Page 100 of Duke

MY HAIR SMELLED of smoke and fire. Soot covered my clothes. I couldn’t leave. They tried to make me. Friends, strangers, first-responders all put their arms around me, attempting to comfort me.

I stood there transfixed and hypnotized by the flames of fire. I never saw something burn like that before. The work of three generations of Flynn’s was extinguished tonight. When I got the call around three AM I thought it was a prank. There’s no way Stan’s was gone. I just left there an hour earlier.

But it was.

I got there in time to see a ball of fire as big as the building itself. An entire lifetime of memories burned. I grew up in that bar. Met the man I love there. Had so much pride in what I had made it become. But as I watched the hoses from the fire truck battle the blaze until all that was left was smoking embers, I was numb.

They think I was in shock.

I guess I was. But I also felt free, like a bird soaring from the ashes. No more nights on my feet, cleaning, and scrubbing until my shoulder’s ached. No more worrying if we will turn a profit or take a loss. No more drunks thinking they can buy more than a drink. No more nights crawling into bed too tired to shower and waking up smelling like stale beer and cheap cigarettes.

The fire marshal handed me a certificate stating it was an electrical fire above the kitchen. He said to use it for my insurance claim. Everyone says I can re-build. I’m not sure if I have the heart or stamina.

It took two days for the ashes to cool down enough to sift through. They didn’t bother to secure the perimeter thinking there was nothing left to guard.

Taking a shovel and pulling on thick boots, I carefully walk through the devastation.

I know where I’m standing. No one knows this place better than me. It was my birthright—my second home. No one knew where I kept the bar’s cash. Well, Duke saw me place the bills from the cash register in a few times.

Under the rug in the supply closet, I had Meat install a safe after he jack-hammered a hole in the foundation and poured fresh concrete. I hope to God that it made it.

Getting to work, I dig through the debris and ash, stopping when I hit something hard.

Blowing the rest of the soot away, I uncover the top. Fitting my key in the small hole, it opens. Pulling out the safe, spinning the lock combo, I’m stunned when it opens.

Inside is a red, origami Phoenix. Written in bold script is the phrase, “From the ashes, she’ll rise.”

An arrow pierces straight through my heart.

He did this for me, for our love.

He set me free because he knew I would never do it myself.

Taking the tiny bird in my hand, I close my eyes, holding it against my heart completely forgetting about the money.

Then my hand reaches in, taking out the money bag. But the tears streaming down my face aren’t because I’m holding three grand in cash in my hands. Beneath the bag are the two pictures that were taped to my register. The first was of Gramps, outside the bar the first day it opened. The second was of Pops and me. I was about five, sitting on his lap, while on his bike parked out front. The sign for Stan’s Café is clearly visible. He risked his freedom leaving this clue. But he told me, he trusts me with his life.

Tucking the treasured photos in my back pocket, I grip the money bag and walk away. I’d be sad; devastated even if I didn’t have a future to run to. But I do. Closing my eyes, I see the future that wasn’t possible a week ago.

I know how far he’ll go for our love. Now it’s time to show him just how far I’ll go for his.

I’m not surprised to find Meat’s large frame moving around my small kitchen fixing a pot of coffee. Pops sits in his wheelchair with an empty mug in front of him, his reading glasses perched on his nose.

Manila envelopes and papers are scattered across the table.

“What’s all this?”

Pops scribbles fast, holding the board to me.I’m selling the lot.It reads.

“What?”

“You’re not rebuilding. Pops is selling the property. It’s what he wants. We got an offer today. Some developer from out of town wants the land.”

“Huh. That’s surprising. Not much goes on around here for new business to come in.”

“Wrong. You did a nice job getting the businessman in. There’s money in catering to those types. Anyway, Pops signed all the documents; the lawyer came here. The deal is done.”

“What? So fast? Doesn’t that shit take a few days?’

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