Vivian(Sequel to Ours, Together)

7/ Flames

About a month later (A Tuesday morning in July)

At 7 AM, Oliver left for work, and since I was already awake and the girls were still sleeping, I got some coffee and a piece of toast and sat down in the kitchen. I pulled out my phone to text my Aunt Victoria and make sure she was still available to watch the girls that afternoon. She, her fiancée Nina, and my family had grown much closer. The girls loved her and she had offered to babysit while I went to my 16 week ultrasound. By now, I was showing pretty clearly.

I was nervous and excited because today I would be finding out the gender of the baby. Ollie and I decided to have the doctor write the gender in an envelope so that he and I could open it together that evening.

I was taking a bite into my toast when suddenly, the fire alarm in our building started blaring in my ears. I dropped the toast and sat still. Then, I realized what was going on.

As a kid, I sometimes worried about fires and thought about what things I would bring with me if my house burned down. But in that moment, the only thing on my mind was my daughters. I stuck my phone in my pocket and ran into their room. They had both been waken up by the alarm and looked angry. Maddie was climbing out of bed, but Olivia was putting the sheets over her, trying to drown out the noise.

"Come on girls, we have to leave now," I said, trying to make my voice heard over the loud alarm. I pulled the sheets off of Olivia and picked her up. She tried to push away from me, but I held onto her tight. She started crying and kicking to get loose, but I kept holding onto her and grabbed Maddie's hand. We ran out of the apartment and down the 4 flights of stairs.

Finally, we left the building and went to the opposite end of the parking lot. I put Olivia, who was still crying, on the ground. She hugged my leg and I put my hand on her head. I was exhausted.

"What's happening Mommy?" Maddie asked.

"There's a fire," I said.

"Is our stuff going to be ok?" She asked.

I shrugged. "It depends where in the building the fire is."

As I looked up, I saw smoke beginning to escape out of a 2nd floor window on the opposite side from our apartment. I sighed, relieved that it was far away from us.

The girls and I sat down on a patch of grass as the fire trucks arrived and I got out my phone to call Oliver. Olivia crawled into my lap, still sleepy.

"Hey honey," he said.

"Hi Ollie. I just wanted to tell you that there's a fire in our building but the girls and I got outside ok and it looks like it's far away from us."

"Oh my god, where is it?"

"Second floor, opposite end of the building."

"Well, I'm glad you guys are ok. Were the girls still asleep?"

"Yeah," I said. "Olivia was not happy. I had to carry her out and she was crying and kicking the whole time."

"I wish I was still at home to help you."

"We're ok. I'm glad you left because I don't know how we would've gotten out since you're not supposed to use elevators during fires."

We kept talking for a few more minutes and then he had to go. I called Victoria and told her the same thing. I assumed she could hear the sirens from her house.

About 45 minutes later, we were let back inside our half of the building and we went back up to our apartment and started to get ready. As I was helping them brush their teeth, Olivia started throwing a tantrum again, over who knows what. It was only 8:15 and I knew already it would be a long day.