Total pages in book: 30
Estimated words: 28026 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 140(@200wpm)___ 112(@250wpm)___ 93(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 28026 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 140(@200wpm)___ 112(@250wpm)___ 93(@300wpm)
At that moment, a knock sounds on my door, and my heart drops to the ground. I get up, my bones creaking like an old man, and open the door silently.
“What the fuck happened?” Pamela screams, barreling in to pound on my chest with her fists. “Where’s my daughter?”
I manage to hold her off, pain etched on my face.
“You know what happened,” I say in a low, tortured voice. “Emily died in the Caldor Fire, Pamela. Your daughter is dead.”
“Noooooo!” Pamela wails as tears course down her cheeks, streaking her mascara and ruining her make-up. “That’s my baby! No, no no! It can’t be!”
Then, the woman collapses onto the ground, sobbing and tearing wildly at her hair as she dissolves into a mess. I do something that I wouldn’t do otherwise. I drop to the ground and hold Pamela in my arms, my tears mixing with hers as sobs wrack us both. This wasn’t supposed to happen. Sure, my ex and I were tangled in a nasty divorce but we weren’t supposed to lose her daughter along the way.
“Nooooo!” Pamela screams again. “No no no!”
“Shhh, it’ll be okay,” I say in a broken tone, my vocal cords trembling as I speak the lie. “Everything will work itself out.”
Pamela’s incoherent now.
“My baby!” she screams, her face blotchy and eyes wild. “That’s my child!”
The only thing I can do is to hold Pamela’s form as we rock and cry together. I lost the love of my life, and my ex is probably the only other person in the world who feels the pain as keenly as I do. My chest expands and contracts with sorrow, my lungs burning as tears wet my cheeks. Snot drips off my nose and splatters onto the foyer’s marble floor as I let out full, throaty sobs. After experiencing utter bliss high up in my cabin, my heart was torn out ... and I’ll never be the same again.
13
Christian
Ipull my truck up to a diner in Fairview before sitting in the cab for a moment to look around. I haven’t been back for more than two years now because there was no point. The entire town was incinerated, including my cabin up the hill, and there was nothing to see.
But in the time since, there’s been a lot of rebuilding, and the downtown looks good. There’s a selection of small shops with fresh paint, their awnings clean and new. When I step out of the truck, there’s no smell of ash in the air, and saplings line the road, their branches nothing more than twigs, thin and puny. Still, it’s good to see trees rather than an apocalyptic landscape. The photos from after the fire were horrifying, and reminiscent of a sci-fi movie, complete with the steaming, burned-out husks of cars, random metal stairwells that survived the flames, as well as an odd chimney still smoking here and there.
“Welcome to the Fairview Diner!” a plump waitress greets with a bright smile when I enter the establishment. “Where the air is clean, and the water is cleaner, all on the South Shore of Lake Tahoe. Where would you like to sit?”
I smile, although it’s more of a grimace.
“By the window would be great.”
“Is this booth okay?”
“Yes, thanks,” I rasp, taking a menu. “I’ll have a coffee to start, with bacon, eggs, and some rare steak if you have it.”
“We do,” the waitress burbles with a nod. “I’ll get that order in and have your coffee ready in just a moment.” Then Tanya, as her name tag reads, bustles away, and I take a look around. There’s no one I recognize in the diner, but then again, when I was at my cabin, I wasn’t exactly social. I came into town to get groceries once in a while, but that was about it. I didn’t hit up the bars or cafes, nor frequent the farmer’s market, nor meet any of the locals. I was a fucking hermit, savoring my alone time in the peace and quiet of my cabin in the woods.
Tears prick my eyes unexpectedly, and I dash them away because what the fuck? It’s been two years since Emily died, and yet I haven’t recovered from her loss. I think of the beautiful blonde every day, images of her sweet smile and curvy form invading my thoughts at the most inopportune times. I’d see her while making my coffee in the morning, or during an important meeting with investors. I’d work up a sweat in the gym, only to catch a glimpse of a curvy blonde figure in the mirror. I’d glimpse Emily crossing the street, but when the person turned, it was just a random woman with long blonde hair.
The shock always made me despondent. My heart would leap, thinking it was my love come back to life, but then the stranger’s face was jarringly different. My stomach would plummet to the ground as I ground my teeth with frustration and disappointment.