Mollie + Chester

Chapter Fifteen

Chester wrinkled his nose in his sleep, annoyed at the disturbance in the air. He lay nestled under the covers next to Mollie's side, the blanket lifted the tiniest bit at Mollie's shoulder, allowing him to see the sliver of moonlight that peaked through the not quite closed curtains. He forced his eyes open and wriggled out, the cold air rushing around him and Mollie sighed in her sleep, rolling over to face the wall.
The air that filled the room smelt even stranger, so Chester jumped off the bed and padded over to the window, slipping in between the glass and the curtains. Perfect Tamwood was silent, none of the houses surrounding showed any sign of life. One could almost pretend that they were the only living thing in the world.~
A lone car's headlights lit up the street before it disappeared and Chester jumped back down from the window, satisfied that everything was okay.~
Yet, downstairs the old noisy fridge was working overtime. Orange sparks jumped from the back, clinging to the dusty green curtains. The fire began small at first, then it grew as the night went on, letting off smoke which wafted up the stairs, a silent warning signal for the sleeping family.~
Chester still couldn't sleep so he made his way to the door and caught sight of the sneaky black smoke twisting its way under the door.~
He began to meow.~

I groaned and rolled back over, patting the warm spot next to me where Chester had just been. "Chester?" I murmured without opening my eyes. His meows continued, more frantic this time.~
I forced my eyes open, rubbing them with my fists and caught sight of the smoke. The dark haze had begun filling the room making it harder to breath than usual. I jumped up too fast and got caught on all my cords and strings and cancer fighting machines that watched over me every night.~
That was when I began to panic, tugging and pulling at the cords and getting them even more tangled. I took in shorter breaths and my heart thumped too loud in my ears. Chester meowed again and I stopped tugging. I turned on my lamp, and focused on one machine at a time, slowly untangling them until I was free once again. By that time, the smoke had filled the room even more.~
I ran to the door, yelping when my hand touched the handle and jerked it back. An angry red burn mark spread across my palm and Chester rubbed his head against my legs.~
Think Mollie, what do you do if the fire is at the door. I grabbed my backpack that I took to doctors' appointments and tipped out the contents on the floor. Pencils and notebooks and headphones scattered all over my room, rolling about my feet. I scooped Chester up and placed him carefully inside the now empty bag, leaving the zip open a tiny bit. I then moved to the window, fumbling with the latch until it came undone and I was able to sit on the sill.~
Beneath my window was a flower box, just big enough for me to sit in as I didn't have a balcony like Seth or my parents. As I manoeuvred into the wobbly box, one of the old terracotta pots fell, smashing onto the ground two stories below.~The pieces fanned out across the grass.
I gulped.~
"Mollie!" I turned my head slowly and saw Seth standing on his balcony waving his hands like a crazy person. I grasped the sides of the flower box so tight my fingers were turning white and edged a bit closer to Seth and his sturdy balcony. A ladder led from there all the way to the ground safely.~
"Where's Chester?" Seth asked and I nodded towards my backpack, too frightened to speak. This window box was not meant to hold the weight of a small girl and her cat in an emergency. It was meant to make our house look perfectly indistinguishable in this perfect town.~
"Pass the bag to me!" Seth yelled so I complied, shaking as I took the straps of the backpack off my shoulders. I held it in one and leaned forwards, hoping my other hand was able to hold the edge of the flower box to keep me from tumbling out. Seth took the bag from me and slung it onto his own shoulders, then reached out for me.~
"I can't!" I squeaked, the gap between my window box and his balcony seeming to get bigger. "It's too far!"~
"Come on, Mollie," he said. "Climb along the railing, and I'll grab you!"
With shaking hands, I gripped the wobbly pole and stepped out of the flower box, onto the railing that joined my window with Seth's. My weight made the railing bow and in heard a crack.
"Seth!" I yelled too scared to move.
"It's okay, just relax, I'll get you." He reached out further from his balcony and there was another crack.
"SETH!"
The railing broke. I squeezed my eyes shut as my stomach dropped as I fell.
There was no excruciating pain. There was no sickening crack as my head hit the ground.
I was on Seth's balcony. My arm hurt where Seth had grasped it tightly and we were both breathing heavily, our hearts racing so loudly I was sure they would jump out of our chests. He had yanked me towards him just as the pole fell. Lucky I was so light, if I weighed much more, Seth would have toppled over the edge with me. The cancer that was killing me, actually saved my life.
I wrapped my arms around my brother and buried my face in his shirt. It smelled like smoke.
"Come on, I can't carry you down as well as Chester," Seth said taking my hand and leading me to the ladder. He held my waist as I climbed over the railing with shaking hands, leaving the sturdy balcony floor for the metal ladder.
I concentrated all my energy into moving carefully down, aiming on not slipping to the ground. The wind whipped around me as I climbed slowly, goose bumps forming on my arms. Seth followed closely above me, patiently moving at my terrorised pace. He blocked the view of his balcony above us, but I could hear the crackling of the fire growing louder.
Finally, my bare feet felt the damp grass beneath them and I breathed a sigh of relief, my heart hammering in my chest. Seth jumped down beside me and pulled me in for another hug just as the town fire truck rounded the corner.
They really needed to work on their emergency response skills, they lived around the block, a five minute walk away. It seemed like we were trying to get out for hours, the seconds stretching into minutes as I had crouched in the flower box.
The lights flashed as they pulled to a stop and I blinked from the brightness, the siren was loud and made my ears ring. I squeezed my hands over my ears but as soon as I let go of Seth, I started to sway. I blinked again.
"Mollie, are you okay?" Seth asked and the world in front of me blurred. I knew what was happening because I had fainted so many times in the last five years. I tried to kneel down so when I fell, I wouldn't hit my head or anything but the ground rocked viciously, making me half stumble into Seth.
My chest burned as I gasped for breath, coughing to try and coax air into my lungs. The black spots grew and I collapsed into Seth's arms.

Chester wriggled around in the bag, the~colourful red and yellow and blue and green fabric enclosing him from the world. He knew they had made it to the ground outside because the bag was no longer moving around and now it sort of sunk around him. He heard Seth calling Mollie's name, heard sirens loudly shrieking, heard the growing chatter of the town folk who had emerged from their house to investigate.
He stuck his paw through the gap Mollie had left in the zipper and pushed his way out of the bag, rolling out onto the moist grass. Mollie lay with her eyes closed on the ground beside him with Seth a few feet away calling to the fire fighters that spilled from their truck. Chester nudged the little girl's hand and cried, his mews trumping all the noises that surrounded them.
The crowd thickened, growing larger with the nosy citizens of Tamwood. Kids clung to parents' pyjamas, their fluffy slippers and dressing gowns moist with the dew on the grass. No matter how hard the Mocomile family tried, they could not fit in, could not achieve perfection to the town's standards. Now the perfect shell that encased them, the freshly painted white picket fence and brightly coloured flowers burnt to ash under the merciless fire. It raged out of control, seeking to destroy Mollie and everyone around her. It reminded the town that it would never cease.
The parents now ran up to their unconscious daughter having escaped down their own ladder, blankets from the firemen wrapped around them.
The family all crowded around the tiny, almost lifeless girl, all with different reactions.~Mrs Mocomile held her daughter's hand, cradling it in her own hands as if she could coax Mollie back to her. Heavy tears ran down her cheeks and her wails filled the cold, dark air above. A child nearby held her hands over her ears, not wanting to hear the worst sound imaginable.
"Please don't leave me!" She cried bending over so her lips were almost touching Mollie's forehead. "I need you!"
Mr Mocomile stood a fair distance away from his wife and daughter. Silent tears dripped down his cheeks and his eyes looked like the glass eyes of a doll, staring neither at Mollie nor his blackened house. The flames had now been extinguished, but ash still rained down, covering the town's people in a thick, black blanket. Chester noticed the staring man seemed as lifeless as his daughter.
Seth refused to give up, which may be what preserved Mollie's life. "Get her oxygen!" He yelled at one of the firemen, spouting out the right pressure and instructions on how to position the mask. "I need a wet towel!" He yelled to his next door neighbour, the one on the other side to Mrs Ranchfield with two younger kids. She took them both by the hands and ran back to her house, returning minutes later with a cloth soaked in cold water. Seth snatched it out of her hands, not bothering with manners and held it gingerly over Mollie's forehead.
The ambulance arrived then, having sped from the nearest hospital. The tiny girl was moved to the stretcher and loaded onto the van with her mother. Seth, Mr Mocomile and Chester were left staring as it disappeared in the distance.
By then, most of the nosy neighbours had receded back into their houses, pretending as if nothing had happened, as if the Mocomile's' fragile and tragic world had not crumbled around them. Because that's what people in this town did; they cared only for themselves, didn't make it their business to imagine what it would be like to be someone else. They lived immersed in their own thoughts and didn't want to shatter that perfect little bubble that they had constructed for themselves.
Chester meowed at Seth's feet and was scooped up into his arms. Now, the tears fell freely from the boy's eyes as he stood hopeless, knowing that Mollie's life was at the mercy of her cancer. The depraved monster that seemed to tear his family apart.
"I can take Chester for you," I kind voice said. Mrs Ranchfield held out her hands, the only neighbour now left out in the Mocomile front yard. "You and your father should go to the hospital. To be there with her."
Seth stared, shocked to be handed some compassion by someone in the town. And it was true compassion too, not that fake acts of kindness which only benefitted by making the neighbour seem caring.
"I know what it's like to be bound to the town, but have someone dying miles away. You need to be there for her. Take my car" With that, Mrs Ranchfield took Chester from Seth's arms and handed over her own car keys, a key chain in the shape of a fluffy white cat called Precious attacked to them. "Go."
Seth's nodded, still unable to speak because of the huge lump in his throat and the tears that welled in his eyes. He and his father got in the car and drove off on the same path that the ambulance had taken, growing smaller and smaller until Chester could not see them anymore.
"Now come on, kitty," Mrs Ranchfield cooed, tickling him behind the ear. "Let's go inside and meet Precious."
Before the door to Mrs Ranchfield's house closed him inside, he crossed one paw over the other and meowed.