“I’m sorry,” I say to Frankie as we enter the trees. “I should have listened to you.”
“You made it back safe. That’s what counts,” he replies. “It’s just . . . there’s some things you can’t ever unsee.”
I know what he means. Long as I live, I’ll never be able to forget Mr. Madliner sitting against that oak stump and that bullet hole in his head. It will stay with me forever.
“You knew there was something awful there, didn’t you?” I ask.
“There wasn’t going to be anything good. That’s for darn sure.”
The path drops under us and I feel cold creek air on my face. The hairs on my arms and the back of my neck stand up. We are coming to the creek, and I think to myself that this is our shield against the fire. Apple Creek is our armor. A wall of water.
Apple Creek won’t stop a bullet.
The thought shoots out of the mist. Strikes me square in the chest. If Caleb killed his father, then somewhere out there in the dark is a boy with a gun. A gun and a twisted mind. He might be anywhere by now. Tracking along some distant highway to a faraway place or waiting for us in the reeds at the bottom of the path.
The gentle sound of rolling water reaches my ears. Apple Creek is just ahead. Dad and Sam murmur to each other about the direction of the wind. Sam says it’s against us and likely to remain so.
Dirt turns to sand under our feet. Dad and Sam lead us into the shallows where the water is just a few feet deep. The creek is no wider than a stone’s throw here. Anna May hikes up her skirt for the crossing.
My thoughts are chattering to themselves inside my head: Did Caleb Madliner really kill his own father? If he didn’t, that left just one other person who might have . . . and she was lying on the couch back at Stairways.
We come out of Apple Creek into Knee-Deep Meadow and a terrible quiet.
There is no singing of crickets in the long grass. No bullfrog lullaby or symphony of cicadas. But faint on the warm wind there comes the gasping breath of fire, the snickering of flames in the thickets.
A blanket of orange fog rolls, ghostlike, toward us. The firefighters spread out in a long line and, at a signal from Chief Coop, they bend and begin to dig, their spades biting into the earth, opening the gash in the meadow that will become for us our trench and first line of defense.
Behind us is Apple Creek. Behind that is Stairways.
Chapter 23
THE BATTLE OF APPLE CREEK
Never thought I’d go to hell. This night, hell comes to me.
Knee-Deep Meadow is on fire.
The honeysuckle is on fire.
The trees along Hopkins Road are on fire, burning like torches.
The butterfly weed burns, spewing sparks and choking black smoke. And beneath all that smoke, stealing across parched earth and dry grass, is a wall of hideous yellow flames that marches toward us, roaring like a wild animal, whipped by the eastern wind that blows and blows and won’t stop blowing.
The firefighters dig their ditch from Hopkins Road in the south to the field’s far end in the north, anchoring it at a bend of Apple Creek. The first fingers of fire rush against it, slip along its edges, devouring the high grass, furiously seeking some way across. From behind us in Apple Creek, the thump-thump of a pump starts, and now that hose is giving answer to those awful flames, spraying cold water into that shimmering wall and soaking the grasses before it. Clouds of steam leap into the air. There is a great hissing sound, like some enormous snake is writhing in the burning butterfly weed.
The men run back and forth before that crackling wall of red flames, their hunched shapes dragging lines of hose, swinging shovels, flinging dirt. My father and my brothers work with them, stabbing the earth in silent fury, their skin slick with sweat as they hurl earth in their desperate struggle to smother the onrushing fire.
Sam throws bucket after bucket of black creek water, passed up by Frankie, Anna May, and me. He tosses them faster than we can fill them, pitching the empty pails down in fury and shouting for more.
All my life I have heard how dangerous fire can be. It can move in ways you don’t expect. Sneak up on you. Burst upon you. Trap you. Fire can travel underground, burning through tree roots you did not even know were there until the tree behind you cracks into whistling flame. Fire can jump. It can travel through the air, eating whatever dust or bits of leaves might float there. I remember all these things as I pass the leaky pails.
Like all living things, fire must eat to stay alive. If we can hold it up long enough, it will burn up everything there is to burn. It will starve itself out. But first we’ve got to hold it. And if our trench fails, Apple Creek will be our last line of defense.
Chief Coop runs up to Dad.
“Fall back! It’s too hot here!”
And we do. With our shovels and our buckets we retreat across Apple Creek and, shaking and coughing, watch the fire pounce upon our thin, jagged line of trench. Our little platoon has fought bravely. Now we see if the trench can hold.
For a moment it seems it will. Then a patch of grass suddenly bursts into flames on our side of it. Then another, and another. We’ve lost. The fire has jumped our ditch.
Chief Coop shouts for us to spread out, to watch for fresh flames on our side of the creek.
We do. And that’s how I find myself walking upstream next to Pete. He’s quit his shirt in that heat, left it somewhere on the opposite bank. His face is flushed and his cheeks are black from ash. He smells like smoke.
“Still with me, Jack?” he asks in a ragged voice.
“Still with you.” I’ll stay with him forever.
“Good boy! We’ll lick this thing yet. Keep your eyes open!” Pete tells me as we thread along the bank, between tree trunks. The fire is almost upon Apple Creek now. Black water reflects its shivering flames. There’s a chattering sound from the fire now. Like rain. Funny. Fire that sounds like rain.
And barking.
I stop.
The barking comes again and my heart leaps into my mouth.
“Butch!” I scream.
Pete turns and seizes my arm. “Where?”
I point across the creek. But the far bank is bare. Nothing but a few black trees before a withering sheet of flame. We strain our ears against the crackling and snapping of the fire, but the barking does not come again.
“I heard him, Pete! I swear I did! He’s over there!” I start to sob. My dog is over there in that hell, trapped, surrounded on some island of unburned earth, alone and scared and wondering why we ain’t come to save him. Frantic, I sweep that far bank again and beg God to let me see my dog come running out of it all.
But I don’t.
I see someone else.
A wiry shape runs before that wall of fire, stumbles, crashes into the brush, rises, staggers on.
Caleb Madliner.
Caleb comes running for the creek, bent low, his hands holding his shirt up over his nose and mouth, his body shaking with coughs. And running right behind him, barking like mad, chasing him away from the fire, is Butch.
Pete and I rush to the edge of our bank. Across Apple Creek, Caleb crashes through the trees and comes to the edge on the other side. He don’t see us.
“Caleb!” I cry out. “Caleb, jump!”
He looks up, sees us, and stops.
“Caleb, jump and swim!” I shout to him.
But Caleb doesn’t jump. He stands like a statue, framed against that fiery wall, staring at us. His mouth hangs open in a mix of surprise and fear. His ash-darkened face is streaked with tears.
Beside him on the bank, Butch barks, confused as to why he don’t jump. My dog bounds in closer and bites the hem of his shirt and tries to drag him to the edge. But Caleb jerks away and his shirt tears free in Butch’s teeth. That boy never takes his eyes off us.