“Don’t worry, Honey. I’ll get us out.” Again, she brought the ax down and I heard a faint crack. “Go ahead and radio R.C. and tell him we’ve got a fire up here,” Pearl said, breathing heavy.
She tried several times more to break the door down, each time the cracks growing louder mangled with her curses. “Dammit, open up!” she yelled while the ax thudded loudly against wood.
I crawled across the room and pulled the radio down, clicked on the button. “Hello, hello?” I coughed. “Help, someone, this is Honey Lovett.” Loud static poured through the metal box. “R.C.?” I clicked the button several more times. “R.C., we have a fire at Pearl’s cab and we can’t get out! R.C.? Anyone? Fire!” I stared wildly out the windows into the morning light, yellowed through the cab smoke, the light stretching thinner with each growing second. Any minute now, the smoke would chew up the light and swallow us. “Pearl?”
“Keep trying,” Pearl hollered. Her blurring face was damp and the short, dark curls were matted to her head as she brought the ax down, trying to cut into and bust the wooden door open.
“R.C., pick up, pick up!” I clicked twice. “Please, please.”
“Honey, we copy and I’m on the way,” R.C. said in a calm, steady voice.
I crawled over to Pearl, coughing. Pulling myself up, I swayed, the smoke blanketing the cab. “Pearl, I can’t see you.” I reached out, trying to find her.
“Stay on the floor, Honey,” she ordered as she delivered another hard blow, the sound of wood and metal crashing onto the landing platform right below.
Tears stung my eyes as light and smoke poured through the widening crack. “Hang on, Honey, we’re almost through. Grab the fire extinguisher.”
I felt my way over to the stove, knocking pans and skillets down as I struggled to find it. When I had the extinguisher in my grip, I dropped to my knees, coughing, inching slowly back to her.
Pearl kicked through the wood and finally the door split open. “The bastards had us locked in.” She pounded her chest and drew in deep breaths.
I bent over, braced my hands on my legs, coughing and gasping for air. When I finally straightened, I looked over her shoulder and saw the padlock on the stairs and several sets of muddy footprints. Further down, I spotted Gillis’s Texaco ball cap lying on one of the steps.
Pearl took the fire extinguisher from me and sprayed the licking flames that they had set with wood and brush. The smell of gasoline rose in the breeze. They must’ve carried up the bundle in the early morning hours.
Pearl grabbed her coat off a hook, folded it across her arms, and said, “Let’s get downstairs and let the cab air out.”
I nodded, wishing I’d had time to dress.
When the fire was nothing more than a smoldering pile, she pulled me across it and down to the next landing where we both hung over the side gasping for fresh air. I looked down at Junia, silently cursing myself. I had been too drunk to go out in the dark when I thought I’d heard the heavy footsteps and the mule’s loud warnings earlier. Instead, I had pulled the coverlet over my face and fallen back into a drunken sleep.
The old beast lifted her muzzle and caught my eye and rang out a shivering hee-haw like she was scolding me. I shuddered to think about the men trying to hurt her and Pie and wondered if they’d tried and she’d kicked them away. Wondered what would have happened if I’d tried to stop them. I rubbed my arms.
In a few minutes, we caught our breath and crept slowly down the stairs, inhaling the dewy morning. When we got to the bottom, I sprinted over and inspected Junia while Pearl did the same to her horse.
Pearl bent over and picked up a half-eaten apple core only to throw it angrily back on the ground. I saw small pieces of apple beside Junia. They’d bribed the mounts to keep them quiet. For some reason, Junia had let them. It wasn’t like her, and I wondered if Perry’s sister had come with them to help quiet the ol’ girl and Pie.