Hellfire (31 page)

Blake looked at him with wide eyes. “Are you sure?”

“The kid broke me out of jail.” Husk made a dramatic shrug. “I’d say I owe him at least a job, maybe even an apprenticeship.” Husk reached out his hand.

Blake shook it.

Nate stood and patted them both on the shoulder. He was proud to know them. “Let me know how I can help you.”

“You take care of your family for now,” Blake told him. “It seems to be growing. Maybe see that it gets a little bigger, too. You should talk to that nurse friend of yours.”

Nate’s face grew hot. He opened his mouth, but he didn’t have any words to put in it.

Husk rescued him. “She’s upstairs, kid.”

Nate let out a long sigh and shook his head. “What would she want with a fireman?” He groaned. “I’m not even that anymore, after the train wreck.”

When he looked up again, Husk and Blake were staring at him.

“You think she cares about that?” Husk asked.

Before Nate could answer, the threshold at the front door squeaked. Ozzie was there. She looked up at him with wide eyes. Her dress was printed calico.

“Oh, I thought I heard voices.” She winked. “I didn’t know it was you.”

Nate winked back.

Blake cleared his throat. “I say there, Miss Jacey. I could do with a drink if you happen to have one.”

“I’ve got some coffee,” she said. “And a cup for yourself, Mr. Husk?”

“Absolutely,” he called.

“I’ll help you with it!” Nate told her. He followed her inside.

The Jaceys’ anteroom was as big as Nate’s home. Twin staircases led down from the upper floors. The gold carpets bore dark, wet stains, and nails were poking up from warped wood. He marveled only a moment before following Ozzie through the huge dining room and out to the kitchen house across a short boardwalk.

It was warm in there, and the air smelled of spices. Ozzie turned over two mugs and filled them from the brass kettle hanging next to the low-burning fire.

Nate took a breath. “I came to check on you.”

The smile Ozzie held widened. “I’m fine.” Then it faded as she looked back over her shoulder. “I’m not so sure about my family.”

Nate stitched up his eyebrows. “Anyone hurt?”

“No, no,” Ozzie said, turning back. She sighed. “They had all come home because of me. Nobody wanted to face the other snobs with their sister being held up as a traitor to the state. They saw the light when it struck the levee, which gave them plenty of time to run upstairs before the water came through. We came through, overall.”

She leaned on the countertop. “Here, anyway. The factories took the brunt of the flood, and the glove works is all gone. Nobody was there with the holiday, thankfully, and I doubt we’ll lose our shirts, but it’s quite a blow. My mother and sisters and I don’t even know how much. They all went downtown to help with relief.”

“My ma and sister’s there, too.”

She nodded. “My father hasn’t been the same since word came about the factory. I stayed behind with him. He could certainly use something to believe in.”

“We all can.”

Ozzie smiled again. Her smile widened until she couldn’t keep her mouth closed. She leaped forward and scooped Nate into a hug. He held her in return.

Something seemed to whisper on the breeze. The hair on the back of Nate’s neck stood, and he froze. He knew the voice.

“What is it?” Ozzie asked.

Nate put himself between her and the fire. He grabbed an iron poker from the side of the hearth and jabbed the logs burned down to cinders. Sparks flew up and hissed. Nothing spoke out of it.

He turned back to Ozzie. “You’re not using Newton’s Catalyst in here, are you?”

Ozzie shook her head with her eyebrows upturned. “No, never. It makes the food taste terrible!”

“Then...” Nate clamped his mouth shut and slowly turned his head with his ear raised. He heard the foul whispering again.

“Burn it,” it said. “Insurance…”

It came from the main house. Nate dashed out the door, keeping his grip firm on the iron poker. He heard Ozzie call after him, but he didn’t stop to answer.

He raced up the stairs. The swollen boards creaked under his weight on the first steps, and then it was just the pounding of his boots against the plush carpet. He rounded oak-paneled walls to a heavy door.

The voice came through it. “More if the girl dies inside…”

Nate kicked the door open.

It was a gentleman’s study. A huge desk with its top rolled up sat with its drawers all open, spilling papers out onto the floor. Its chair was overturned, and H. Robert Jacey was on the floor on his knees. His collar was undone, his tie loose across his neck, and his shirttail half out. Pale eyes stared blankly from his blood-drained face.

In front of him was a little spittoon with a flickering red fire. He fed it pages torn from a huge ledger lying on the floor. Beside the ledger, a little envelope marked “Newton” lay torn open.

“Trespasser!” the fire hissed. “Destroy him!”

Jacey looked up at him with dead eyes.

“No!” Nate shouted with righteous anger. He kicked the spittoon over. The fire spilled onto the floor.

“Nathan!” Ozzie screamed from behind him.

“No! No more!” Nathan roared. He stamped on the little splotches of flames that ate at the woven rug bearing interlocking geometric patterns. He brought down the iron poker on outlying embers and then followed up with his boots.

The fire shrieked up at him until he crushed the final glimmer.

He turned, panting for air in the sulfurous room. Ozzie watched him, her hands clasped tightly around her father, who was beginning to weep.

In the distance, church bells rang. They hadn’t rung since city laws banned them, citing it was a distraction from the official civil time. Now their song echoed off the levee and the streets and the river.

ABOUT JEFF PROVINE

Jeff Provine is a curriculum developer and college Composition prof from Oklahoma. He teaches courses, such as the History of Comic Books and the Life and Films of Charles Chaplin. Following a ten-year run of his webcomic, The Academy, Provine is especially active in the local comics community, running the Making of Heroes comic workshop for the Pioneer Library System in 2015. He blogs regularly in Alternate History, and his other books include Celestial Voyages and Dawn on the Infinity.

Find Jeff online:

Website - http://www.jeffprovine.com

Facebook - http://www.facebook.com/authorjeffprovine

Twitter - http://www.twitter.com/jeffprovine

Blog - http://thisdayinalternatehistory.blogspot.com

Tirgearr Publishing - http://www.tirgearrpublishing.com/authors/Provine_Jeff