The flames as if in a march of victory rose to heights above the windows. Through them. I could see M'Ladies One and Three. They were screaming, but we couldn't hear them. It was a silent movie in vivid color. The roof above them caved in and the house seemed to crumble and fall into itself. Natani's nephew leaped from the ladder as it, too, fell forward. He hit the ground nimbly and Natani helped him up.
All of us stepped back farther and farther. The waves of heat were burning our faces.
"Get back." Natani shouted at us. "Back, back."
We retreated to the center of the yard, where we stood and watched the house burning. Off in the distance, like lanterns in the night, two revolving lights appeared. Someone was coming, but far too late. I thought.
Behind us, the horses were neighing in fear and kicking at their stall doors. Natani rushed back, his arm extended upward, his hand tracing the embers that were being carried in the smoke. I realized his concern immediately. They were moving toward the barn and the barn was dry, especially the roof.
I joined his nephew and him and we got the horses out of the barn and into the corral.
"They'll still be very frightened," Natani said.
He ordered his nephew to open the corral so the horses could go as far as they needed. Then he turned his attention to the other animals. I worked at his side far what I later realized was hours. Robin and Teal began to help as well. Natani's foresight proved correct. A section of the horse barn caught frt. His nephew tried to contain it with their water hoses, but it was too little and had limited reach. It wasn't long before the horse barn was too far gone to save,
The lights I had seen belonged to a fire truck and an ambulance with two paramedics. There wasn't much for them to do but stand by like us and watch the hacienda burn to the ground. Soon after they had arrived, a sheriffs patrol car drove up and then another.
Exhausted from our efforts to save all the animals. Robin. Teal. and I sat in front of our barn barracks, which had escaped the embers because of the wind's direction. We watched the police, firemen, and paramedics conferring with Natani. It all remained unreal to me. Their faces glowing, the flames, the crackle of the fire, the tower of smoke that the wind carried into the desert. Through it, the stars twinkled as if heavens approved of it all.
'Where's Gia?" Teal asked. and Robin and I looked at each other.
During all the excitement, our frantic activity and terror, none of us had thought about her.
"I haven't seen Dr. Foreman either." Robin said.
We turned back to the dwindling conflagration and stared at the flames like three hypnotized people, no one speaking, no one moving. Finally. Teal leaned against me. I put my arm around her and Robin put her arm around me. It was the way the police and the woman from the social service agency found us. We were like three girls frozen, discovered at the top of some very, very high mountain. I'm sure we looked as if it would take a crowbar to pry us apart.
We had sat there together throughout the night and into the first morning light. The fire had burned the house to its foundation. It still smoldered enough to send up a significant tower of smoke I was sure could be seen for miles and miles.
Strangely, other Indians appeared out of the desert as though they had always been out there. I couldn't imagine from where they had all come, but at least a few dozen men and women and some children were on the property. I saw from the way they circled Natani and spoke to him that they respected him greatly. Later. I would learn that he was actually a descendant of a famous Navajo medicine man, and the Indians had high regard for inherited powers.
The woman from the social service agency introduced herself as Mrs, Alexia Patterson, but insisted we call her Alex. All three of us had been through enough layers of the juvenile system to understand it was her way to get us to see her as a friend and not a bureaucrat. A sheriffs officer was with her when she fir
st approached us. I could see that he knew exactly what the ranch was used far and who we were. He wore a hard look of accusation and suspicion and wanted to talk to us first.
"Let them clean themselves up," Alex told him. "They've worked hard helping with the animals and everything. Lieutenant."
He hunted a reluctant okay and we walked in a daze to an outside sink where we washed our faces and hands, our necks and arms. The stench of smoke and burned wood was so thick it was deeply embedded in our very skin. It would take more than a rinsing to get it off our bodies. It would never wash off our souls and hearts.
While we cleaned up. Alex and the sheriffs deputy stood off to the side talking and watching us. The terror and shock we had experienced leveled off, but rushing in to replace it were waves of anxiety. What would happen to us? What had happened to Gia? What did the authorities think about us?
"How are you doing. girls?" Alex asked, walking over to us.
"Ginger peachy." Teal told her.
Alex didn't blink. She smiled and nodded. "That, um, barn or building over there?" She pointed to our barracks. "That's where you girls slept?"
"Yes," Robin said. "It's the first-class accommodations here."
"I think." the sheriffs deputy said, stepping up beside Alex. "that the time for smart talk is well over," He glared at us and no one spoke.
"This is Lieutenant Rowling, girls. He and I have to ask you questions. Why don't we all go into that building then and have a talk," Alex said in as sweet a voice as she could muster. Lieutenant Rowling nodded his approval, but kept his eyes fixed on us with the accuracy of a pair of well-aimed pistols.
We all walked to the barracks.
After we entered. Alex stopped and looked around the Spartan quarters. She was truly surprised that the floor was covered in straw and all the cots but one were without mattresses, pillows, or blankets.
"I don't understand." she muttered, and looked at the sheriffs deputy, who just shrugged. "Let's sit here." she said, nodding at my cot, which was the closest.