Page 82 of The Catcher
“No, you are pushing them off.”
“Don’t twist my words!”
“You already twisted someone else’s.” Noah glanced over at Natalie and pointed to her. “She has nothing to do with your daughter. Tyler is not even her child. It’s her nephew.”
“Unfortunately, she happened to be with him.”
“Just take a breath,” Callie said.
“Enough!” Joshua glared at her. “Shoot me. Go on! Shoot me!” he said, taunting them. “I’ve got nothing else to live for. Everything that mattered to me was in my child.” He held the lighter high, its flame flickering in the breeze. If they shot him, he would land, and the gasoline would ignite; if they didn’t, he was going to drop the lighter.
Noah knew he had to stall him, buy enough time to think out a better plan, but he was beginning to think there wasn’t one. Even if they took him down, the flame would spread fast, and Tyler and Natalie’s hands were restrained, and the carousel was moving.
It would be like jumping into hell itself.
Behind him, he could hear sirens wailing. Glancing over his shoulder, he saw another fire truck roll in.
“They come close, they die!” Josh shouted.
Callie shouted for them to keep their distance.
Distracted by the chaos, Noah lowered his free hand to his pocket, where his Spyderco knife was hooked, and pulled it out, flicking out the blade. He stood at an angle, keeping it out of sight before he said, “You said you don’t have anything to live for, but you are wrong. Do you know you helped my daughter? Mia.”
Joshua’s gaze bounced back at him, and for a moment, he snapped out of his mental breakdown.
Noah nodded. “If you think it’s because of me that she wants to become a cop, that would be wrong. You spoke life to her when I tried to dissuade her from becoming one. That’s because I’ve seen how hard this job is — thedamage it does to officers. I wouldn’t wish upon anyone what we have to see and face every day. It’s part of the reason I went back to drinking. To cope. So I don’t have to feel or listen to the noise in my head. So you were right about that, but it was wrong to think you were alone. I, too, felt lost without the people that were here. I, too, wanted to give up. But that doesn’t mean we have to stay lost.” He took a breath. “Mia didn’t know who she was after losing her mother, and it didn’t matter what I said. But you, you encouraged her with a kind word. You came alongside her at a time when she needed to hear from someone else and told her to pursue her dream, not to settle, but to go after what interested her, regardless of the outcome. Why would you do that if you think every teen who comes of age will fall off a cliff?” He paused. “Look, Josh, no one can bring Elizabeth back any more than they can bring back my brother, my kids’ mother, and my friends. No one can. Nor can we change or control other people, but we change ourselves, we can speak life into others, and often that is enough.” He paused. “Please. Stay alive. Stay alive for Mia, for those like Mia, and for those who will come after her,” he said, turning it around and focusing on Joshua as the victim instead of Natalie or Tyler.
A long pause stretched between them.
Joshua’s stiff shoulders dropped. His grimace faded, and he began to bring his thumb to the lighter’s cap to close it.
Noah saw him nodding in agreement.
A spark of hope flickered, and for a brief second, he thought he had reached him, but then, as the carouselturned and Tyler passed Joshua, awaking from an unconscious state, Joshua’s face twisted with anger, returning to the pain.
“Joshhhh….” Noah said, taking a few steps forward as if to try and talk someone off the ledge, but then it happened. Joshua tossed the open flame. At the same time, Callie opened fire to take him down.
It was too late.
A burst of blue erupted, and the floor ignited into a sea of orange, greedily feeding upon everything in its path.
Noah leaped forward onto the moving carousel, weaving his way through it as flames crept up and ignited the ground and everything around him.
It happened so fast.
Reaching Tyler, he cut the boy’s restraints, grasped his body, which was now afire, and tried to navigate between the animals as flames licked up his legs. He tossed Tyler off the carousel, his body landing, rolling, then the fire was put out by an officer with an extinguisher.
Noah screamed in pain, turning back to get Natalie.
He inhaled the fumes and began coughing. Noah hurried, slicing her restraints while at the same time trying to pat out the flames.
“Noah!” Callie shouted, tossing a flame-retardant blanket in. All the while, the fire department had already begun spraying. He swept the blanket over Natalie and carried her until he collapsed, and firefighters rushed to help. Thick snake-like hoses slipped by him as he rolled around on the ground, trying to extinguish the flames. Thefire had chewed through his pant legs and seared his skin. The pain was excruciating.
EMTs appeared at his side, shouting medical terminology.
A mask went over his nose and mouth. “Breathe, breathe,” he heard.
The rest became a blur of noise and lights before he lost consciousness.
