Sweet Country Life

Church

1995
Mom really turned to church and following religion after Dad died. Every Sunday we all went to church, we prayed around the dinner table every night, and bibles were normal reading material in our house.
We grew up in the country, but being ratchet country people wasn't really their style. Mom took pride in keeping the kids clean and polished, no matter how much it cost. Down the street from the house, the family owned a sports bar. And about 15 minutes the other way, Dad had opened a "toys" shop. He sold all kinds of toys with motors.. like boats and snowmobiles and quads. When he got sick, Mom took the business over.

It was a regular Sunday on a spring day. You could smell the weather changing by the smell in the air.
Callie was helping the little ones get ready with their church clothes before they headed off to the car... or should we say bus.
Filing into the pews, the Lawrence family took up a solid row of seats. Everyone knew who they were, 14 kids who lost their father a few years ago. The town was small and everyone knew about it.
During communion everyone started standing up to go up front. All the younger kids who had not had their first communion used this time to go to the bathroom. Micheal, Evvie and the quads went out the back door to the bathroom. Micheal waited outside the girls bathroom for his five sisters to finish when he heard screaming coming from inside the church. Running in through the doors he looked down the aisle and saw flames billowing up the curtains and across the ceiling.
"MOM!" Micheal screamed from the end of the aisle, "MOMMY!!"
Coming up from behind him Arthur scooped him up and kept running.
"I'm scared." Micheal cried to Arthur as he ran towards the exit of the church.
"Me too" Arthur responded

Dropping Micheal on the grass out front everyone hugged him and kissed his head.
"Arthur!?" Mom called in a panic
"uh yes?" Arthur answered
"Where are the babies!?!?" She cried
"Oh My God, the babies." Callie screamed

Inside smoke was everywhere and the girls could barely see in front of them.
Coughing Evvie called out, "In school they taught us to get low,"
Listening to their big sister, the quads all got down on all fours. Crawling across the floor, Maia had tears falling down her face.

SMACK CRACKLE BOOM

A flaming beam fell from 50 feet up and came barreling down from the sky, just barely missing Echo and Raven. The smoke was getting thicker and thicker, the girls could barely breathe.
"BABIES!?"
All the girls looked around like they had heard someone, maybe someone could help them.
"BABIES!!!?"
The noise was closer this time, Ri screamed back.
"WE ARE OVER HERE!" Ri started to cough.
"HELP US!!" Raven called, coughs following her call for help.

"Oh my god, my babies!" Callie cried when she found all five of them, "Okay love bugs, we are running. Each of you grab a hand of someone else, we need to go quick."
Grabbing hands all six girls ran out of the church as fast as they could. Coming out they were all covered in ash. Unable to breath, Raven and Echo coughed for air trying to catch a breath.
Maia, Ri and Evvie coughed a few times getting all the shit out of their lungs, and were fine soon after. Echo and Raven continued to cough black for 3 more days.

That's the day Raven learned that fire is not a good thing.