Excerpt: Extrication

“You've been breathing in smoke,” she said. “You need to go to the hospital.”

“The cat?” he cried out and pulled himself to his feet. He barely had the strength to stand.

“Its fine,” she said. “I heard your screaming and came out here to check on you. The kitten ran and hid in one of the stalls.”

He relaxed. “No hospital,” he said.

“You need to see someone,” Ms. Rosenberg said.

“I can't,” he insisted. “A fireman saw me. I think I might have killed him.”

She asked him to explain what happened. He told her every detail; it was the least he could do. He drank nearly a gallon of water which helped his cough settle. The time was getting late and Peter didn't want to keep Ms. Rosenberg up any later. He went down into the barn stall and found the kitten, it was covered in ash and wheezing. “I'm going to have to take him to the vet. Thank you,” he said. He cradled the kitten in his arms. He was ashamed that he had to leave Ms. Rosenberg like this. He had scared her and now he was leaving again.

Peter teleported into his bedroom and set the kitten onto his bed. Then, he grabbed a quick change of clothes and stuffed his smoke stained clothing into his trash. He tied off the bag and hoped that was enough to hide the smell for the moment. He picked up the kitten who seemed only a little more alert and teleported outside of the emergency vet's office. He rushed in with the kitten and found the vet working the front desk. “I found this kitten in a bush across the street from a fire on Eastern avenue. I think it's hurt.”

The vet took one look of the cat and agreed with Peter's assessment. She took the kitten from him and headed towards the backroom. He didn't wait to see if she looked back. He teleported home again. He pulled out the trash bag from the can teleported to his school. The school was closed this hour. He threw open the dumpster in the back of the school and tossed it out. Then, he teleported to the gym and tossed off his clothing. He took a long, cold shower.

Physically and emotionally, the shower helped ease him. He felt horrible about what had happened. He had likely killed a firefighter, almost caused his own death, and upset Ms. Rosenberg. And for what? He had possibly saved a single kitten. The worst realization came as he started to wash his arms. He realized that at some point in the night, he'd lost his grandfather's wristwatch. Peter ended the shower early and redressed. He teleported to Ms. Rosenberg's barn and searched around. When he could not find it, he teleported near the fire. The blaze appeared under control but was still burning. There was no way he was going go back inside. He had no luck as well when he went to his bedroom. The watch was simply gone.

Because he delivered the paper, Peter knew that the fire wouldn't be in the morning's newspaper. He had no choice but to fret through a night's worth of paper delivering and a day full of classes before he could catch the evening news. He ended up watching the news with his mother who thought it was odd that Peter was so interested. “I heard there was a bad fire last night,” he said. His mother worked at the hospital and might know something about the firefighter. If she did, she didn't say anything.

The news broadcaster covered the nightly headlines and hot topics of the day. The third piece mentioned was the fire. He eased a little when she failed to mention anything about a firefighter being killed. The news piece on the fire had little information but did mention that investigators were looking into the possibility of the fire being due to arson. The camera cut to an interview with Fire Marshall Theodore Douglas.

“At this time, we are not ruling out any cause of the fire. Though the fire appears to have been an electrical fire that started in the kitchen, we have additional evidence that suggests that their may have been an arsonist involved. We are fortunate that at the time of the fire, the family was away visiting family.”

The news report went on to talk about how the family was taking the tragedy. When the news returned to the anchor Deborah Spinser, she had a final word. “Despite the tragedy that happened to the Kelly family, they can return home with a piece of good news. An unnamed neighbor found the Kelly's family kitten and brought her to the emergency shelter. The kitten is in good health and expected to make a full recovery.”