Rise of the Spider by Michael P. Spradlin

Author:Michael P. Spradlin
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Margaret K. McElderry Books
Published: 2024-09-24T00:00:00+00:00

— Chapter 6 —

It was now several days after the six Hitler Youth men came to town. After dinner, which Romer had skipped again, I sat at home in my small room at my small desk doing my math homework, when I heard the town bells ringing. It was a fire alarm.

Since Heroldsberg was such an old place, many of the buildings in it were wooden structures. They could burn easily, and fires spread quickly. It was not uncommon for the entire village to show up at the site of the fire to offer any assistance they could to keep the fire contained.

I looked out my window to see smoke and flickering flames coming from the marketplace just a few blocks away. I turned and raced from my room and onto the street. Papa had sent word that he would be late from work that night. I had no idea where Romer was.

The marketplace was essentially two side streets that wound their way from one cross street to the next. It was narrow, more like an alley, and the shops and vendor carts gave it the overall appearance of a crowded street in a much bigger city. As I got closer, a dark thought overtook me. The flames and smoke were coming from the east end of the marketplace. The entrance that we passed every day on our way to school. The entrance where Mrs. Hufnagel often waited for us with a treat.

As I turned onto the cross street, there was a figure up ahead running in the opposite direction and staying in the shadows. The person had a familiar gait, but I couldn’t quite place it in the dark, and they were too far away for me to tell who it was for certain. What were they doing running away from the fire?

My worries were confirmed when I reached the spot. Mrs. Hufnagel’s cart was ablaze, and the windows to her small bakery were smashed in, smoke billowing out of them. It was as if someone had tried to set the shop on fire as well as the cart in front of it, but it didn’t quite catch. The village fire truck pulled up just then, and two firemen jumped off with a hose in hand. The cart was wrecked but the flames were put out easily. They doused the broken windows and the smoldering debris just to be safe.

“Does anyone know what happened?” I asked several of the people around me.

A few quiet murmurs and shakes of the head were all I received. The fire was out in a few minutes, and the firemen were returning the hoses to the truck. One of the firemen spoke to the other: “Someone used kerosene to start this fire. I can smell it.”

There was a collective gasp of disbelief from the crowd. I heard murmurs of people wondering who would do such a thing. And it must have been an accident. And poor Mrs. Hufnagel. But the voices died down and the crowd began to slowly file away.

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