Slow Dance in Purgatory

19

“GREAT BALLS OF FIRE”

Jerry Lee Lewis - 1958





Maggie grabbed her glasses and her sweatshirt and flew down the stairs. Shad had sounded freaked out. Did he really say he was inside a locker?? Maggie couldn’t imagine that, but he had definitely said the school.

“Aunt Irene? I’m taking the car! Be back in a few. I’ll call you!!!” Maggie raced through the kitchen, not stopping to see if it was okay with her aunt. She didn’t have time to explain or plead her case if her aunt didn’t want her to go.

She jumped in the Caddie and was out, heading down the road, less than five minutes after Shad called. She punched in Gus’s number as she drove, knowing that to leave him out of the loop if Shad were really in trouble would be foolish.

“Gus?..... Hi, it’s Maggie. Do you know where Shad is?” Maggie listened impatiently as Gus gave his typical warm greeting and eventually got around to answering her question.

“Shadrach told me he was goin’ to a party. He seemed real excited about it, too. I was glad for him. Seems like maybe he’s finally making some more friends.”

Maggie was instantly suspicious. “Who? Who invited him to a party?”

Gus seemed a little taken back by her sharp response. “Well…. let’s see. I think he said some of the football players were gonna be there. Derek….that was the kid’s name he mentioned. Derek. Do you know him, Miss Margaret?”

“Ohhh, man,” Maggie moaned. Did she know him? Did she ever.

“Gus, I got a call a few minutes ago from Shad. He said he was at the school. I didn’t hear everything. His phone was beeping like an old man’s hearing aid – um, sorry, no offense, Gus. Anyway, I think he’s in trouble. I’m heading down there right now.”

Gus hemmed and hawed for a minute, and then he sighed, “Thank you for calling, Miss Margaret. Will you give me a call if there is trouble? Shad might not want me swoopin’ in. For all we know the party went bad, and he went to the school to shoot some hoops. ‘Course if there’s a bunch of kids down there I need to know.”

Maggie agreed and clicked off, resisting the urge to floor the old car and get to the school. She had a bad feeling, and it was getting worse the closer she got to Honeyville High. As she turned onto the winding lane leading to the school, Maggie gasped and cried out. Black smoke was billowing from the roof and some of the upper windows on the east side.

She hit redial and when Gus picked up she yelled into the phone.

“The school’s on fire!! I’ve got to find Shad! Call the fire department!”

“Miss Margaret, wait….don’t go in the school! Wait until help gets there –“

Maggie clicked her phone shut. She didn’t have time to debate the issue. If Shad was inside and stuck in some locker, which is what Maggie thought he had said, she couldn’t wait. She roared to a stop and leaped out of the car, not even bothering to shut off lights or take the keys from the ignition. She ran for the side entrance, key in hand, thankful that for the moment all the smoke seemed to be concentrated on the east side. She was through the locked door in seconds. She ran into the school, calling for Johnny.

“Johnny? Johnny! I need you!” Maggie ran down a long corridor. The smell of smoke was thick in the air, but the halls were still relatively clear. Her legs felt like rubber, and fear and desperation pounded in her chest. She ran to the section of hallway that housed the freshmen lockers.

“Shad! I need you to yell as loud as you can so I can find you!” Maggie tried to control her breathing, listening intently for any shouts or moans or any sign at all that Shad was trapped nearby.

“Maggie!” Johnny was suddenly there, and Maggie went limp with relief, allowing herself to be pulled into his strong arms as he immediately started to propel her toward the exit she had entered moments before.

“Maggie, the school is on fire. You’ve got to get out. I don’t know if I can stop it!”

“Johnny! No. Listen to me!” She gripped Johnny’s forearms, demanding that he stop and face her. She would have to talk fast; she could see by his face that he wouldn’t brook any argument.

“Shad is here in the school, and I don’t know what happened or why, but he’s here, and I have to find him.”

Johnny cursed, whipping around in a circle, his head lifted as if trying to catch a scent. “The fire and smoke are messing with my abilities. It’s as if all the energy is being drawn into the fire.” He turned back to Maggie and began herding her back towards the door. “You have to go, Maggie. I promise you I will find Shad, and I will get him out. Everything is going to be okay, but you’ve got to get out of here.”

Maggie had no interest in being soothed or coddled. She wouldn’t be leaving without Shad. Suddenly, the enormity of the situation descended upon her. Shad wasn’t the only one trapped in the school. Johnny would find Shad. She had no doubt about that. But he wouldn’t be able to leave. If the school was destroyed, what would happen to Johnny? She stared up into his beloved face with dawning horror.

“We have to find Shad, and then we have to get this fire out!” Terror pulsed through her, far worse than before, and she was sprinting back down the hall before Johnny could even react.

“Maggie! Stop. Please!” Johnny swooped down on her, obviously still able to convert some energy into speed. “You can’t go running off without knowing where he is, or worse, whether or not the next corner you come to will lead you straight into a blazing inferno.” He took a deep breath, clearly trying to rein in his need to grasp her in his arms and physically expel her from the school to the safety beyond. He knew she would just turn around and come right back in. He had to find Shad and get them both out of the school – now.

“Stay right here….please! If you love me at all, just wait here. Let me find Shad. If I focus I will be able to feel him through this smoke, but I need to hurry. We don’t know where he is.” What he left unspoken was that it might be too late.

“Go!” Maggie cried. “I’ll wait, I promise.”

Johnny was gone immediately.

“I won’t leave without either of you,” Maggie vowed, sinking down to the floor. The air was clearer down there, and Maggie coughed a little, praying that Shad wasn’t anywhere near the east end. She had only been waiting a couple of minutes when, from the corner of her eye, she saw a flash of movement. Was it Shad? Had he broken free on his own but been disoriented enough by the smoke that he was heading further into the building instead of out to freedom and fresh air?

Maggie called out, but the figure didn’t pause. She didn’t stop to consider that she wasn’t keeping her word.

“Hey – come back! You’re going the wrong way!” She raced after the swiftly moving form, the smoke getting denser and denser as she neared the rotunda. She reached the place where the hallway split, leading up a flight of stairs to the third floor or down a flight to the main. The smoke would be thicker the further she rose – surely the person she was following wouldn’t ascend the stairs into thicker smoke. She ran down the stairs and out into the open circle of the rotunda. She hunched down and struggled to see where the elusive figure had gone. He didn’t move like Shad….could it be that Derek and his friends were still in the school? Someone had put Shad in that locker, that was for sure. Were those voices? It sounded like someone was arguing above her. The rotunda made the sound echo oddly. Maggie wasn’t sure where the voices were coming from, but they were boy’s voices, and she thought one of them said Johnny’s name. Shouts were heard and someone yelled, “Look out!”

A gunshot rang out above her. Maggie screamed and covered her head, peering up through the haze to find the source of the shot. Three figures stood on the highest balcony. As she watched, two of them whirled and, in movie-like slow motion, fell over the balcony, limbs tangled like a human spider. The figure next to them stepped forward, watching as the ground rose up to meet them.

Maggie screamed again, horror and nausea washing over her in ghastly waves. She crawled to where the figures lay, one bleeding profusely, one his head bent oddly, staring off at nothing. Déjà vu washed over Maggie.

“Johnny?”

This was all too familiar. She reached her hands out to stem the blood seeping from the wound on the bleeding man’s chest. Her hands passed through him without resistance. This was Johnny, but it wasn’t. This wasn’t really happening – not now. She was watching a re-run play out before her, complete with original cast members long since departed. Johnny lay there gasping, his eyes on his brother, not seeing her at all. He spoke his brother’s name and cried out in wrenching despair. He was close to the end. It was almost more than she could bear, even knowing what happened next.

“Noooo! I won’t go. You can’t make me leave,” Johnny fought against death’s grasp.

A figure suddenly loomed over them, and Maggie cried out, staring up into the face of the third person from the balcony.

“So where did he go?” the boy spoke to her, and Maggie scrambled backwards, stunned.

“Where did you go, Johnny?” The boy poked at the mirage in front of him. Johnny’s image did not respond to the query. The boy who spoke was no longer part of the re-run Maggie had seen unfolding from the upper balcony. He wasn’t simply a ghostly imprint playing his part in a decades old slide show. He wasn’t a ghost at all, but a spirit…a living entity without a physical body. There was something very familiar about this boy. He was handsome in a clean-cut, freshly scrubbed, GQ kind of way. He looked at Maggie, and his mouth twisted cruelly. She knew that smile.

“Roger?!” She trembled, not believing her eyes.

“I think Uncle Roger would be more appropriate, don’t you, Margaret?”


Johnny worked his way up to the third floor. Shad’s terror worked like a homing beacon once he had finally been able to zero in on it. There was an odd energy pulsing through the school, though, and Johnny kept getting flashes of strong competing emotions. Fear, hate, love, desire, and jealousy rolled over him without rhyme or reason. It had been harder for him to find Shad as a result. The emotions he was buffeted by weren’t his own emotions. It was almost like the school was coming apart at the seams, and as it splintered and broke, all the absorbed tragedy and teenage angst of five decades was being released like thousands of mini grenades popping and sizzling through the air.

The smoke on the third level was thick. Johnny was unaffected, but he knew Shad would not be. He hoped the kid was still holding on. Focusing all his might ,he began popping locker doors open – the going was slower than usual, but he found Shad within seconds. Shad was almost unconscious and was dripping wet with perspiration, but he was still breathing. Shad didn’t even put up a fight when Johnny slung him over his shoulder. He was disoriented, and his eyes were half-closed. Thank goodness for small miracles. He could just imagine trying to rescue the Shad who had ripped him up one side and down the other a while back.

Johnny moved quickly down the stairs and out into the hallway where he had left Maggie. The smoke and heat were almost unbearable, and Johnny cursed desperately when he realized Maggie wasn’t there. Reaching out, he felt for her, tuning in to the frequency that sung in him constantly. He felt her immediately; her grief and fear almost buckled his knees. Why hadn’t she stayed put? Torn, he paused, considering his options. He had to get the kid out now. Shad was in bad shape, but Johnny didn’t want to physically throw him through the door. Goodness knows he would love to carry him out himself.

“Miss Margaret! Shadrach? Margaret!” The cry was coming from the direction of the west side entrance. Johnny recognized the voice. It was Gus. Gus could help him. He ran toward the voice, praying that this would be one of the days Gus would be able to see him. If his theory held out, he would. Gus seemed to be able to see Johnny only when Gus’s own emotions were high and his reserves low. This moment should qualify.

Gus almost collided with him, unable to see either him or Shad through the hazy gloom. Gus rebounded in fear, his eyes rocketing between Johnny and his unconscious grandson. Johnny transferred the precious cargo from his shoulder to Gus’s. The old man wobbled a little and then straightened determinedly, holding up under the weight. With a grateful nod, he acknowledge Johnny and rushed back for the door he had just come through.

Now Johnny had to find Maggie. He called out to her, flying through the blackened hallways, feeling the heat of the school coming apart around him. He blasted into the rotunda, and his heart nearly collapsed. Maggie lay in a heap in the middle of the floor, occupying the spot where he and Billy had once lain, in the exact spot where Billy died and Johnny had unknowingly pled for Purgatory. Her arms were wrapped around something Johnny couldn’t see; it reminded him of the day he had observed their embrace in the costume room mirror…a beautiful woman holding nothing.

“Maggie…oh, no…Maggie! Not here, baby. Not now.” Johnny sunk to the ground beside her and scooped her up in his arms. Her head lolled against his chest and violent coughing shook her.

“Roger told me I could be with you. That’s what I want. I want to stay with you. Lay here with me Johnny.”

A sick cold hate curled its way through Johnny’s gut.

“Roger?” He knew what her response would be. His Maggie, his girl who could see ghosts, had had a visit from Roger Carlton. It seemed the vindictive bastard wasn’t ready to let it go, even still. Did he really seduce this innocent girl with deadly lies, all for revenge?

“I saw you, Johnny. The night Billy died. I saw you and Billy fall. Then I saw Roger. He was young again. Aren’t there any old spirits in heaven?” A fit of coughing gripped her, and Johnny looked frantically at the front entrance. Where were the firemen? Hadn’t Gus known Maggie was still inside? Maggie seemed unconcerned with her safety and continued on, coughing and struggling for breath as she spoke.

“Roger asked me where you were. Then he told me that I.... could be like you and that we would be together.” Maggie’s voice was raw, but it was her words that echoed with torment and filled him with anguish.

“He lied, Maggie. That sick bastard lied. If you stay here, you die. You go the way of the angels – the place where people like you and Billy go when this life is over. If you die today, Maggie, I will be without you, and you will be without me. We won’t be together, Maggie. People like me and Roger – I think we go somewhere else.”

A huge crash shook the rotunda, and glass shattered and popped above them from the heat. Johnny had to get Maggie out of the school. Honeyville hadn’t had much of a fire department fifty years ago, and he was guessing she still didn’t. If there were firemen here, no doubt they were concentrating their efforts on the East end, hoping to keep the fire from spreading and consuming the whole school. They wouldn’t succeed. The fire burned like a raging disease, and he could feel the school succumbing. When it finally fell, so would he.

Maggie was clinging to him, and her breathing was labored. He had to get her out, now.

“I love you, Johnny,” she whispered hoarsely. Her eyes were rimmed in red but they spoke the truth. “I won’t leave you.”

“I love you too, Maggie. Never forget that. Hold on to me now, baby.” With a guttural war cry, Johnny gathered every ounce of energy available to him and blasted through the front door, Maggie held securely in his arms.

Maybe it was the force with which he hurled himself into the void, but he was not repelled like before. He felt the swarm descend on him instantly– that writhing black mass of something Other devouring him as he pushed into the barrier between Purgatory and hell that had held him bound. He clung to Maggie, to her sweetness, to her goodness, and to his pure intent to save her life at all cost. He kept moving. He felt the splintering, all-consuming blackness curl around him and within him. Just one more step…and then one more…he felt himself disintegrating and his thoughts scatter into nonsense as he surrendered himself to the demands of death. But still he pushed forward, with her cradled against him, until there was only oblivion.


Chaos was rampant beyond the shaky perimeter the local police and fire fighters had erected. The ten kids who were responsible for starting the blaze had been detained and were in varying states of shock and hysteria. Parents had been called, on-lookers blocked the roads, and every Honeyville policeman was present, and their flashing lights adding to the surreal atmosphere of tragedy and mayhem. The police were trying to question the teens while maintaining order of the growing crowds lining the perimeter. The local fire crew and their small fire truck shot a steady blast of water into the fiercest section of the fire, and the trucks and crews from nearby towns had arrived to help, but there weren’t resources, training, or manpower sufficient for the inferno before them. Amidst all of this, Irene Honeycutt Carlton cried and begged for someone to help her niece, who was believed to still be inside the school.

Gus Jasper had tried to go back inside for Maggie after he had wobbled outside with his grandson on his back, but he’d been forcibly restrained and had fought his detainment until he’d collapsed and had to be carried to the ambulance where his grandson was already being treated. So Irene continued to plead with whomever would listen - soot and tears leaving grimy grooves down her cheeks. But her cries fell on helpless ears.

The police and firemen were doing all they could. No one had actually seen Maggie inside the school or even entering the school, although her haphazardly parked car was a good indication that she was there. At Irene’s insistence, several attempts had been made before the firemen had been called out and all manpower was concentrated on fighting the fire. The fire chief couldn’t continue to send men into a building of that size and scope, with no idea where to look, while fire blazed around them.

To those gathered watching the high school go up in flames, it seemed as if the girl simply appeared through the smoke and ash. It was late – almost one a.m. on Saturday morning, but the sky was lit with a red glow and filtered orange light shown through the haze. A shout went up among those closest to the perimeter.

“There’s someone there!”

“Look! There’s someone coming out of the school!”

“Is it two people?”

For a moment the crowd was still, all eyes peering through the smoke that camouflaged the figures that appeared and then were lost again in the haze. Then the shouts went up again.

“Someone is being carried!” The waves of heat created a mirage that made the girl look as if she were floating above the earth or being carried in the arms of providence. And then she was down, tumbling across the ground as if she had been tossed from the bowels of hell.

“She’s fallen! Someone help her!”

Three firemen closest to the unfolding drama threw down their hose and raced toward the crumpled form. Just as they reached her, the whole right side of the school collapsed in on itself, shaking the entire structure and sending the huge beams that ringed the center rotunda domino-ing over like toy blocks. The firemen scooped up the unconscious girl and ran for their lives as heavy debris and fiery ash rained down around them.