Old Flames

Old Flames: Chapter 2

Chapter 2

Twenty minutes earlier...

Lainie rushed into the house through the door to the all-season porch and saw her mother beating a towel over the couch, thick smoke billowing up from the blue cushions.

"Jesus, Mother! What did you do?"

Genna looked up, a cigarette still dangling from her lips. "I fell asleep," she said sheepishly.

"With a cigarette in your mouth? Are you trying to kill all of us?"

"It slipped," she explained and squeaked with a burst of flame ignited the couch again. Lainie groaned and grabbed the fire extinguisher from under a nearby cabinet. Thank God, there was one in every room of the house. Otherwise, her mother was liable to burn down the house just by taking a nap!

She pulled the pin and pointed the nozzle at the base of the flame. White foam covered the once-blue upholstery. Then the phone rang. Her mother tucked her cigarette in the corner of her lips and answered it.

"Hello?...yes, this is Genna Moon...oh, sorry, it's just a small fire. It's been put out...oh, you don't have to do that...well, can you at least turn off the fire alarm. I'm getting a headache..."

A few seconds and the screeching alarm ceased its blaring. Her mother hung up the phone. "That was the security company.  They're sending the firemen. You better go out front and head them off. I'm not dressed for company."

Lainie stared at her mother, gripping the extinguisher painfully to her chest. She seriously considered putting her mother out of her unfashionable misery by strangling her, but the back door creaked open.

"Mama?"

Lainie dropped the extinguisher and rushed to keep her children out of the smoked-filled room. "Hey, it's okay," she told Chloe. Chris stood down a few steps, worry creasing his little face. "Everything's fine. But you can't come inside until the smoke clears."

"Did Gramma burn down the house?" her daughter asked.

"No, honey," Lainie said, picking her up and cuddling her close. For her children's sake, she needed to find her own place soon. No one -- including their firebug grandmother -- will ever hurt her children again. She'd make sure of that. "We have a singed couch, but it was ugly anyway."

Chloe burrowed her face in Lainie's neck. "I'm tired, Mama. I want a nap." So, did Lainie. She didn't get the chance to answer because sirens echoed off the trees, and Lainie had to take care of the firemen. "Chris, will you take Chloe to the pool house and turn on cartoons? You can have anything inside the refrigerator."

Chris perked up, though his smile was held back by his stubbornness. She set Chloe down, and he took her small hand, leading her across the tailored lawn to the one-roomed pool house. Lainie went back inside the house, ushered her mother outside and took away her cigarettes and lighter.

"Go tend to your grandchildren," she commanded. "You've scared them half to death. The least you can do is watch them until I clear up this mess."

"But..."

"No, buts," Lainie nearly screamed, but she inhaled a calming, shaky breath, "and no smoking. Period."

Her mother scowled at her, but Lainie couldn't find the energy to care about how she hurt her mother's feelings. She raised a few windows before going out front to talk to the on-coming emergency crew.

The first to arrive was the paramedics, followed quickly by a firetruck, and the fire captain's white pick-up truck. The truck skidded across the driveway, nearly plowing into her mother's prized hydrangeas, but all Lainie could think about was, Serve's her right.