Forged by Fire (15 page)

“He's dead,” the police officer cut in.

“Dead?”

“He died trying to get out of the apartment.”

Gerald thought back to the haze and confusion of the fire. He remembered stumbling and falling over something—or was it someone? “Where did you find him?”

“He was lying right by the door,” the officer said. “We think he slipped—he had on new boots with slick soles—”

And steel toes,
Gerald thought.

“—and he must have fallen trying to run out of the apartment.”

“Running out on you,” Monique admitted slowly.

“I think,” Gerald said slowly, “that Jordan is the reason we're still alive. I fell over his body on the way out of the door. That put us on the floor, where the air was breathable, and let me find the steps.”

“And let us find you,” the firefighter added.

Monique began to weep. She wept not for Jordan, whose spark was finally snuffed out, but for all of the flames of pain and hatred he had caused.

“May I ride with them?” she asked the paramedic when she could speak again.

He nodded. “Maybe you should ask them,” he added, pointing to Gerald and Angel.

Angel, whose face was covered with tears, held out her arms to her mother. Gerald, relieved that they were alive and Jordan was not, smiled and nodded.

As Monique climbed into the back of the ambulance, an orange ball of fur leaped in front of her.

“Tiger!” Angel smiled with relief. The cat snuggled close to her and glared at the paramedic, who just smiled and pretended not to see it. The sirens screamed as they rode to the hospital.

“How do you like the music I picked for our ride downtown?” Gerald teased Angel.

“It's fine for the movie soundtrack, but I couldn't dance to it.” She smiled and drifted off to sleep.

With the flames and fear behind them, Gerald and Angel rode together to the music of the sirens which had decorated their past and would forge their future.

For readers who would like further information or who need help, the following numbers are provided as a place to start:

1-800422-4453
National Child Abuse Hotline

1-800-799-7233
National Domestic Violence Hotline

BOOKS BY SHARON M. DRAPER

Tears of a Tiger

Forged by Fire

Chapter One
of
Forged by Fire
first appeared as a short story in
Ebony
Magazine, January 1991, under the title “One Small Torch.” It was the first prize, $5,000 winner in the 1990 Gertrude Williams Johnson Literary Contest.

Atheneum Books for Young Readers
An imprint of Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing Division
1230 Avenue of the Americas
New York, New York 10020
www.SimonandSchuster.com

Text copyright © 1997 by Sharon M. Draper

All rights reserved including the right of reproduction
in whole or in part in any form.

Book design by Anne Scatto / PIXEL PRESS

The text of this book is set in Goudy Old Style.

Printed in the United States of America
14 16 18 20 19 17 15 13

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Draper, Sharon M. (Sharon Mills)
Forged by fire / by Sharon M. Draper.—1st ed.
p. cm.
Companion volume to: Tears of a tiger.
Summary: Teenage Gerald, who has spent years protecting his fragile
half-sister from their abusive father, faces the prospect of one final
confrontation before the problem can be solved.
ISBN 0-689-80699-X
ISBN 978-0-6898-0699-5
eISBN 978-1-43913-206-7
[1. Child abuse—Fiction. 2. Stepfamilies—Fiction. 3. Brothers
and sisters—Fiction. 4. Afro-Americans—Fiction.] I. Title.
PZ7.D78325Fo 1997
[Fic]—dc20
96-2763