Why the professor loves having the fireplace on during lecture I will never understand. The school is in the middle of a desert. I know fire is my element but still...why does the room have a fireplace at all? I stare out the lone basement window into the night, mostly void sprinkled with the odd dying star. I think there might be more but a coyote moon is swollen over the horizon. Tendrils of boredom sneak through my ears like mental floss, letting an indifferent fog roll in through my mind as through the sandwastes beyond.
........................................
"Ramadhake? We all need an equal chance to fail," a voice behind me whispers. As I look down, my stomach plunges and burns in a steaming heap on the scuffy carpet. "Nope. Nope nope nope." I can't take another second of this; I've been sitting on my back all day and I can't take it anymore. I toss the stack of pop quizzes at the boy behind me and grab my phone, whispering vague nonsenses into it. "I'm quite sorry, Miss Sumed. I'm afraid a family emergency has come up and it simply can't wait." The frail woman glares down her silver frames with a stare that could wither a newborn soul. "Again...Really, Ramadhake. It had better be good. Has his horse died of thirst in the scrublands again? Or has he finally struck gold and wishes to share his good fortune?" "Hey! Bucky was very near and dear to us. She was family." Sheesh. Some would never guess that such warm coffee eyes could hide such a cold cruel heart. "Something you appear to be running short on these days, is it not? Whatever it is...I will be confirming it with your uncle as soon as possible. You are excused."
I skip up the steps to the tune of Jahr's number. *Beep* "Hey. Class ended a few minutes early. Need a pick-me-up pronto or I'll run the whole way. See you soon."
...........................................
Approximately Two Hours and Forty-Five Minutes Later
...........................................
"I'm tired!" *clomp clomp*
"I'm hungry!" *clomp clomp*
"I'm done," and slam the silo door behind me.
Metallic clanging echoes through from the lower levels. He's been absorbed, I'm afraid. Gone forever in the excitement of the latest project-that'll-change-everything-I-so-solemnly-swear. "Just ten more levels to go, Rama. Ten more levels and then you can choke him."
I pause. Who needs stairs when you can do the electric slide?
.............................................
"I always knew I was smokin, but this is ridiculous," I shake my head at the new breeze in my pants, courtesy of my stupidity and the old silo chute. "Simple matter of friction, honey. Oh, Friction, the sly devil we all need to keep a handle on things." He hums a bit, welding something I can't quite see. "I'm glad you came by. Could you fetch me my bernzomatic, please?" "Uncle?", I bounce on my feet in front of him, "Oh, Uncle??? I believe you are forgetting something." "Hmmm?", he smiles absently behind his owlish goggles. He turns the flame down, removing his gloves and covering me with the smell of burnt steel as he spins me around. "Oh, yes. How was your day at school, my dear?" I breathe deep, ready to give him hell for forgetting about me again. But I can't do it, so it all comes out in an anti-climactic whoosh. "It was fine. Annoying as ever. Do you got any food?" His absent smile burns to a full-on grin as he opens the fridge. "Indeed I do!" He pulls out the largest green bean casserole I have ever seen. Topped with scallop potatoes and..."Is that pepper bacon?! Gods, it's been too long." He scratches his head quizzically. "I'm glad you like it, but I could have sworn I had taken it out of the furnace just a minute ago..." I take the glass pan gingerly from him and clear off a space near the sunlamps. "Taken what out of the furnace? You know I like my beans stone cold." The old man's losing it. "No, no, not the beans. Your surprise...." His face slackens in realization. "To the furnace!!!" And he's off... "Don't mind if I do," I whisper to no one in particular as I scoop up a slice of cheesy green goodness the size of a book.
............................................
One Casserole Later
............................................
Jahr trudges in after I'm satisfied, the smoking remnants of a burnt lab coat trailing on the concrete. "I would'ave saved you a slice but I was hungry. Want me to make you something? I see the furnace is still chugging." "No, no, that's alright, sweetie. And the furnace is going full power, I'm afraid," he sighs looking down at a black misshapen piece of porcelain. He places it gingerly next to the upset tomato plants. "I am so sorry," his voice quivers. "I am...a terrible guardian. I cannot be responsible for protecting a birthday souffle, much less a teenage girl." "Aw no, Uncle. Don't say that. I learn so much from you." He turns towards me, eyes redder than the tomatoes. "I forgot you at school again, didn't I?" I put my feet up on the table and lean back, closing my eyes. "Naw. It's cool. Your projects are amazing. I needed the exercise anyway." The next thing I know is hands wrapping around my shoulders and a weight upon my head. "I shall do better, my Phula. I so solemnly swear. You are more important to me than any project, because I know you most certainly will change the world. You changed mine." "Um...ok. I'm gonna go wash the dishes now..." I extricate myself from the situation as fast as elementally possible.
..........................................
Approximately Six Hours Later
...........................................
I wake with a start, burning in the winter cold. Thorny brambles
tear at my naked body as I make my way back to the silo, though the
spots of snow feels nicer than any bed ever could. "It's getting
worse," I mutter. One of these days someone will catch me and I won't
have any explanation for it. Sleepwalking is a nightmare that leaks
into the physical realm.
I sneak back clean and smooth, though
it isn't hard with Jahr passed out over his latest schematics. Some
sort of breathing apparatus, he had said, though why would one need a
breathing device here? The air is pure, and we have no lakes above
ground. His snores cover the soft squeaks my footsteps make, and the
heat of my skin steams any residual ice that clings to me.
Sometimes it pays to be fire.
The room is bare, but nice.
Though Jahr was not the first in my father's guardianship line because
of his oddities, he is the first that seems to care. I've only been
here a few days, but he has welcomed me with open arms since the
beginning. Unfortunately it is the same school for the entire area, so I
can't blame him for making me go. I think I'll keep him. Flopping
onto the bed, I am alone with my thoughts for the first time since the
accident. Closing my eyes, I can't help but remember how it felt when
the flames first roared: terror, pain, regret...and glee. They consumed
us all. My body just doesn't have the decency to show it, to let me
go.
............................................
(A/N: More stuff here, don't want to spoil, so just a snippet.)
"So you like me now hmmm?"
His voice makes me shiver. Not the frost, not the metal, not the corpses floating past the window. It's his voice that cuts through the fire that's been keeping me alive so long. I put my hand against the glass, against him, as a familiar face stops to float beside. The boy hasn't aged a day. "How can you be here? You burned with Maman." I grab a soda bottle from the van floor and smash it against the window, waiting for the cracks to take me. "Bahana, no! I only wished to say goodb...", his voice trails away into the currents, along with his head.
