Seeing Red (35 page)

The word
shop
came out like a cry, and I heard a cry come out of me, too.

I heard the sheriff behind me, talking to Mr Dunlop like he was a little kid. “Come on with me, Ray.”

“Red?” Beau called.

“I-I’m coming, Beau!” But first I ran to Rosie and pulled her up. “Come on!”

She clutched on to me and we flew out of the house right after Sheriff Scott and Mr Dunlop.

Beau had the door open for us, and I saw his cap ducking back into the driver’s seat. Me and Rosie piled into the seat beside him and he screeched off, on the tail of the patrol car, making me slide over and squish against him, and Rosie against me.

“Is it – is it burned down, Beau?” I said into his arm.

He moaned. “I don’t know. Your mama called the fire truck and was calling over to the Dunlops’, too, because I told her you might could be there, but no one answered, and the fire truck’s not there yet, and your mama’s trying to hose it down but she has to get up in the tree and she don’t know how to get him down—”

“Get who down?”

“J. He’s scared of the fire, so he crawled up that tree by your window and he’s hiding up there, crying. I tried to help but I can’t climb no tree, and that’s when your mama said to come get you so you could get your brother – Rosie? Are you all right?”

I hadn’t even noticed Rosie was crying. Now I saw the patrol car’s flashing lights shining across her face, making her look scared and red one moment, and blue and dead the next.

I struggled to get my arm unpinned from between us and put it around her. “It’s all right, Rosie. Everything’s going to be all right.”

But even as I was saying it, I didn’t see how anything could ever be all right again.

CHAPTER FORTY-SEVEN

The Tree

A fire engine pulled up at the same time we did. The sheriff’s siren was screaming along with the fire truck’s. The whole place was flashing lights and shouting people and crackling walkie-talkies yelling words and numbers into the air. Against the darkening sky, bright orange flames came out of the corner of the shop by the trees.

I jumped out Beau’s side of the car because Rosie wasn’t moving, and I had to get to the shop.

Beau was turning around in circles, tugging his hair. “Miz Porter? Where are you? It’s Beau. What you want I should I do now?”

I grabbed him and stopped him spinning and looked into his eyes. “Beau. You got to take care of Rosie. Okay?”

He let go of his hair. “S-sure, Red. I can do that.”

Another fire truck with screaming sirens pulled up. I went running towards the shop, but a fireman stepped in front of me. I tried to skirt around him, but he grabbed my arm.

“I have to help!” I yelled.

“You can help by standing back.”

I looked up at him. “I have to save the shop.”

“We’re doing all we can.”

I didn’t like the sound of that, and when I looked between the trucks and got a better view, I saw what he meant. The whole place was up in flames.

“Do something!” I shouted.

Right then, a huge hose started spraying the flames, but there was a big
boom
and a ball of flames shot up, right through the water.

I heard shouting all around me and everything looked like it was wavering because of the shimmering walls of heat. And smoke. I could smell it, feel it in my eyes, and even taste it. And it made things look a little blurry, so I felt like I was in a nightmare. People scurried around like nobody knew what to do, except someone had to be holding that hose because it was still spraying, even though the flames were still going.

Mama was pulling on my arm. “Red! You’ve got to get J down!”

She turned my head towards the house and pointed to the old pine outside my bedroom window. I couldn’t see J at first. Then I saw him, much higher up than I thought he could go. And he was screaming. My name.

Mama pulled me towards the house as I looked back through the smoke and flames to the shop. My eyes were stinging so much they were watering.

“Red!” J wailed.

“I’m coming, I’m coming.” I wiped my eyes and climbed my tree as far as the roof before J screamed. I couldn’t help looking over at the shop, since I had a better view now. It was mostly gone. I had to look away and blink hard. I turned back and took another step up.

“Quit it, Red! You’re shaking the tree! It’s gonna fall!”

“It’s not going to fall, J.”

“Yes, it is, too! Quit shaking it!”

I stopped climbing and stood real still so he wouldn’t feel anything. “Okay, I stopped. But you’re going to have to get down by yourself, then.”

“I can’t! Thomas ain’t showed me how to climb it yet!”

“You got up there, J, so you can get down again.”

“No, I can’t!”

“You waiting for Thomas to come save you?”

There was silence for a moment, then a real quiet J said, “Can he?”

“What do you think?” I said, wishing Thomas would magically appear, too. “You know what he’d say, right?”

“You can do it?”

“Yup.”

“But I can’t!”

“Of course, you can.”

“No, I—”

“Just listen, will you? First, look at the branch you’re holding on to and grip it tight with both hands.”

“What do you think I’m doing?”

How could that kid be sassy even when he was scared? “Second, you take one foot off the branch it’s on—”

“But—”

“—and while you’re still gripping on with both hands, you feel around for the next lower branch with your foot, okay?”

“But, what if I fall?”

“J, you ride your bike around with no hands! You got two hands on that branch. You mean to tell me you can’t fish around with one foot for just a second?”

He didn’t say anything for a moment. “I’m real good at bike riding.”

“Yes, you are.”

It was quiet and I listened to the wind rustling, water squirting, and firemen’s voices.

“Do you really think I can do this, Red?”

“I know you can.” I thought of what Daddy used to call him. “You can do it, Bamm-Bamm. You’re a Porter, aren’t you?”

“Yes, sir,” he said, talking like I was Daddy, and in spite of everything I smiled.

“Once you find the branch, you test it and make sure it’ll hold your weight, while you’re still holding on with both hands, okay?”

“Okay.”

I finally saw some movement. “How’s it going?”

“I found it.”

“So now you put your other foot down there and once you’re settled, you take one hand off the branch and grip another branch that’s a little lower.”

He started whining, but I cut him off and kept talking to him until, one step at a time, he made it down almost to my level. I stepped onto the roof so he could get down the rest of the way.

“Just a couple more steps to go, J.”

“It’s Bamm-Bamm,” he said. He stepped onto the roof next to me and he broke into a grin. “I’m telling Thomas I climbed this tree!”

“Well, thank goodness!” Mama said. “Now come on down, both of you!”

Beau lifted J down from the roof and handed him to Mama, who scooped J up while she laughed and cried at the same time.

There was a huge
crack
from the shop, and I saw the steps fall away from the office. The metal roof had melted onto the office area and the office was up in flames. There was still a lump where the office used to be, the foundation, I figured.

“Red,” Mama called up to me. “Please come down now, okay?”

“In a minute,” I said, unable to take my eyes off what was left of the shop.

I sat down on the porch roof feeling like I’d been beaten. I guess the firefighters felt the same way because they were sitting on the trucks or on the ground staring at the smouldering shop. It was like we were perched all over the place at some strange funeral.

I heard Beau’s voice below me and I saw him standing next to Mama and J, still holding on to Rosie’s hand. “That’s what I think we should sing, Miz Porter, that hymn what was on the shop wall. I remember the words.” Beau took off his cap and started to sing.

Buried in sorrow and in sin

At hell’s dark door we lay,

But we arise by grace divine

To see a heavenly day.

I leaned over to see better through the branches of the pine. The headlights from the fire trucks lit up what was left of the shop. I stared at where that desk used to be and caught a glint of something. Something I’d never seen before. Something that shouldn’t have been there at all. I swear my heart stopped.

CHAPTER FORTY-EIGHT

Freedom Church

“There it is!” I screamed. “It’s right there! I can see it!”

The black-and-white specks glinted in the strong lights of the fire trucks. Speckled granite. The altar of Freedom Church. Right there. In our shop. Under the office in the back. Where Old Man Porter’s desk used to be.

“Red!” Mama called. “Stop jumping on the roof, you’re going to fall off!”

“What is it, Red?” Beau asked.

“The altar!” I yelled. “I found it!”

I let Beau lift me down off the porch roof, but as soon as my feet hit the ground, I ran for the shop, gravel flying behind me.

“Red! Come back!” Mama screamed.

“Stop him!” a man yelled. “It’s still hot!”

Arms were grabbing for me, but no one could catch me. I flew straight to the stone. When I got right up to it, I could feel its heat. I stared at it. George Freeman’s altar. Buried right here. And now raised from the dead.

I stood there for I don’t know how long, but I realized there was no one around me, no one telling me to get back or pulling me away. I turned around and squinted into the headlights of the fire trucks and patrol car, not able to see anything for a moment. And then I saw why no one was moving.

Mr Harrison was standing there. With another man, looking richer and fancier than him. The rich guy was holding some papers under his arm.

The whole place had gone silent. It was like everyone knew it was bad news.

Beau was holding Rosie’s hand, while his other hand was pulling on his hair. Rosie’s big eyes stared at me and her heart lips quivered. Mama was holding J and looking like she was about to cry. And Miss Miller was next to Mama, which surprised me until I remembered that she was supposed to be having supper with us tonight. It seemed like a whole lifetime had gone by since this morning.

I looked down at the smouldering pieces of wood, melted metal, and charred tools that were strewn all around me. I took a deep breath and walked slowly, listening to my crunching footsteps breaking the silence, not exactly knowing what I was going to do, but knowing that everyone was watching and waiting for me to do whatever it was.

I walked all the way up to Mr Harrison and faced him. Pointing back to the rock, I said real loud, “That’s the altar of Freedom Church.”

“There you are, Mr Cataldo,” said Mr Harrison, elbowing the fancy guy next to him, “that’s what you can put on the plaque over your fireplace.” He chuckled.

Mr Cataldo wasn’t laughing. “I didn’t know there was a church here.”

“Aw, that wasn’t a church,” said Mr Harrison quickly, “it was just an old car repair shop. See? It’s burned down now – that’s one less building you have to get rid—”

“It was a church!” I yelled. “It was a historic church from more than a hundred years ago!”

Mr Cataldo looked at Mr Harrison and then at me.

“It’s true!” I said. “That’s the church that belonged to Miss Georgia’s grandaddy. That’s her family’s church. Freedom Church. And that’s her family’s land.”

“No proof of that in the county records!” Mr Harrison said with a nervous laugh.

Miss Miller stepped forward. “Excuse me,” she said to Mr Cataldo, “but there’s a lawyer on his way here right now.” She looked at her watch and peered down the road. “He should already be here. I believe he has some evidence to support this boy’s claim.” She smiled at me.

Mr Harrison shook his head. “It’s a nice story, but that’s all it is. A story.”

“It is not, and you know it!” I said.

Mr Harrison started talking back to me, but Mr Cataldo put his hand up. “If it’s all the same to you, I’d like to hear what the lawyer—”

We all heard the Mustang speed up the road, crunch over the gravel, and we watched a dazed Mr Reynolds step out. “What – what happened?”

“Fire,” someone said, as if it needed an explanation.

“Mr Reynolds?” I asked, running over to him. He just stared at the shop, or what was left of it.

I shook one of his lanky arms. “Mr Reynolds!”

He startled and looked down at me. “I found the altar of Freedom Church! It was under our shop the whole time. Doesn’t it belong to Miss Georgia and her relatives? That means we can’t sell this land, right?”