The dry grass crackled in the evening breeze. Pale green streaks at the base of the stems were all that showed it was alive, struggling against the heat of the summer sun and a rainless afternoon. Thunder rumbled in the distance, but the clouds refused to release their water. A large sign with a bear in a hat declaring the fire danger “extreme” glared out over the road. A car sped by, the taillights fading into the setting sun. A red glowing cigarette ember flicked out of the open window, landing on the dark asphalt. It rolled gently, swirling in odd circles until finally resting on the edge of the road. The parched breeze puffed, pushing the small glowing light into the grass. It only took a moment for the spark to ignite on the dry tinder, small flames hungrily feeding on the thirsty weeds. The spark of disaster had been lit.
***
I leaned back against the checkout stand, waiting for something to happen. I had straightened the gum, organized the gift-cards, and even wiped the conveyer belt twice, but there was nothing left to do except wait for a customer.
Conifer Grocery was the biggest grocery store for miles, but by industry standards, it was still a small store. It carried most of the items that the small town's inhabitants needed, and it was actually one of the local hotspots for teenagers to hang out. In the small town of Conifer, Colorado, the grocery store was practically the center of the town. It was a forty five minute drive east and out of the mountains to get to Denver, so most people just stayed in town. Today, though, it was dead quiet. I glanced at my watch. Only fifteen minutes left until the end of my shift. Fifteen minutes of torture. I adjusted my apron and smiled as one of the old regulars, Mr. Snyder, purchased a single loaf of bread.
"Hello there, Holly!" he bellowed. He was always overly friendly.
"Hey there yourself, Mr. Snyder. Lovely weather we're having," I replied.
He frowned, his gray bushy eyebrows knitting together. "Too lovely, if you ask me. I tell you, I've been living up here a long time, and I've never seen a winter with less snow."
I nodded to be polite, but I was pretty unconcerned. It had been unseasonably warm, and the lack of snow was disturbing many of the local residents. It was one of the most frequent things I was told while working the cash register.
"I tell you, in a mountain town like this, the snow is vital. The whole forest is like a tinderbox, ready to go," he added.
I agreed with him and finished checking him out. The old man thanked me and walked slowly to the exit, clutching his loaf of bread under his arm. I watched him walk out, wishing I could follow. Fourteen minutes left.
I didn't mind the warmer weather when I woke up to scrape the ice off my car to get to work, but I did keep hearing on the nightly news that if this heat wave continued, the summer fire season would be terrible. Summer seemed a long way away from now, though, so I was just enjoying the ice free car.
“Bored to tears yet?”
“Crying my eyes out.” I recognized the voice and turned back with a grin for my childhood friend. Andrew was one of the few bright spots about moving back home. He grinned at me, his blue eyes twinkling. He began piling food onto the belt in unorganized heaps. I quickly started scanning and sorting it, bagging it quickly as we easily fell into a conversation.
“Have you heard about Luke and Tyler's parents?” Andrew asked as he plopped down two gallons of milk.
“The divorce? Yeah. It sucks, but knowing Ray, I'm not really surprised. The guy works way too hard, and Barb was just too high maintenance to put up with that. I hear it was pretty ugly when they started figuring out how to split up their stuff, especially who gets custody,” I said with a grimace.
Andrew nodded. “Luke says the judge is going to rule tomorrow on what is going to happen to Tyler. Poor kid. Luke is hoping the judge will let Tyler stay with Ray, but it doesn't look good. They usually side with the mom in cases like this.” Andrew shook his head sadly as he put some cereal up on the belt.
“How is Tyler handling it?”
Andrew shrugged. “If it was possible for that kid to get any quieter, this did it. He was actually looking forward to starting high school next year. He was even going to be in the school play.” He paused, lowering his voice before continuing. “Barb wants to move to California to be with her parents. He's going to have to go to a big school. The kid is so shy that he won't ever come out of his shell there. Luke is really worried about him.”
“Luke has always been a better parent to him than his actual parents. The judge should let him stay with Ray just so that he can stay with Luke,” I replied as I bagged the last of his items, hitting the "Total" button on the register.
“You want to get together tomorrow with everybody for Luke? We can either celebrate or mourn. Either way he will probably appreciate the support,” Andrew said as he swiped his credit card through the reader.
“That sounds great. I'll ask around. Say hi to your mom for me.” I smiled as I handed him his receipt. I wished I could come up with something more clever to say to him. Something that would make him laugh, something that would give me a reason to spend more time with him. Since coming home, I hadn't been able to see much of him. He was always busy with work or something. He didn't know the real reason for me dropping out of school and moving home, but I hadn't seen him enough to be able to tell him.
“I'll tell her. She was supposed to come do the shopping today, but she didn't feel up to it.” Andrew suddenly looked years older, as though time had played a cruel joke by making him the parent to his mother. He shook his head, the age shaking off of him like water from a dog. “Luke should be back up from Denver by three o'clock, so how does three- thirty in the usual spot sound?”
“Sounds great. I'll see you then!” I answered a little too cheerfully. He didn't seem to notice as he picked up his bags and headed for the door. I watched him leave, feeling the butterflies dancing in my stomach at the thought of seeing him again tomorrow. When I could no longer see him through the door, I glanced back down at my watch. Only eleven minutes left...
"Holly, can you stop at the hardware store and pick up the parts I ordered?" my dad asked as I finished my breakfast the next morning."Sure- I'll stop there on my way to work. Do you want me to pick something up for dinner?" I answered, putting my empty bowl in the dishwasher."Nah, I'll be at work when you get home, so I'll make that rice thing you like and put it in the fridge." He sipped at his coffee, wincing at the heat."Okay. I'll see you later tonight then." I kissed his cheek as I grabbed my keys off the kitchen table and headed out the door.The car was cold, but it was a short drive to West Hardware, and the heat was barely going by the time I got there. The door chimed as I walked in, the smells of tools and wood filling the air. Andrew stopped organizing the shelf he was working on and hurried over to greet me. The store was empty other than the two of us."You here for the parts your dad ordered?" he asked, smiling."You must be a mind reader," I answered, returning his
A small flame grew, feeding on the dry grass. At first, it was more smoke than flame, but it grew quickly. Soon a trickle of flame spread into the deeper grass, finding a feast of dry tinder. It only took moments for the flames to spread along the roadside, incinerating everything they touched. The stars came out to watch the pretty flames dance along the side of the road, their silent light pale compared to the orange and red glow.***I got off my shift at 2:30, so I headed over to our usual meeting spot. I pulled my car into the back corner of the West Hardware Store parking lot and walked along the edge of the crumbling asphalt toward the main building. My feet followed a worn path along the wall of the building, my hand trailing behind me on the warm plastic siding. The back lot of the store was deserted, piles of lumber sitting under big blue plastic tarps. I was the first person there, so I claimed a spot in the sun, pulling back the tarp to sit on the wood.The sunshine was wa
Andrew set the last bag of groceries from the car on the floor of the kitchen, making sure he didn't track any mud into the house. Audrey, his mother, was busy putting them away as quickly as he brought them in. He began to help her, putting the milk in the fridge and shuffling around the contents to make room for the rest of the food.“Thank you for getting the groceries, Andrew. After last night's shift, I just couldn't get going today. Your dad used to do the grocery shopping for me-- he would always buy something special for you, remember?” She stopped for a moment, her eyes going distant, as she drifted into the past.“Yeah, I remember Mom. He would always get me a special cereal or dessert or something. How about I just plan on doing all the grocery shopping from now on? I can do it on my way home from work on Thursdays, and that way and you don't have to worry about it,” Andrew said as he put the eggs away.“Oh no, honey! I am the parent here. You shouldn't have to do that. I a
First, the fire tasted the grass, then a bush, jumping to a twig, to old pine needles, then winding up the base of the dying pine, feasting on the dry fuel. The flames danced and played, gleefully jumping from grass to bush, feeding and consuming without end. The light grew brighter the more it fed on the landscape, gray smoke beginning to cloud the stars.***“It is a shame to hear about that whole West divorce nonsense,” Mrs. Thatcher told me as she put her groceries up on the conveyer belt. It was a slow enough day that I was grateful to have her in my line. Mrs. Thatcher was the local busybody. She knew the gossip about nearly everyone almost as soon as it happened. She had lived in Conifer for as long as everyone could remember, and had been airing everyone's laundry for just as long.“I never liked that Barbara,” she confided in me as she put corn flakes up onto the belt. “Always too high and mighty for her own good. I never really understood why Ray married her, especially sinc
This was not working.I sat in a sea of crumpled paper, my chair a lone boat in an ocean of failed ideas. I had tried typing my ideas on how to get Audrey and Ray together on my computer, but it felt so impersonal. So, instead, I sat massaging my cramped fingers and staring at yet another blank page. I picked up the piece of paper and smashed it into a ball, tossing it toward the waste basket just to get it out of my face. I missed, and it bounced off my dog's head. Shadow raised her head to smell it, her big brown eyes curious, but upon finding it to be nothing other than frustrating ideas, she resettled.It had seemed so easy at first glance. Audrey and Ray had fallen in love once; I knew they could do it again. I had buzzed through my shift, sprinted home, and hopped on the computer for research. Fast forward two hours and I had no results. Everything I found was either too complex or too reminiscent of “The Parent Trap”. I had no idea how to get these two people to fall in love, l
A fox sniffed the air, turning its tail at the acrid smell. Rabbits’ noses twitched as they debated running or hiding from the implacable foe. A small black bear raised up on his hind paws, sniffing the air before lumbering away. Two deer hurried past the bear, the fear of flames gleaming in their dark eyes. The crackle and pop of the fire chased them all slowly, eating away at their homes without mercy.***I got to the restaurant early, sliding into a seat at the corner of the bar. I shrugged out of my jacket, hanging it on the back of my chair. It was warm in the restaurant, and I soaked up the heat after coming in from the cold. The night sky outside threatened snow, and the temperature was dropping quickly.“Hey, honey. You ready for tonight? I almost feel giddy, like I'm in on a big secret,” Britney said with a giggle as she slipped behind the bar. She handed me a diet Coke, leaning against the bar. I grinned at her.“I'm a little nervous, and I'm not even the one doing anything
Smoke trickled into the sky, blotting out the stars. Smelling smoke a young mother cradled her child closer to her breast. Two teens stopped their kissing to wonder why the sky seemed darker. A father checked on his young son, sleeping soundly in his bed, his brow pushed together as he worried for his family. A car stopped on the side of the road, flames reflecting in the dark windows. The glow of a phone lit the interior, the cry for help beginning.***I put on my warm winter boots and my nice hunter green wool pea coat. I decided that I wanted to look pretty, even if it meant I wasn't quite as warm as if I wore my heavy winter coat."You look nice," my dad said, watching me as I put on a hat and yellow scarf."Thanks, Daddy. Can you hand me my bag?""Sure. You're going out with Andrew tonight, right? When are you thinking you'll be home?" Dad asked nonchalantly. Since I had come home, he had been trying hard not to slip back into his protective ways; I really appreciated him lettin
The lake was beautiful. It had snowed for the first time in weeks the night before, and the world was a winter wonderland. The frozen lake stretched out under snow--covered hills, evergreen trees standing like silent observers dressed in white. A large log cabin style building gazed out at the plowed lake, the windows glowing cheerfully and welcoming visitors inside. Small figures glided and danced on across the silver lake, their joyful shrieks filling the air.I could see Audrey and Ray lacing up their skates at the edge of the skating area, the two of them laughing and joking like lovestruck teenagers. They looked so young and carefree as they wobbled out onto the ice.Andrew and I stood on the deck of the Lake House, watching the two adults play on the ice. Ray tried to show off and skate backwards, slipping and falling onto his butt. Audrey inched toward him, unsteady on her skates until she reached him. She stuck out her hand to help him up, but when he grabbed it, instead of he