Chapter 2

Ben sprays the hose on the tree almost as if he was waiting for the fire to start. God dammit Clara, pull it together.

“That was weird. I guess there was a small amber on that tree” he said shaking his head.

“I guess so” I said looking away, knowing full well that wasn’t the reason the tree caught fire.

“Well, I’ll leave you to whatever it is you were doing.” He said.

“Thanks for your help, I am not sure what I would have done without you.” I said.

“I’m glad I got here when I did before the whole forest went up in flames.” He joked.

“I have a petty big mess to clean up now” I said looking at all the burnt trees around us. This is going to take me days, maybe even weeks to clean up.

“Do you want some help?” He asked looking around at the burnt chaos all around us.

Even though I could use the help his presence made me nervous and I didn’t want to risk lighting anything on fire again, especially in front of him so I said “no I can handle it.”

“Are you sure?” He asked skeptical.

I can’t say I blame him. I’m pretty small but I have some tricks up my sleeve.

“Oh yeah, I’ll have this cleaned up in no time” I said smiling.

“If you say so. Take care and stay away from anything flammable” he joked.

“Nothing flammable for me for at least the rest of today” I joked back.

He smiled as he gets back in the truck. He rolls down the window and said “maybe I’ll see you around sometime, if you need anything I’m right down the street.”

“Maybe sometime” I waved, but I knew full well it was a good idea to stay away from him and my mother would never approved.

I couldn’t help the small part of me that wanted to see him again, even though it was a bad idea for me to get involved romantically with someone right now or ever.

He pulls down the long driveway, this time without the sirens on, disappearing into the trees as if he was never here.

I get to work cleaning up the burnt debris, piling the branches beside my fire pit. Most of the burnt trees are still standing and will hopefully come back to life, but the shed is beyond repair.

An hour passes and the sun is beginning to set. The rest of the work will have to wait until tomorrow. Once the sun goes down the forest is pitch black and I don’t want to be working out here in the dark.

I decide to start a fire to burn the pile of wood I cleaned up.

I focus on the fire pit to try starting a fire. I see a few sparks, but the fire doesn’t catch. Funny how the last fire I started almost burned down an entire forest by accident and now I can’t even get a spark to light.

I hear my moms voice in my head “why don’t you try harder.”

I sigh, I am such a failure to my family. I’ll probably be out here forever at this rate.

I refocus my energy and it takes a few tries, but I am finally able to get a small spark started in the fire pit. The wood started to crackle lighting up the burnt branches.

It takes me a couple of hours, but I finish burning through all the wood from the pile. Once the fire is almost out, I decide to turn in for the night.

I head inside hanging a protection jar above the closed door. You can never be too safe when you are in the forest alone.

I head into the small kitchen, I turn on the tap and pour glass of water. I haven’t eaten anything all afternoon, so open my cupboard looking for a quick snack, I settle on some crackers and nuts.

I see my bed from the kitchen and the exhaustion from all the work I did finally sets in. My fat orange cat Archie is already fast asleep in the corner of the room on a chair, he doesn’t even flinch with all the noise I am making. It doesn’t surprise me; he is not bothered by most things. I am glad to have his company out here.

I finish my crackers and water and head into my bedroom leaving the door open a crack behind me.

Shortly after I lay down, I feel Archie jump up and lay down on my pillow beside my head. I wasn’t looking forward to the phone call I would have to have with my mother tomorrow. She was going to be pissed. What else was new?

I push the thought of her yelling at me away and it doesn’t take me long to fall into an unrestful sleep full of unsettling dreams of a man whose face I don’t recognize, but my soul yearns for.