He thought about it a long time…it wasn’t his toy…he knew he shouldn’t use it.
But if he did, it could be helpful to GrayMan for him to at least move it outside next to the burn pile. Then if GrayMan was too hot and sweaty when he finished his project and wouldn’t want to stand over a fire, maybe he’d let Puck do it.
Puck leaned around the door and peered out into the barn to see if it was still empty. There was no one there but him and Jenny, who stood just outside the tack room door, trying to shove a nosy nose into the doorway to see what he was doing.
“Hey, Jenny. Shhh...” He held his finger to his lips.
He reached out and lifted the blanket a teeny, tiny bit, using only two fingers, and peeked underneath.
The big frame rotated a bit, leaning toward him and making him jump.
Oh, how he wanted to play with this toy.
But it’s not mine…
He heard a noise.
He let the blanket drop back down, quickly pulling his hand away, and hurried out the door into the main area of the barn, only to find Jenny having a face-off with Bacon Bit. The pig was in the stall that she’d claimed, against Jenny’s wishes. Jenny didn’t like sharing the barn, at least not with a pig.
Puck patted Jenny on her flank, and stood in front of Bacon Bit’s stall. He stared at the fat little piglet, who stared right back with beady black eyes, poised to run. The men who’d brought her to the farm had scared her. She didn’t trust anyone here so far and wouldn’t allow anyone to love on her.
Puck had thought she was cute in her little tutu—what was left of it—until she’d stolen his ring.
GrayMan’s ring.
He wondered where she’d hidden it. Maybe it was in that straw that she was rooting around in right now. Do pigs hide things?
Puck wrinkled his nose. There was a lot of poop in that hay, and he’d seen it in her mouth. Maybe she’d swallowed it?
If he found it, he’d be a hero.
He’d be a helpful hero.
He smiled wide, and stepped into the stall, causing Bacon Bit to squall in fear and run between his legs and out of the barn, nearly getting nipped by Jenny as she ran by.
Jenny followed Bacon Bit at a trot, leaving Puck to his task.
Just before he dug in for the treasure hunt, the blanket slid away from the Fresnel lens, pooling on the floor beneath it, unknowingly to Puck. As he dug through piles of straw and shit, the sun inched down a bit, filling the tack room with even more light.
30
The Farm
The blazing sun crept closer to the horizon, and Grayson and Jake were just about to finish up for the day. They’d felled close to two dozen trees, dragged them out of the woods, and loaded them onto the tractor, which Elmer had driven to the road and spent an ungodly amount of time haphazardly arranging just right—to look as though they weren’t purposely arranged.
The driveway was now hidden from sight with a huge mound of crisscrossed trees topped with loose brush, and a passerby would see nothing but what appeared to be a rude dumping of logging and landscaping litter on a dead-end road already lined with forest.
They had a back way off the property to get Ruby out without being seen, too.
Grayson pulled off his gloves and blinked his eyes rapidly. “Do you see that, Jake?”
Jake gazed around him. “See what?”
“This.” Grayson held his hand out, catching a few tiny gray flakes that floated slowly down from the blue sky, almost like snow.
“That’s ash.”
The men looked up, and saw a column of smoke rising.
They ran.
Flames crawled out the window of the tack room, swallowing air and growing ever taller, screaming like a bitch in the wind. The red paint peeled off in colorful, curly strips up and down the outside wall, and where the fiery fingers reached and grabbed for the old wood, it first lovingly kissed it—and then took a bite out of it, chewing it up in fierce, hot jaws.
Between the spaces in the old wood planks, the barn glittered with a hundred tiny flames.
They ran to the other side, finding smoke billowing out of the wide double doors, blocking their view inside.
Olivia, Gabby, Tina and Tarra came
running, meeting them at the barn, everyone standing around in a panic, counting heads. Ozzie barked and crazily ran around their feet, nose to the air. A sudden breeze picked up, blowing a screen of smoke into their faces.
“Where’s Graysie?” Grayson yelled, over the roar of the fire.
“In the house with the Littles,” Olivia answered. “I checked on them just a few minutes ago. But where’s Elmer?”
They all turned as one, seeing Elmer headed down the dirt road on the tractor. Grayson breathed a sigh of relief, as Elmer was known to wander in and out of the barn all day long.
“Get all the extra hoses together. Connect them and bring me one end with a spray-nozzle, take the other end to Jake at the house! Run!” Grayson ordered.
Tina, Tarra and Gabby scattered, running to the garden and the wash tub area to do as he said and gather the hoses.
Grayson coughed, the smoke getting in his eyes. “Jake, you meet them there and connect the extra hoses to the outside faucet on the house. Since the house is already pressurized with the 12-volt RV pump, we’ll get pressure through there, but you’ll need to keep pumping the hand-pump to keep water moving into the tote. I’ll fight the fire on this end, and trade out with you when your arm gets tired. Hurry!”
Jake turned to go, when their attention came back to the barn as Jenny ran up from behind them, clip-clopping her heels toward the dark, open double doors, passing Jake as he ran toward the pump. He skidded to a stop, turned and grabbed her by the braided paracord harness that Puck had adorned her neck with. “No, girl! You can’t go in there!”
Jenny fought him, taking a nip at his shoulder and kicking in the air wildly.
“What the hell is wrong with this donkey?” Jake yelled. “You’re supposed to run away from fire, you stubborn thing!” He tried with all his might to drag Jenny away, but she dug her heels in, pulling Jake toward the barn with her instead.
Grayson felt his blood drain. “Where’s Puck?” he yelled to Olivia.
Olivia looked around, her eyes full of alarm. “I don’t know. We saw him about a half hour ago…” she looked at Gabby, who had just returned dragging the first hose from the garden.
Gabby handed the end of the hose to Grayson, and pointed at the barn. “He was going in there to put away the garden hose from the basement! Maybe that’s what’s wrong with Jenny. Is Puck in there?”
Elmer skid to a stop on the tractor, and hurried down, almost falling. “What in tarnation? Is the boy in that mess?” he yelled. He snatched off his hat and pulled a bandana from his head, quickly tying it over his nose and mouth, and hurried toward the barn. “Cover your faces!”
Grayson stepped in front of him and held a hand out in the air. “No, Elmer! You’re not going in there!”
“Well someone damn sure better go in there—and in a hurry—or I am,” he yelled over the crackle of the fire. “That kid’s gonna be a crispy critter if we don’t move fast!”
The fire snapped loudly, startling everyone, but Grayson held firm. “We don’t know that! Gabby, run to the house and look for Puck. Everyone else, hook up the hoses. Follow the plan… no use in someone getting hurt if he’s not even in there. Now, go!” Grayson ordered.
Olivia stood still, her hand over her mouth. Her eyes watered and she waved the smoke from her face, squinting to try to see into the barn, while Jake tried to drag Jenny the other way—but she was set on going into the barn. He couldn’t budge her.
Jenny honked and brayed, showing her teeth and wildly tossing her head. Kicking and dragging Jake an inch at a time, intent on meeting her blistering death, while he held on and tugged the other way.
“Olivia!” Grayson yelled. “Move away!” His head whipped around to Jake. “Jake, just let Jenny go!” Grayson threw his hands up into the air. “Get to the pump! Hurry before we lose the barn!”
Jake let go of Jenny, throwing his hands up in the air in frustration too, and the ass nearly tumbled backward onto her rump. She found her footing and rushed headfirst into the smoldering, swirling cloud, loudly braying and tossing her head.
31
The Farm
Gabby ran from the house, screaming all the way. “He’s not in here!”
Shivers went down Grayson’s spine and he threw the hose down. “Dammit! Puck!!” he screamed. He grabbed his wallet and his gun and tossed them on the ground, and pulled a bandana out of his pocket, tying it around his face as he stomped toward the double doors, the smoke coming out in thick waves to welcome him. “I’m coming, kid!”
He really hadn’t believed Puck was in there. Or maybe he didn’t want to believe it. They weren’t equipped for this…gone were the days of calling 911 and getting a fully-equipped fire truck, with men in fire-resistant suits and oxygen tanks who knew how to fight the fire.
They were on their own.
He’d denied to himself that Puck was in there, and now it might be too late.
A soot-covered nose broke through the cloud of smoke just as Grayson made it to the door, and with her came Puck stumbling along, being dragged by Jenny. He was barely able to stand upright, hanging onto her harness with one hand, and holding his shirt over his face with the other.
Grayson grabbed him and pulled him away from the barn, helping him to sit down against a tree, while the women slapped at the sparks on his clothes. “What happened, Puck? Are you okay?”
Puck coughed, trying to sputter out an answer, finally leaning over and vomiting. He swiped at his mouth and cleared his throat, coughing again.
Everyone gathered around him, Olivia dropping to her knees to check him for burns. She recoiled, wrinkling her nose. “What is that all over you, Puck?”
The boy was smeared with more than smoke and soot. His face, his shirt, his arms and his hands, held the shadow of smoke, but underneath, there was something more.
“Mama Dee always said if there was a fire, to stop, drop and roll. I was in Bacon Bit’s stall when I saw it.” He held up his good hand and Olivia cringed. It was covered in smelly, brown pig shit. “And look, GrayMan. I got your…” cough, cough… “ring back.”
Later that day, it was determined the fire was started by the Fresnel lens. They lost that, and all the food preps that had been moved into the tack room. The remains of the long-term food stored in plastic buckets were nothing more than puddles. The food that had been inside was a bit overcooked.
The tack room was a total loss, but the rest of the barn was mostly intact. At least it hadn’t been razed to the ground.
That didn’t lesson Grayson’s anger, especially when the boy could only answer his questions with a, ‘I just wanted to be a hero, GrayMan,’ and when he’d admitted to digging through pile after pile of pig shit just to find his ring, which made Grayson feel even worse in the face of his anger.
The facts were, they were now shorter on food—again—and could have lost Puck, Jenny and even Bacon Bit, too, whom still had yet to reappear.
Just the thought of losing all that bacon nearly made Grayson lose his mind.
He ranted and raved at the boy about his carelessness, until Olivia made him stop, assuring him that his point was made, and Puck had tearfully slithered off to the basement for the night, after tying Jenny to a tree. The barn needed a good airing out before she slept in there again.
Jenny received an extra special supper that night, picked fresh from the garden, and Olivia spoke kindly to her, thanking her for saving the boy.
The next morning, Grayson’s voice thundered through the house. “Where’s Puck? Anyone seen him?”
His question was met with shrugs. No one knew.
He’d met the sun early, the dawn-sky revealing the nights horrors. But the thing that was bothering him the most was Puck’s need to be a hero. He’d have to shake that notion out of the boy, or no one would be safe from his quests.
The front door opened and Jake stepped in. “Grayson, what did you do with that map I made to the camp? We gonna get started that way to check on Tucker and everyone?”
<
br /> “I don’t have it.”
“You were driving when I put it in the glove box of my truck.”
Grayson held his hands up. “I know; I remember. But I haven’t touched it.”
“It’s gone.”
Grayson stomped down the hallway to Graysie’s room, finding Briar and Brody alone in her bed, their blonde heads snuggled up to each other fast asleep.
He came back to the living room. “Where’s Graysie?”
Olivia stood up. “She’s not in there? Maybe she’s outside?”
“No, I’ve been all over the farm. She’s not out there. Jenny’s gone, too.”
Concern painted their faces. Graysie wasn’t an early riser, unless forced. She was still a teenage girl and would rather sleep than do most anything.
Olivia grabbed her shoes and sat down, shoving her feet into them as fast as she could. “Where do you think they are?”
Grayson shook his head. “I’d imagine Puck is off to that damn camp to be a hero…and Graysie went to save his ass. And by that, I don’t mean Jenny.”
32
Camp
Grayson, Jake and Elmer snuck through the woods, having left Ruby parked and hidden a few miles away. They had no idea what they were walking into, and didn’t want to risk their only means of transportation.
Grayson army-crawled on his belly, dragging his rifle with him, the last few feet before the edge of the woods. Jake was right beside him, and Elmer on his left with his shotty, painfully trying to keep up with the two younger men, his old knees and elbows protesting.
They eyeballed the camp. The concertina wire on the top of the fence promised a slow death, but the guard in the tower pointing an AR15 guaranteed to make it quicker.
