Firestorm (20 page)

I limped out of
our room and into Nana’s and Papa’s room where I found Meagan just
staring into Nana’s closet.

“What is it? Is
she there?”

“No. Oh, sorry.
Foolish, I know, but we painted that wall, remember? See, we signed
our names on it and Grandpa wrote, ‘I love my girls’. It’s just,
just hard to walk away from.”

“I know. I
remember that. We had so much fun, didn’t we? I have to get a
picture of this. Look, I found my cell so let me snap a couple
before we go.”

I took several
pictures of the wall and fought the tears because it was one memory
that I couldn’t just ignore. Brad’s voice ended our trip down
memory lane and brought us back to reality.

“Is she up
there?”

Meagan stuck
her head out the bedroom door and yelled back.

“No. Let me
just check the bathroom.”

A minute later
I was still staring at the wall and I could hear Meagan yelling
down to Brad that Nana wasn’t up here. That’s when I realized that
we had better get back to looking for her. Brad barrelled up the
stairs.

“Okay, is there
a basement to this place?”

Meagan and I
looked at each other and I knew that there was a door to one.

“There’s a
basement but not like any that you know, right Meg? It’s more like
a cold hole in the ground, like a cellar with just a furnace and
the hot water heater on a cement floor. No rooms or recreation room
or anything. I’ve only ever been down there once and it was too
cold and creepy even then.”

“Yeah, me too.
We never went down there.”

Brad huffed as
he headed to the stairwell.

“Yeah, well it
may be creepy but it’s the only place we haven’t looked, so maybe
she went down there to stay clear of the smoke. Where’s the
door?”

The door was
hidden inside the closet so Meagan opened the closet door and
pointed to a plain door the same color as the closet wall.

“Here it
is.”

She opened the
door and reached inside.

“There’s a
switch here. Let me get it.”

Meagan flicked
the switch several times but the light wouldn’t work.

“I don’t
believe this.”

“Okay, girls,
think. Where will we find a flashlight?”

I knew where
they were so I hobbled into the kitchen and found two flashlights
in the junk drawer. I gave one to Brad and kept the other one to
use so we could help look for her down there.

“It’s kind of
small and dark so we’ll go down too and check the fruit cellar to
see if she’s in there and maybe you can look around the
furnace.”

Brad shone his
light down the stairs and my heart thumped against my chest. I
screamed and grabbed Meagan’s arm.

“Oh, no!”

Nana was lying
face up at the foot of the stairs with her head and back still on
the bottom step and the rest of her body on the floor. There was
blood all around her head and she was unconscious. As I tried to
brush past Brad to get down the stairs to her, he instantly slapped
his hand on the door jam in front of me and my chest slammed
against it.

“Sarah, no! The
stairs are broken.”

What? The
second step to the stairwell had broken right off and there was
only a small piece of a board sticking out on the right side by the
wall with a couple of long nails poking through it. I swallowed
hard as I stared at it and then down to Nana.

“She mustn’t
have seen it and that’s how she fell. I have to get to her.”

“I know, Sarah,
but just let me get down there first. I want to see what other
steps are missing. This whole stairwell feels like it could fall
apart any second.”

Brad shone the
light on the stairs and all around the stairwell and then carefully
stepped down and over the broken step. Meagan and I didn’t waste
any time and we were right behind him. I had the other flashlight
and I was shining it mostly on Nana as we descended. It hurt so bad
seeing her just lying there like that. I guess I was over anxious
and Brad put his hand up a couple of times to suggest we slow
down.

“Just tread
really carefully because this step is not that great, either.”

Just as he
finished saying that, Brad slipped but was able to grab the wobbly
railing to prevent falling down the rest of the stairs.

“Crap, no
wonder she fell. These stairs are a flippin’ death trap.”

We got to the
bottom and I held my flashlight over Nana as Meagan and I squatted
beside her. Brad was shining his light all around her head and then
huffed loudly.

“Wish we could
call for an ambulance. She’s bleeding and somehow we have to get
her out of here. Is there something we can wipe some of this blood
up with?”

I scouted
around the dark, musky room and in the far corner on a small bench
that Grandpa must have used as a place to fix small things there
was a pile of old towels torn into small rags.

“Here, use
these. Gees, look at the gash on her head. Oh, Nana, please be
okay.”

I don’t know if
it was the timing or her hearing our voices, but Nana began to stir
and Meagan spoke to her softly.

“Nana, it’s
okay. We’re here. How are you doing?”

“Oh, my head
hurts so much and my knee - my knee ….”

Brad moved
quickly to her legs and slowly straightened her one leg that was
folded under her.

“It’s not
broken, Mrs. Davies. It was just bent. Does that feel better?”

“Yeah,
thanks.”

I was dabbing
the cloth on her head and then a few seconds later she opened her
eyes wide and stared at me as she grabbed hold of my arm.

“Where’s your
grandfather?”

“He’s fine,
Nana. Ali took him to the hospital and he’s ….”

“Hospital? Why
to the hospital? What’s wrong with him?”

“Nana, he
injured his leg and so Ali got the truck going and took him to town
where the doctor can look at it. Just to get checked, you
know.”

Meagan’s face
was feeling the anxiety of Nana’s pain as much as mine was and
neither of us was certain how much to tell her about Grandpa at
this point. We knew we had to get her out of the house as soon as
possible, though, so Brad asked her questions which let us know
that she was cognisant and receptive enough to be able to get up
the stairs.

“Okay, Mrs.
Davies, we need you to sit up a bit. Can you lean forward and sit
up at all?”

Brad and Meagan
lifted her under her arms and helped her up so that she could sit
on the bottom step. I held the cloth on her head even though most
of the bleeding had stopped.

“How’s that,
Nana? It’s not bleeding much now but do you feel okay?”

“No, Sarah, I
don’t feel okay. My head hurts and I want to be with your
grandfather but you say he’s in town already.”

“Yeah, he is.
And if you’ll help us get up the stairs, we can take you to
him.”

Nana looked
around the gloomy basement as she felt the top of her head.

“I waited for
you kids for so long but you didn’t come. The Barton’s came to get
us but I couldn’t leave without your grandfather so I got on my old
shoes and went looking for you. But the forest is on fire, did you
know that?”

Meagan rubbed
Nana’s cheek and smiled as she spoke in a slightly jittery
voice.

“Yes, Nana, we
know that. And it’s coming this way so we need to get out of this
house really soon. Can you make it up the stairs?”

“I don’t know.
I’ll try. I think I hurt my knee when I fell because it’s really
painful right now. But okay, okay. I’ll try.”

Meagan and I
helped Nana to stand but she was weak and fell back onto the step
saying that she was dizzy. Brad pulled his cell phone out of his
pocket and then bolted up the stairs, so Meagan and I knelt in
front of Nana and tried to keep her calm.

A few minutes
later Brad came barrelling down the broken stairs and said he’d
spoken with Ali and that he had just arrived in town and had only
this second met up with the ambulance.

“The attendants
were lifting your grandfather into the ambulance while I was
talking to him and he said it’ll be heading off to the hospital
right away. So, that’s good. And they’re taking Don, as well, and
he has a daughter somewhere, apparently, and they’re getting in
touch with her. Now we just have to get us out of here.”

Meagan and I
sighed and shouted at the same time, we were so excited. I felt as
if a rock had been lifted off my chest and Meagan’s face gleamed
even in the dull glow of the flashlight.

“Oh, Sarah,
he’s safe. He made it.”

“I know, I
know. It’s such a relief to hear that. Now we just have to get Nana
out of here so we can all be safe.”

Brad moved in
close to Nana to help her to her stand up again. She stood up more
easily this time and we helped her to slowly turn around so she
would face the stairs.

“I didn’t know
that step was broken. Your grandfather had said it needed to be
fixed but you know how he hates fixing things. He’s not going to be
too happy with me when he sees what I did to it.”

“Mrs. Davies,
that’s okay. It’s not really important right now.”

Nana smiled at
Brad and I could tell by the sparkle in her eyes, even through the
dull lighting, that she liked him.

“Maybe you can
fix it for us later on. That would be good. Can you do that?”

“Yeah, sure.
But right now we need to get you up these stairs. Ali is going to
be here in a few minutes and he’s going to take us into town so you
can be with your husband. Okay?”

“Okay. Let’s
see if I can get up these stairs without falling again.”

Brad stood in
front of her so he could help to pull her up and Meagan stood
behind Nana to push her. I was squatted at the side so that I could
help lift her leg onto the first step, and that sent the sparks of
pain through my own injured ankle.

Nana said she
was still dizzy and that made it difficult for her to keep her
balance, and a couple of times she humped over as if she was going
to collapse. Meagan had her arm around Nana’s back and rubbed it
gently.

“Nana, you need
to lift your foot. Look, Sarah is helping you so come on. Step up
on this. Good, that’s good.”

By the time we
got her onto the first step the beads of sweat were streaming down
my face. It was hot and stuffy in the closed in area of the stairs,
but there was no time to take breaks because we had to keep her
climbing up. Nana had one hand on the wall and the other on the
railing which I kept reminding her not to lean on in case it gave
way.

It took us a
few minutes, but we got her to the next step and then Brad warned
us that the step after that was quite loose and that we should be
careful. He pointed to the side that was the safest to stand on and
then I helped Nana lift her leg to that step. It was almost like
lifting dead weight because she was only responding to me tapping
on her leg and telling her to lift it. She accidently stepped on my
fingers a few times and I all could do was groan quietly as she
muttered to herself.

“I’m so dizzy.
I don’t like it down here, you know. I hardly ever come down
here.”

Brad was
pulling her arms and smiling as he was talking her into taking each
step.

“You’re doing
great, Mrs. Davies. Just a few more steps. Okay, one more normal
step and then we have some fancy stepping to do.”

We got her up
the next couple of steps and then we were at the broken one. There
was only a small piece of step to the left side by the wall that
hadn’t broken off and I tried to get her to put her foot there but
it was very difficult because she didn’t want to move.

“Nana, please,
you have to work with us here. Lift your foot and put it on this
piece here. Come on. We have to hurry.”

The back screen
door had been banging for a while and the closer to the top of the
stairs we got, the louder it seemed to get and the more it
irritated me. This door had always opened and closed when it was
breezy outside but Grandpa had a quick fix for everything and
rarely went into any great detail when it came to repairs. He put a
hook on the inside of the door so that they could keep it closed
whenever it was windy outside. We hadn’t hooked it closed when we
came in and for some reason, the sound of it banging this time had
a daunting eeriness to it.

Nana, on the
other hand, was a very methodical person. She planned things
carefully and rarely took chances with anything. She always had to
know everything about a situation first and then she’d examine it
carefully before she would ever make a move. And even though we
discussed the fire as we climbed the stairs, and even though she
understood us and agreed that we had to get out of the house
quickly, it was still a major challenge to get her to move. She had
to know what was holding each step safely so that it wouldn’t
break.

“It’s just not
very safe. Isn’t there something else we can put there? Why don’t
you go see what Grandpa has over there so we can use that?”

Brad was
shining the light on the step with one hand and pulling Nana up the
stairs with the other. He looked behind him several times and his
face was very solemn. I was at the bottom of this line up so I
didn’t know what he was concerned with although I had a good
idea.

“Brad, are you
okay?”

“Yeah, but we
really need to move a bit faster. Sarah, I know it’s hard but you
need to force her to lift her foot onto that board there. And Meg,
you’re going to have to really push her. I’ll pull her from here.
Okay, on the count of three - one, two, three - go.”

It took several
attempts before we had her left foot on the broken board and then
as they carried her weight, I placed her right foot on the next
step up.