The thunder cracked far behind the mountain, and the lightning strike was a bit closer than the prior. Being of small brain, Derrick dove into the pond, followed by Tegan. Maine had never given us much trouble with the weather, so when receiving one passing storm throughout the entire week, we really couldn't complain; the cool drops of water were a nice break from the smothering heat anyways. I stood along the shore with Callie on one side and Casey on the other, we watched as the two boys of fourteen, acted as if they were four. Maine always brings the kid out in all of us, even my father, who has been on the quad in the woods for hours. I’ve enjoyed coming up here since I was yet a child, and the familiar scene never seems to dull. The thunder boomed once more and as the gray sky became black, Shannon approached the water to join the three of us as the cool water hit our tanned faces; a cool zephyr brushed my hair out of my face.
“Sammi, your mother just called, she said it was urgent, you might want to go and see what she wanted.” I didn’t react with fear. I knew my mother, and she probably just wanted to talk to me.
“Thanks, I’ll go call her.” I walked to the cabin, not in a hurry, the bright flash of lightning caught my eye and I jumped just a little. Laughing at myself, I entered the cabin and grabbed the nearest cell phone with the best reception. I dialed the many numbers slowly and as the phone began to ring I heard a sudden scream from where I was previously standing. Without thinking I dropped the phone and ran out through the path, back to the water where I was just standing. To my surprise the house across the street was in flames with a bevy of by-standers.
“The lightning hit it, and the house instantly caught fire. Sammi, what do we do?” by this time Tegan and Derrick had reached shore, afraid to step back in the water. A feeling of compunction ran through me.
“Well, is anyone inside the house?” I quickly asked. The nearest fire station was nearly twenty miles north, and no way would they make it in time. My aunt had made it to the street by now with her phone to her ear but she quickly found out that with the lack of reception, the fire station wasn’t even reachable. A faint cry for help came from the house, the fire was spreading.
“What do we do Aunt Carrie, we can’t just stand here!” I cried in fear of the people inside the house.
“Well you are certainly not going in there.” there was a long pause, “Well this is quiet a quagmire isn't it?” Suddenly a young girl, maybe the ages of five, looked out the window, her eyes showed only fear I could hear her lamenting over the large crowd of people. I could feel the heat from across the street; someone had to do something, and they had to do it quickly. The rain slowed down into something a little more than a drizzle, which wasn’t helping the cause. I heard another cry of thunder but it was far behind the mountains now. There were many more people watching now, and it took a young man, around twenty, to finally step up to go rescue the young girl and whoever else might be inside. The little girl appeared at the window once again. “Someone’s coming to get you, are you alright?” I asked in hope that the little girl would say yes. Tears were running down her face at this point and I was wondering what was going through her head. What if that was me inside the house, what would I be feeling? I don’t think I could have stayed in that house as long as the she was forced too. I would be wondering why the people outside were standing around and not helping me. As I thought to myself all these things, I put into perspective how young she was, if anything happened to this little girl, that I don’t even know, I would feel terrible, I didn’t even try to help her.
“Derrick!” I yelled. My aunt Carrie was making her way around looking for reception, so she was nowhere near. “We need to help her, but don’t tell any of the other kids, because they’ll tell your mom, please just keep this collusion.” The only reason I chose Derrick over Tegan was because Derrick is more adventurous, where as Tegan, we’ll he would have told dad, or chickened out, whichever came first. Derrick was very amicable about it and agreed instantly. The young man hadn’t made it out of the house yet, so I figured we’d find him inside. Being of stealth precision, Derrick managed to get us around the back of the house. I figured there had to be more then the little girl inside and when Derrick suggested he would get anyone else, we split up.
The large escarpment caused a bit of trouble, but after climbing up the steep hill, I quickly clambered up the railing, which was covered in flora; I reached a balcony on the second floor. The fire was on other side of the house so I knew climbing would be the easy part. Once upon the balcony, to my luck, the sliding glass door was open. I walked into a cluttered bedroom filled with nothing but posters of numerous boy bands. I figured there was an older sister kept hostage by the grave fire as well.
“Hello, Hello, where are you, I’m here to help.” I could feel the heat with each step I took, and I could hear the weeping little girl; the fiery red flames divided us. Think, what can I do, I must get the little girl. Right then, through the door a little to the left of me, came the young man who had entered the building just a little before Derrick and I. “The little girl is in that room,” I pointed to the door just in front of me. “How do we get in?” without speaking the man charged at the door and instantly it broke into many pieces.
“I’ll go see who else is here,” was all the young man said. I nodded my head in awe of the shattered door, my next reaction was to think of Derrick. He’s fine; he’s a tough kid. i ran through the sheded door and quickly grabbed the little girl; her face covered in tears.
“You’re okay. I’m going to get you out of here, okay?” I said trying to distract her. I picked her up. “What’s your name?” I asked trying to not sound scared enough for both of us.
“Nicole,” The little girl attempted to say. I made it back through the doorway with Nicole on my hip. The feeble, young girl was holdin on with all of her might. I was headed for the balcony when I heard a loud crack and a familiar scream.
“Derrick!” I screamed. I put Nicole on the ground, “stay here.” I ran to where I heard Derrick. “Derrick where are you? Derrick?”
“I’m right here. Help get this off of my leg.” I quickly noticed that a piece of wood from the ceiling had broken off and was now on Derrick’s leg, “It’s really heavy help.”
As I reached down to help Derrick, questions rambled out of my mouth. “What am I going to tell Aunt Carrie? Derrick your mom is going to kill me. I’m so sorry, if it’s broken, I don’t think I can forgive myself. I’m so sorry.” Derrick chuckled.
“It’s not broken.” We lifted the piece of the ceiling off of his leg and he easily got up, “See, I’m fine, I'll have a small contusion, now go get that little girl, I’ll meet you outside in the street.” We both ran in opposite directions and I grabbed Nicole who was viciously crying, I could see the fire had progressed because I couldn’t even see the door that I grabbed Nicole out of. Nicole was petrified so I began asking more questions as I made it to the balcony.
“Who was home with you?”
“My mommy was here, and my sister too, but Hailey left before the house got hot.” Deftly, I jumped over the balcony holding on fiercely yet benignly, to Nicole, trying to not hurt her. Attempting to distract the young girl, I rolled out more questions.
“Where was your mom?”
“I think she was in the kitchen making me a bologna sandwich.” When our feet hit the ground a smile spread across Nicole’s face, she ran out to the street and I followed. My aunt was standing there waiting for me.
“What is wrong with you? You could have hurt yourself! Where’s Derrick?”
“He’s coming, I just say him he went to go find Nicole’s mom.”
“How could you let him go in there? Why did you go in there? What if Derrick gets hurt?”
“He won’t, he’s a smart boy.” I tried to make it sound as though I wasn't trying to assure myself. Just then I saw Derrick followed by a woman and the young man running towards us. Aunt Carrie ran to Derrick and Nicole ran to her mom.
“She was looking for Nicole; she was trying to find ways to make it to her room.” Derrick said answering my next question. Shannon ran up and gave me a big hug, followed by Callie, Casey, and Tegan.
“Don’t ever do that again!” said Callie, “Even though that was really cool!”
“Don’t worry I won’t. I just felt so bad when no one went to help her”
“Well that man did,” replied Casey.
“Yeah, after no one else would.” I quickly snapped.
“I guess, just don’t do it again!’
We all heard the sound of the quad roaring down the street, what was left of the house was still in flames, but that wasn’t much.
“What happened here?” my dad asked. We all laughed at one time, my dad gave us a puzzled look.
“I got to go call my mom.” I said remembering what I was firstly doing. As I turned to walk away I felt someone tap me on the shoulder.
“Thanks you so much I don’t think I can repay you for what you and your cousin just did for me, and my daughter. You saved her life, thank you so much.”
“You’re so welcome, but you really should thank my cousin, he really helped me get in.” The woman smiled at me and then went to speak with Derrick. I walked down the path once more to the cabin. I picked up the phone, dialed the many numbers, and listened to the ring until my mother answered the phone.
