Page 31 of September Lessons
Carrie didn’t pat herself on the back for figuring out Leigh-Ann’s attractions so soon. Nor did she consider herself a veritable Dona Juanita when she had her mouth on Leigh-Ann’s and a hand down her pants.
Who had time for that when they both smelled smoke and the heat of encroaching fire?
Of course, it took them longer to notice than it might have otherwise. They were busy, after all. Carrie in particular was swept up in the thrill of having someone to fool around with.Someone pretty cool, you know.Leigh-Ann didn’t give herself enough credit. She was smart. She was pretty. She got Carrie’s stupid jokes and didn’t take things personally when there wasn’t enough time to hang out. Now that Carrie knew what it was like to kiss those lips and descend into madness with her hormones fueling a different kind of fire, the possibilities were endless, as long as Leigh-Ann would have her.
As long as we get out of here in one piece…
“Holy shit!” They both noticed the fire at the same time, but Carrie was the one to jerk back in alarm first. “There’s actually a fire!”
Leigh-Ann was as white as a ghost as she leaped up from the dried-out straw that would soon turn to kindling. “We’re still in here! Let’s get the hell out of here!”
No kidding! If the fire itself didn’t get them, then either the smoke pouring through the cracks or the compromised structure of such a large building would come crashing down upon them. Carrie grabbed Leigh-Ann’s hand and hauled her toward the exit, where they had left the door ajar so they could see someone coming.I thought I might see my cousin or some of his friends.She didn’t count on some country hooligans sneaking around the back and doing their dirty business from the outside. Where was the smell of gasoline, anyway? That was supposed to be the first big giveaway! Didn’t anyone hear them inside the barn? Carrie would take the utter humiliation of her cousin catching her fingering her best friend if it meant they weren’t caught in this situation!
Because the door was blocked by a fallen piece of smoldering wood.
“Oh, my God. What are we gonna do?” Leigh-Ann futilely grabbed her girlfriend’s hand. “We can’t get out!”
“It ain’t on fire!” The rest of the bar was turning to burning dust, however. Carrie had to think fast. No. No, that wood wasnoton fire. It looked hot, maybe a bit crispy, but she had sleeves long enough to cover her hands and act as a simple buffer between her skin and a hot piece of wood. “Stand back a bit!” She waited for Leigh-Ann to finally let go before barreling into the door and slowly inching it open. The corrupted piece of wood cracked beneath her weight, but it wasn’t budging, and it was too big to simply step over.
“Carrie!” Leigh-Ann cried. “I’m scared!”
“It’s gonna be okay!” Probably a good idea to conserve their oxygen and their energy, but Carrie’s brief moment of rational thought reminded her that their chances of survival went up if they kept their cool instead of succumbing to whatever hell the flames soon engulfed them in. “Hey! Leigh-Ann! Come over here and help me get this thing out of our way!”
She knew that Leigh-Ann wasn’t the strongest girl in town. That honor also didn’t go to Carrie, who theoretically knew how to use what force she had to overpower the world around her, but it didn’t mean squat when the panic mounted and her fears became more pertinent to the situation.
“We’re not gonna die,” she asserted. “Come on!”
Leigh-Ann pushed against the door alongside Carrie, who kept one clouding, watering eye on the chunk of wood slowly giving way beneath their strength. Something collapsed behind them, slamming into the place where Carrie had begun making love to her new girlfriend. If that wasn’t a sign for them to get the hell out, she didn’t know what was!
Leigh-Ann shrieked. So did Carrie, not that she liked to admit it.
“This is your chance to kick some ass!” Carrie shouted, both to herself and to the blubbering girl beside her. “So kick it!”
She hadn’t meant literally, but that’s what Leigh-Ann did when prompted. Her foot shot out and slammed right into the open space leading to their freedom. It also landed on the piece of disintegrating wood, which was apparently weak enough now to succumb to Leigh-Ann’s weight. With a mightysplat,the wood combusted like Leigh-Ann had single-handedly thrown her arms around a mighty tree and felled it with one tug.
“Whoa.” Carrie only regathered her bearings because of the smoke spilling through the crack. She took Leigh-Ann by the hand again and led her over the debris, a few pieces of cracked wood brushing against her bare ankles. The pain was enough to concern her, but adrenaline was so high that she didn’t think of anything but escaping as soon as they were free.
The fresh air wasn’t enough to soothe their worries, though. As they darted across the small field between the barn and the highway, Carrie heard the tell-tale signs of sirens in the distance.We’ve gotta get outta here. We’ve gotta go before they implicate us.Trespassing was a slap on the wrist for kids around there, or so Carrie hoped. Being associated with a burning building they had been in? During a reign of fiery terror some stupid kids were conducting like it didn’t mean a thing? Bad optics. Bad times ahead of them.
“Run!” Carrie shouted as soon as she saw the frantic farmer in the distance. No, there was more than one. There was a kid she vaguely recognized from school, some freshman or sophomore whom she didn’t personally know. He would definitely recognize her.AndLeigh-Ann! “Get outta here before they recognize you!”
Leigh-Ann took off toward the nearby tree coverage. She was halfway to safety when she turned around, some of the smoke from the barn fire blowing their way and obscuring her face. All for the better. Carrie didn’t want her girlfriend being recognized by the locals. She also didn’t want to see the look on Leigh-Ann’s face when she realized what Carrie had done.
“Go!” Carrie shouted again, although she was soon on her knees, dry grass in her hands as she coughed up the smoke infiltrating her lungs.
She didn’t stop coughing. Not until someone in a uniform pulled her back, forcing her to look up at the sky while an oxygen mask covered her face.
***
There was no saving the barn, although the firefighters were lauded for their quick response time. Mr. Oswald Connor and his son Winston spoke with the firefighters and the county sheriff as soon as he arrived. Carrie sat in the back of an ambulance, the EMTs checking her vitals and asking her such stupid questions that she was almost insulted.They’re making sure you’re mentally sound.Didn’t matter. The more questions they asked about her name and who the president was, the more Carrie wanted to rip the mask off her face and leap from the back of the ambulance. Her family couldn’t afford this luxury, anyway.
“Sit still, please.” A large, gruff woman who looked like she was strong enough to conk Carrie out grabbed her by the arm and kept her in place. “We don’t know what kind of damage your lungs have sustained from that fire.” From her tough mannerisms, Carrie surmised that she was dealing with the kind of butch badass she could never aspire to be. Nor would this woman put up with her crap. Not from a kid, anyway.She must know I’m a suspect.Carrie accepted that as soon as was picked up by the firefighters and hauled away from the scene. The fire had grown to the point embers blew in her direction. A small, secondary fire started where Carrie had collapsed only twenty minutes ago.
The fires were mostly contained now. From the back of the ambulance, Carrie saw the smoldering remnants of the structure she had been in only an hour ago. Murmurings told her that there were no signs of accelerants – again – but the building was so old and dry, even after the light drizzle, that it didn’t take long for all the straw to take the building out with it.
Mr. Connor expressed both disbelief that this happened to him, and absolute acceptance that it was only a matter of time since theuselesscounty sheriff’s office had yet to figure out who was behind it all. Carrie attempted to rehearse her statements implicating her cousin, but her brain was so fuzzy that she barely remembered Leigh-Ann had been with her.
“Is that her?” she overheard Mr. Connor asking the sheriff. “Is that the girl who did this?”
