“Oh, you never know,” Bob said. “The prayer of a righteous person has a powerful effect. Wasn’t that our verse last week, Todd? And I’d say you guys are about the most self-righteous young men and women I’ve ever met.”
“Very funny,” Katie countered.
“You want some help with the grill?” Todd asked.
“Naw. I got it. You can hold the spatula any day. What you’re holding at the moment is much more important.” Bob winked at Christy and then rounded the corner of the house, disappearing down the side patio, whistling to himself.
Sierra dropped her head in her hands. “This is the most bizarre first meeting I’ve every experienced! Are you guys always so intensely honest? And how come he knew that verse?”
“Bob has been going to a morning Bible study with me for the past few months,” Todd said.
“You’re kidding. He’s not a believer, but he’s willing to go with you?”
“Sure. Why not? The guys treat him like an equal. He’s honestly seeking. There’s no better place for him to be than with a bunch of other seekers and believers. My dad’s been going, too, this past month.”
“At least your dad is willing to look into Christianity,” Katie said. “My parents won’t even go to a Christmas service with me. They keep telling me I’ll grow out of this delusion. Christy, however, had the storybook life.”
“Your parents are Christians, too, aren’t they, Sierra?” Christy asked.
“My whole family is. Parents, brothers, sister, grandparents. Everyone I know. I think I take it too much for granted.”
“I know I do,” Christy said.
Suddenly, from the side of the house came a loud whooshing sound like a gust of wind, immediately followed by frantic screams.
seven
TODD BOLTED from the wall and ran around to side of the house with Katie sprinting after him. Christy and Sierra remained frozen for a second as ear-piercing screams filled the air. Marti came running out to the patio with Tawni right behind her. “What happened? What’s going on?”
Sierra and Christy sprang from their seats at the same moment and rounded the corner to see Todd embracing Bob in a full body hug, then dropping to the ground and rolling on the cement. Smoke rose from the two men and the beach towel Todd stuffed between them. Reckless flames leapt three feet from the gas barbeque, lapping at the stucco wall of the garage.
Katie grabbed another beach towel, and edging her way to the grill, she reached to turn the knob.
“Katie, don’t!” Christy screamed, causing Katie to momentarily withdraw her arm.
Marti arrived right behind them and began to shriek.
Katie yelled, “Call 911! Now!” Then, ducking from the flames, she turned the knob, and the fire began to decline.
Marti continued to shriek.
Sierra turned and ran into the house, frantically searching for a phone. She found one on the wall in the kitchen and dialed 911. Trying to think clearly and steady her breathing, she repeated to the person on the other end what had happened.
Christy dashed into the kitchen and took the phone from her, explaining the situation in greater detail and giving the address. She stayed on the line, and Sierra stood beside her, shaking, as they waited for the ambulance to arrive. The minute they heard the sirens, they ran to the front door and let in the team of paramedics and fire-fighters.
Everything was chaotic. Sierra couldn’t watch as they loaded Bob and Todd onto stretchers. Marti had fainted, and they placed her on a stretcher as well. The firefighters checked the eaves and roof for flyaway sparks while a policeman questioned Christy and wrote down notes as she bravely tried to describe what happened.
Katie appeared to be the least shaken of any of them. She stood still while the paramedics examined her singed eyebrows and hair. The beach towel she had wrapped around her arm lay in a sooty mound next to the now silent barbeque.
“We’d like to take you in, all the same,” the paramedic said to Katie. “Just to be safe.”
“You guys want to come?” Katie asked. She made it sound more like a joyride than a trip to the hospital in an ambulance.
“I can follow you in the car,” Christy said.
“Forget it,” Katie said. “You need to be in there with Todd right this minute. I can drive these guys.”
“We don’t need to go, if it’s a problem,” Sierra offered.
“Tell you what,” one of the paramedics said, interrupting their volley of car-pool ideas. “I’ll make this decision for you. You’re all coming, and you’re going to ride where I tell you to ride.”
Twenty minutes later, they were in the emergency room at the Hoag Memorial Hospital. Tawni and Sierra found empty seats in the waiting area while Katie and Christy went in with Marti and the men. Marti had come to in the ambulance and was crying hysterically. They could hear gut-wrenching moans from Bob as he and Todd were wheeled past them.
“This is so awful,” Tawni said, the tears welling up. “I can’t believe this happened!”
“I think they’re going to be okay.” Sierra said calmly. “It looked like Todd put a towel between them, and that probably put out most of the fire.”
“But did you see Bob’s arm?” Tawni whispered. “His ear.” Her voice trailed off.
Sierra hadn’t looked on purpose. The ghastly smell of burnt flesh and hair overpowered her when she had gone back outside after the paramedics had arrived. She knew she couldn’t look.
Five minutes passed before either of them spoke. “Do you think we should check on them?” Tawni asked.
“I think they’ll come out and tell us,” Sierra said. Over their heads, a television blared with a rerun of Taxi. Nothing was funny about any of it. The canned laughter made Sierra angry. Why did they have that stupid thing on, anyhow? Couldn’t they let people sit and wait in peace?
A woman entered the emergency room with a crying baby in her arms. A nurse took her behind the double doors to the emergency area, and the infant’s wail grew fainter.
“I could never work in a place like this,” Sierra whispered to Tawni.
“Me either. Do you think they’re okay in there?”
“I don’t know. I think we should pray, Tawni.”
“I have been.”
“I know, I have been, too,” Sierra said. “But I think we should pray together.” She bowed her head, leaned closer to her sister, and started to pray before Tawni had a chance to agree or disagree. Sierra’s prayer was long and sincere. When she finished, she looked up to see a guy sitting on the edge of the coffee table, head bowed, apparently praying with them. The minute she heard him begin his prayer with, “I agree, Father,” she felt warm and comforted. It was Doug, her team leader from the missions trip in England.
When Doug finished, another guy, who Sierra didn’t know, began to pray. When he said, “Amen,” Sierra sprang from her chair and wrapped her arms around Doug’s neck, hugging him and letting the pent-up tears come out. She pulled away, looked him in the face, and gave him her best attempt at a smile. “Hi,” she said in a small voice.
Doug’s face usually resembled that of a boy walking around secretly hiding a frog in his pocket. At this moment, he looked more serious than Sierra had ever seen him.
“We stopped by, and the neighbors told us,” Doug said. “Have you heard anything?”
“Not yet. Bob and Todd were burned. Katie got singed, and Marti fainted.”
“Sounds about right for Marti,” Doug said. “Oh, this is Jeremy. Jeremy, this is Sierra.”
“Hi,” she said. “This is my sister, Tawni.”
“Tawni,” Jeremy repeated, nodding at her. The double doors to the emergency area swung open, and Katie stepped out. Her right arm was wrapped in gauze and resting in a sling. There appeared to be some sort of salve across her forehead and eyebrows.
“Hey, Doug! Jeremy! What are you guys doing here? Did we make the six o’clock news or something?”
“We were on our way to Tracy’s and decided to st
op at Bob and Marti’s to see if you guys wanted to get together tonight. One of the neighbors was out front and told us what happened. Are you okay?” He rose and carefully gave her a side hug.
“I’m fine. I think the nurse who treated me was in training, and she receives extra credit for every bandage she applies. She wanted to wrap my eyebrows. Can you believe that?”
Doug looked at Katie closely. “What eyebrows?”
“I know,” Katie said good-naturedly. “Freaky, huh?”
Sierra noticed that where the light reddish-brown brows had been, Katie now had fine, curly stubble.
“Feel my hair,” she offered, lifting a section of the straight red hair that framed her face. Sierra could see that a large portion had “melted” from the bottom up and stuck out like the wacky, frayed ends of a rope. “And it smells awful.”
“Do you know how Todd and Bob are doing?” Sierra asked.
“No. Christy is still in there. I heard one of the doctors talking about sedating Marti. She really flipped out, didn’t she?”
“It was pretty gruesome,” Sierra said, feeling for some reason she should defend Marti.
“I need to call my parents and ask them some information for the insurance,” Katie said. “Do you want to come dial for me, Sierra?”
“Sure.”
“I’ll come with you,” Doug said. “Tracy’s probably wondering what happened to us. I’ll give her a call, too.”
As they walked away, Sierra could hear Jeremy saying to Tawni, “So, do you come here often?”
Tawni laughed.
Jeremy then said, “What an eventful way to start your vacation! Are you staying all week?”
When the three of them returned twenty minutes later from their phone calling, Jeremy and Tawni were still talking.
“Any news?” Doug asked.
Jeremy seemed to have a hard time pulling his attention away from Tawni to answer Doug. “No, not yet.”
“I’m going back in,” Katie said. “They’ll let me in. And if they don’t, I’ll whine and say I want my eyebrows bandaged.” She made her way through the double doors, being careful not to let her injured arm touch anything along the way.
Sierra slipped in between Jeremy and Tawni and returned to her original seat. It sounded as if the two of them were having a deep, spiritual conversation, something Sierra had rarely heard her sister participate in.
“I think there’s room for both,” Tawni was saying.
“I do too,” Jeremy agreed. “But don’t you find that most Christians today don’t think that way?”
“They can always be taught,” Tawni said. “I believe the responsibility falls on the people to seek these things out for themselves.”
“You’re right,” Jeremy said.
Sierra wasn’t sure what they were talking about, but she was impressed with her sister’s approach to the dialogue. She had never seen Tawni talk like this before, especially with a guy.
A few minutes later, Tracy arrived. Sierra introduced her to Tawni as Doug’s girlfriend, which extracted an instant smile from both Doug and Tracy but little more than a slight “Hi” from Tawni and Jeremy. They were on the subject of peace in the Middle East now, and it appeared as if the rest of the world barely existed.
“Did they just meet?” Tracy asked quietly. Her sweet, heart-shaped face reflected the same kind of surprise Sierra was feeling.
Sierra nodded and whispered back, “I’ve never seen my sister like this.”
“I’ve never seen Jeremy like this either,” Tracy said.
eight
BY NOON the next day, the crisis seemed to have passed. Christy’s mom, Margaret, had arrived that morning, which had a calming effect on Marti. Sierra found it hard to believe that Marti and Margaret were sisters because they were opposites in appearance and temperament. Sierra felt an alliance with Christy’s mom. She also must know what it’s like to spend her life in the shadow of a vibrant star for her sister. It made Sierra wonder if one of them was adopted, the way Tawni had been adopted in Sierra’s family.
The house was full of people when Christy brought Todd home from the hospital. His right upper arm was bandaged, and his left arm rested on Christy’s shoulder. He didn’t need her support to walk, but neither of them seemed to mind the roles of “patient” and “nurse.” Christy’s mom and Marti followed them into the kitchen, where Sierra, Tawni, and Katie were sitting around the counter finishing their late breakfast.
“Give me five,” Katie said as Todd entered the kitchen. She hopped off the stool and held up her free hand, which Todd swatted with his free hand.
“Does everyone know you’re the hero, Katie? You told your mom, didn’t you, Christy?” Todd asked.
“That’s heroine, if you don’t mind, and no,” Katie said, her short, silky red hair swishing as she tossed her head. “They all know the truth. You’re the hero who saved the day.”
“If you hadn’t turned off the grill, I think we might have all been blown to Jupiter.” Todd sat down and pulled a big, fat dill pickle from the open jar on the counter. He took a bite that snapped the pickle and made Sierra inwardly pucker at the thought of that much dill and vinegar in her mouth.
“How much of your arm got it?” Katie asked.
Todd pointed to an invisible line about three inches down from his shoulder, about the place where his short-sleeved T-shirt ended, and marked again across his elbow. “That much. Not bad. Bob got it much worse. All the way across his left arm, up his neck to his earlobe and the back of his hair.”
“It could have been much worse,” Christy’s mom said. “We’re all thankful for the way each of you responded to the emergency.”
“I don’t know about you guys,” Christy said, glancing at Katie and Sierra, “but I felt helpless. I don’t know a thing about first aid. If I want to work with kids, I think I need to know a whole lot more about what to do in a crisis.”
“That’s right,” Katie agreed. “The way preschool kids are today, you never know how many of them might blow up a barbeque during recess.”
“You know what I mean,” Christy said, giving Katie a playful, exasperated look. “At least you thought to turn off the gas. I never would have thought of that.”
“Did the doctor say when Bob might come home?” Marti asked.
“I didn’t ask,” Todd said. “Are you going over there?”
“Yes,” Marti said. “Margaret and I will be there all afternoon. You young people make yourselves at home here, and Tawni, I haven’t forgotten about making a call to the agent. I’ll phone him on Monday.”
“This is much more important,” Tawni said. “Don’t worry about it, please. You don’t have to call him at all.”
“No, no, I said I would, and I will. We’ll all get through this weekend and then start fresh on Monday. By the way, did the airline ever call about your luggage?”
Sierra held her breath and waited to see how Tawni would respond in front of these strangers. That morning she had acted like a brat, saying she refused to wear the same clothes two days in row and slamming the bathroom door in Sierra’s face when she held out a pair of shorts and a T-shirt to Tawni. In the end, Sierra’s offering was snatched in silence and worn without comment.
“I was just thinking about calling them again,” Tawni said calmly.
“Good idea,” Marti said. “I don’t suppose any of my clothes would fit you, since you’re so much taller than I am, but please feel free to make use of anything you find in my closet. We’ll be at the hospital if you need us. ‘Bye, now.” Marti made her grand exit with Christy’s mom right behind.
Sierra couldn’t help but wonder how many times in their lives those two sisters had formed such a train. The image made her even more determined to never fall in line behind Tawni like some kind of shadow.
Christy and Todd began to make sandwiches for themselves while Tawni pulled a slip of paper from her pocket and reached for the phone.
“So, what should we do today?” Ka
tie asked. “Did anyone hear from Doug?”
Tawni put her hand over the mouthpiece and said, “He and Jeremy are at Tracy’s. They want us to call them when we decide what we’re doing.”
“What do you feel up to, Todd?” Christy asked.
“Anything.”
“Except surfing, maybe,” Katie suggested for him.
“I could wrap my arm up in a plastic bag,” he said, picking up his sandwich with his left hand. The overly stressed slice of bread on the bottom gave way and dumped half of the roast beef and lettuce onto the counter.
“Right,” Katie teased. “You can’t even get a sandwich in your mouth. How are you going to keep your balance on a surfboard?”
Everyone laughed, and Todd said, “I’ll take it one thing at a time. Sandwich first, then surfboard.”
“Until those painkillers wear off,” Katie warned. “Then all you want to do is take a nap.”
“Is that what you guys want to do? Hang out on the beach?” Christy asked.
Sierra had been dying to sink her bare feet into the sand ever since her eyes met the yards and yards of inviting beach stretching to the sea yesterday afternoon. This morning she had almost slipped out for a walk while everyone else was still getting up and dressing, but she’d decided against it in case they wanted to be able to find her. Nothing sounded better to Sierra than spending the afternoon at the beach.
“Sounds great to me,” Sierra said.
“Me, too,” said Katie. “I want to see what kind of tan I can get where my eyebrows once were.”
“I must go shopping,” Tawni said, hanging up the phone with a slam. “Still no trace of my luggage. I don’t even have a bathing suit!”
“You can borrow one of mine,” Sierra said. She was enjoying this much more than she should and realized that if it had been her luggage that was lost, she wouldn’t appreciate hearing Tawni offer her clothes every time she opened her mouth. Still, the irony of it was too good to pass up. “I brought several, you know. You can have first pick.”
“Oh, let me see. Do I want the one with Tweety Bird on the front or the gym-class Speedo?” Tawni said.