Burning Wild

Chapter Twenty-Three

Silence stretched through the car as we waited. Jake ran his hands through his hair for a few minutes, contemplating. His eyes were troubled. Part of me felt guilty that I was making him relive the worst moments of his life, but a bigger part was eager to hear the story for myself.

Jake took a long time to work up to talking about it, but I didn't rush him. The fact that he was willing to confide his secrets to me was more than he had given me thus far. I didn't want to push him too quickly, for fear he would withdraw from me again. So I sat in silence, listening to the rain as it continued it's torrent outside, waiting patiently until he was ready.

"My family didn't leave me," he finally said, his voice tormented. "Not in the way that I implied, anyway. Five years ago, before I moved to Chico, I lost my wife and kids in a fire."

He glanced at me from his peripherals, measuring my reaction. I kept my facial expression under control, giving nothing away. 

"We lived in San Diego at the time. My wife got a promotion and was being transferred to a position near Chico, so I came up a few weeks early to look for a place for us to live. I found a beautiful home right away. It had a fenced backyard for the kids, and a sunroom for Elena to read in. Ana and Lucas would finally have their own rooms. There was even a large tree for a tire swing or treehouse. It was perfect.

But Elena and the kids never made it here to see it in person."

The idea that the house I had been staying in for months, was bought in hopes of Elena, Ana, and Lucas coming to live there made my stomach churn. I thought of the elaborate stair rail that Jake had designed for her, and the furniture and décor that was meant for them to enjoy together. I considered the memories that would have been made in that home if they hadn't been snuffed out like they meant nothing.

I had to bite my inner jaw to keep from becoming emotional. 

"I had just finished moving the last of our unessential boxes to the new house and was on my way back to San Diego when the fire began. The fire department said there was nothing I could have done to prevent it. The house was old and had faulty wiring. Even though we had put Christmas lights up every year, this time, it was just too much for the circuit.

"Elena and I had argued about the lights before I left. Though she loved Christmas, she wanted to wait until we were settled in our new home to put them up. But I told her we had to put them up one last time, to commiserate our final holiday in our family's first home- one last hoorah.

"As usual, Elena was right. The outdoor lights had shorted a fuse during the night, while everyone was sound asleep. The fire spread quickly. The house had disintegrated before anything could be done. By the time I arrived, the entire place was devoured in flames."

I stared at Jake in shock. No wonder the Christmas decorations set him off yesterday. Sure, the house was old, and the wiring questionable, but the lights were the main cause of the fire. He would probably never be able to enjoy this time of year again because it would forever remind him of his family. My heart ached for him.

"I remember pulling into the driveway and seeing Elena standing in the yard, screaming in a crazed frenzy. I looked up just in time to see Ana and Lucas looking out their bedroom window, beating against the glass as they tried, and failed, to force the window open.

"I tried to get to my children. Truly, I did. But the staircase had burned away, and I had no other way to get to the second floor. I begged Ana and Lucas to find a way to pry the window open, to jump into my waiting arms, but they couldn't hear me. The sheer terror on their faces will be forever etched into my mind. They were dying, and there wasn't a damn thing I could do to stop it," Jake said, a single tear falling down his cheek.