Gold, Fire & Refinement

Chapter Eighteen

"The woods are lovely, dark and deep. But I have promises to keep, and miles to go before I sleep."  ~Robert Frost

Zarah didn't sleep well, on Sunday night, after crying on Rita June's shoulder. That was why, on Monday night, after enduring a long and torturous day of making "nice" small talk with Harvey's grandmother, once her head hit the pillow she fell into a very deep sleep. 

It was some hour in the middle of the night when a strange noise awakened her. Thinking she heard something hitting against the windows of her room, she rose up in bed, only half awake. Was it rain? No. It was a heavier sound. Like sand or gravel hitting against window panes. When the noise stopped, she decided she must have dreamed the sound, and she let sleep overtake her again. It was only a few seconds later, however, that the same sound woke her up again. This time, she wondered if it might be the estate's mosquito defense system. Harvey had them installed at all of their homes, even her mother's home in Silver Water, and her sister's home in Pleasant Valley. She'd seen them everywhere at the plantation the day of the tour, so she decided that had to be what she was hearing. Her head fell back onto her pillow, but she rose up again when she remembered something. The pyrethroid dispensing mosquito defense systems she knew about and owned didn't make any noise. They were silent. Operating from dusk to dawn, they didn't make any noise, so that couldn't have been the source of the sound she heard. She was about to fall asleep again, but when she heard different-sounding noises coming from inside the house, she lifted her head off the pillow. The noises sounded like heavy objects crashing to the floor, and when she heard glass shattering she knew something was wrong. Downstairs.

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Still groggy, she hung her legs over the side of bed and started feeling for her slippers with her toes. Then she remembered. She had forgotten to pack them. Next, she started wondering where Harvey was, and then it came to her. He was in Nashville with his uncle. They had driven there earlier that day to look at a few landmark hotels they were buying.

Grandma Betty had made a point of saying after they left, "See, when he's not sleeping with you, he leaves. We're strangers to one another, and he didn't think twice about leaving you here with me." It was hard, but she stuck to the promise she made to herself. She didn't argue or get defensive with Grandma Betty. She promised Harvey before he left she would look out for his grandmother while he was away, and she meant it. He called that afternoon and told her he and Drake decided to spend the night in Nashville with his half-sister, Emily Estelle. That's what he said, but she knew that was only half the story. He and his uncle were hanging out in spots they both loved, enjoying each other's company far too much, like they always did. That meant they'd been drinking and didn't want to drive back to Clarksdale. They were too drunk.

Fumbling in the dark, she started searching for the lamp next to her bed. When she found it and flipped the switch to the "on" position, nothing happened. She tried again and nothing happened, but now she thought she smelled smoke. Just when she felt the air around her becoming heavier and heavier with the smell, her eyes started adjusting to the darkness. She could see shadows of furniture in the room, so she got up and found her way to the light switch. She flipped it up and light that hurt her eyes flooded the room, then went out in a flash. Trying again, she flipped the switch down, then up, down, then up. No light. Moving while trying not to bang her sore foot against furniture, she found her way to the door, opened it, and was soon standing in the hallway in front of her bedroom where she tried a nearby light switch. Nothing. Peering over a bannister, she looked as far as she could see downstairs, and that's when she saw lights flickering that looked like tall shadows dancing against the walls. She needed her phone. Where was it? She'd left it charging on the nightstand. She needed it. It had a flashlight app. After retrieving it, she used the light to find her way down one of the front staircases where she was met by heavier, more overpowering smoke fumes. As soon as she started to cough, the upstairs smoke detectors started to scream. She looked back toward the top of the stairs, then at the lights swaying and flickering against the downstairs walls. Now fully awake, she knew what was going on. The mansion was on fire.