Night Falls in the Gorge by Myrna Daly

Author:Myrna Daly
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Myrna Daly

18

Close the window. The thought came to Jan in a haze. The smoke’s getting into the room, and it’s fishy-smelling. But she didn’t get up, didn’t wake fully. Instead, she rolled over and burrowed deeper into the warm bed to ward off the night chill. Across the room, she heard the muffled sounds of her roommate, deep in slumber.

Roommate. Her mind toyed with the idea as she drifted back to sleep. What an unreal world up here. I haven’t had a roommate—the female kind—since college. No, it was since the first job and first shared apartment, both of which she’d quickly dumped in favor of solitude and independence. Still, despite her misgivings, she’d gotten more sleep this week than she had in a long time. Single women, she believed, slept poorly because they had to be responsible for everything. Last thing at night, check that all the doors are locked. But here, she didn’t have to be in charge of everything, didn’t have to get up early and start working. She could go back to sleep. She pulled up the covers to shut out the smell. Is the party still going on?

She bolted upright and squinted at the clock until she could make out the time: three-fifteen. It was dark outside the window, so the floodlights were off, but the foul odor of smoldering wood still hung in the air.

Her feet hit the cold floor as she ran across the room and looked out the window. Below, she could see part of the porch roof, flames dancing across its surface. In a flash, her senses were on high alert. This is real.

“Chris! Wake up. Fire!”

Chris’s eyes opened, but she stared blankly and didn’t move.

“Up. Now. The building’s on fire.” Jan shook her roommate’s shoulder and yanked the covers back. This old wood lodge would burn like a firebomb.

“Come on, Chris, wake up.” Jan slipped into her clogs, looked out the window again, and roused her roommate with more urgency. “Now, Chris. We’ve got to get everybody out. You take this floor, I’ll go downstairs. Have everybody meet out by the fire pit, and do a head count.”

Suddenly Chris woke and leapt into action, her head clear. As she tied her sneakers, she stopped and waved to Jan. “Wait. The older ladies are downstairs. I can carry them out, if I have to.”

So practical, Jan thought. “Okay, then, I’ll clear this floor and meet you outside.”

They grabbed their jackets, pulled blankets off the beds, and ran for the door. Jan turned back for her computer on the table.

“Let it go,” Chris ordered, but Jan darted across the room and grabbed a pencil-size flash drive, thankful that one of her few regular habits was backing up her work at the end of the day.

Chris looked furious. “No stopping to get anything, and no going back into the building,” she ordered with all the authority of a school fire drill veteran.

“I’m right behind you,” Jan said, and once again darted back into the room, this time for her phone.

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