Bonfire

Gavin Stowell

“Where are you from, kid?”

I couldn’t hear the bearded man very well, so I asked him to say it again. He
lifted the blanket from over my head a little bit and I saw his smile. ”Where did
you come from?”
I pointed to the smoke.
“Well of course, but do you know which state you came from?”
I sat there for a minute, staring at the ground, brain turned off completely.
“Kentucky’” I finally blurted out.
“Oh my, that’s far away isn’t it?”
I nodded and slithered back under by blanket. I didn’t care how friendly this
stranger was, I didn’t want to see him, I didn’t want to do anything. I wanted to
sleep and wake up back home. I didn’t care how beautiful our hotel was, how
beautiful the beach was. I wanted home.
The truck bounced as he sat down next to me. “How’d you get out of there
so fast?”
I slumped over more. “I donno. I guess I’m a good runner.”
I could hear him sigh. “But it sure is a tall building.”
“I took the elevator.”
“That’s not very safe you know.”
“I know,” I agreed, even though I had no idea what he was talking about.
The elevator’s so fast. My tiny feet wouldn’t get me down a flight of stairs.
“Were you the only one in the elevator?”
I nodded slowly. “The ceiling fell on my parents.”
The man stop asking questions.
The two of us sat there for a while until I poked my head out. The carriers
were mostly out of sight, only the building and some other vehicles to light up the
coast. “Why don’t you just take the ocean water to put it out?”
 The man looked down at me with that same friendly smile. “I don’t think we
have enough men for that. Or a big enough bucket.” He let out a chuckle. I just sat
there staring at the hotel.
My heart skipped a beat and I asked, “Who set the building on fire?” I
quickly went back into my shell.
The beard straightened out and the man clenched his jaw.. He took a deep
breath and said, “A bad man.”
“Like Darth Vader?”
“I don’t think he was that bad. Not bad enough to build a Death Star. But
yes, still bad.” He lifted the blanket back up. “Do you like Star Wars.”
I nodded, looking away.
“I’m sorry. I won’t ask any more questions. Would you like anything?”
“Can I go sleep in the truck?
“Sure.” A little bit of relief fell over me.
I trudged back to the passenger seat, looking away from the fire the whole
time and passed out. After what seemed like a hiccup in time, I jumped up. I could
feel a stretcher getting rolled into the back. I swaddled myself and crept back to the
noises, beeps and bops and the hospital workers yelling over top of each other.
Suddenly something washed over me and I was moving uncontrollably
faster. The faster I moved the further the run between me and the back of the truck
seemed to get. I started calling for them, hoping that they were back there and in
their last breaths could give me a hug. I whipped around the corner and the bearded
man was pushing the rest of the stretcher in. I stared through my soaked eyes at
him. He looked down at me and slowly shook his head.
“No. They’re on that stretcher.” I defied, beginning to step away from him.
Bruce, I read the name stitched on his uniform, was getting closer to me,
trying to give me a hug as compensation for my parents.
“No. I have,” I was almost running from him at this point. “I have to see
them.”
I can outrun him. My tiny feet can get me anywhere if I try hard enough.
I was now sprinting into the blaze. Bruce was yelling at his fellow firemen to
go after me. I can outrun all of them. I felt my feet get bigger, my stride widen, my
arms longer and able to propel me faster. The new hair on my arms singed at the
ends as I entered the hotel. I was growing up.
 Up the stairs I went, it’s safer that way. The voices of the firemen faded as
the crackling wood took over, almost like serenity trying to deafen me. The further
I went up, the more the floorboards cracked, some falling out beneath my feet. No
turning back.
At last I had made it to the top, where I realized just how breathless I was. I
wanted to sink to the ground and pass out again, back home with my living parents
turning on the cartoons for me. I trudged towards our door, saying their names with
every last breath. I knelt down at the stack of ceiling piled in front of our door.
With my more mature, toughened skin I put finger-tips on the burning wood and
pulled up. I was going to save them, at the cost of losing a finger or two. But the
more I pulled, the less of them I saw.
They weren’t there.
I held my hands together in agony, beginning to sob. Everything was gone. I
hadn’t grown up. My feet shrunk back down, my stride got skinnier, the hair on my
arms had been completely burned off, and my skin went back to being sensitive. I
was about to ball up before I heard heavy footsteps coming my way. I ignored
them and stared at the hole in the side of the hotel, overlooking all of the lights
from the ambulances and firetrucks. People were at the bottom holding out a
trampoline, screaming at me to leave my world behind, or as they put it, “Jump.”
I stayed put for a moment with my world that was crumbling before the fire,
until the footsteps were right behind me, grabbing my sides and tackling me
through the hole, down towards the lights. My world was gone.
As we fell for what seemed like forever, I said my goodbyes to my world.
I’m not going to grow up immediately, I’m not going to change my world or bring
it back from the dead. All I can do is fall and listening to this stranger say in my
ear. “It’s gonna be alright. We’ve got you.”
As we plummeted, I wrapped my arms around him, scared for our landing,
scared of the fire and scared of the new world.
“It’s okay. It’s okay.”