“Molly, don’t do it,” someone called.
“I’ll be fine.” I didn’t feel fine. I had done some stupid things in my life, including jumping little ravines on the cliff tops, usually on a dare, but that was long ago now and I was out of practice for such stunts. I glanced down. My eyes were streaming from the smoke and all I could see was a blurred mass of upturned faces five floors below me beneath the drifting smoke. If I missed, it would be a quick death and maybe the girl had been right. Maybe it would be better than being burned alive.
I’m not usually a religious person—in fact definitely heathen, according to my mother—but I crossed myself hastily, just to make sure. “Jesus, Mary, and Joseph and all the saints, just help me this time, not for myself but for those girls,” I whispered, “and I promise I’ll start going to mass again.” Then I took a deep breath and leaped. Cold air rushed past me, then my fingers grabbed onto the brickwork, my legs scrabbled, and for a second I teetered on the brink. Another shriek behind me as I hauled myself over the parapet and stood, safe and secure on the other rooftop. I rushed to the lumber and came up with a plank that I thought was long enough.
“Catch the other end,” I shouted, standing it up and then letting it fall in their direction.
Hands caught it as it fell. It reached, but only just. I ran back and found a second one, a little longer. Then a third. We had a bridge of precarious planks. I stood up on the parapet at one end.
“Come on, I’ll help you,” I said.
Nobody moved.
“Look, any moment that roof is going to collapse and you’ll all fall into the fire. Is that what you want?” I yelled, my voice harsh and scratchy from the smoke. I rubbed at my eyes and tried to focus as I set my balance.
“Come on, hurry up,” Katherine shouted, stepping up to steady her end of the plank.
After what seemed an age one girl climbed up, looked down, shrieked, and hastily got down again.
“Come across on all fours then,” I suggested. “Crawl like a baby, only hurry.”
The girl tried again, this time hitching up her skirts and clambering across on hands and knees. When she reached safety she burst into tears. Another girl followed and soon there was a stream of frightened animals coming toward me on all fours. I shouted across to make sure they only came one at a time, as once the first girls had succeeded they all wanted to be next.
It was going well until Henny, the one whose panic had set off the whole thing, got to the middle. She looked down, then cowered, frozen on the middle of the planks.
“Henny, come on. Give me your hand,” I shouted. “You’re almost there. Hurry. The other girls are waiting.”
“I can’t,” she whimpered.
There was nothing for it. I leaned over the side until I could grab at her hands, then I yanked her like a sack of potatoes. On the other side a cheer went up and girls started coming across again. The fire bells came closer until I could see a flash of red beneath us, but I didn’t see how they could ever get a ladder up here. Hoses started spraying the lower floors, plunging us into clouds of billowing smoke that made the crossing impossible.
“Idiots!” Katherine shouted down. She started handing girls across to me, shouting at them to get a move on. It seemed to take forever. Every now and then there would be another crash, another roar as more of the building collapsed. My heart was beating so loudly, I’d swear you could hear it over the other noises. We’d never get them all across in time. I became a machine—reach out, grab girl, drag her to safety, reach out again. When I looked around behind me, the square roof was packed with girls. Only the last few remained on the other side.
“Hurry up, the roof’s going!” I shouted. “Run if you dare. Hold the plank steady, Katherine.”
We knelt on either end. A girl screamed as she ran across, but it was the same half-exhilarated scream that a roller-coaster produces. Another followed, then another. One girl froze. It was little Sarah and she held her lunch bag in one hand.
“Drop the bag, you’ll be unbalanced!” I shouted, but she didn’t obey. She just stood there, like a statue.
Sadie got up behind her and gave her a mighty shove that sent her staggering across to me. As I caught her she went sprawling. The bag fell from her grasp. Sheets of paper flew out over the parapet to be lost in the smoke. I caught a glimpse of a dress with a high frilly collar, another with a gentleman’s bow tie. I turned to look at Sarah but she had melted into the crowd and I had more important things to take care of.
Four more girls, then at last I held out my hand for Sadie and Katherine.
“Well done. You did a marvelous job,” the latter said as she stepped down gracefully.
“So did you.”