Jake looked across the ratty old table at Ashley. Her long hair was draped over her left shoulder. She stroked it while she silently read off the laptop screen, moving her lips ever so slightly. He could not look away.
“What?” she asked, startling him.
“What?”
“I don’t know. It looked like you wanted to say something.”
He shook his head. “No.”
She sighed. “It’s already ten? Geez, it feels like we’ve been doing this for hours.”
“We have been doing this for hours.”
She leaned back. “There’s nothing here. There’s nothing that’s going to tell us anything.”
“Doesn’t seem that way.”
“Where’s Tom?”
“He’s off to Florida for the month.”
“Wow, the whole month? For what?”
“Some deep sea fishing thing he does every year.”
“What, there’s no deep sea fishing off the coast of the Carolinas?” Sarcasm dripped off her words.
“I guess he’s going to fish for something that’s not as popular up here. I don’t know. I don’t fish.”
“But you love eating fish, isn’t that ironic?”
“I like any food I don’t have to work for.”
“Lazy modern American.”
He playfully tossed a balled up napkin at her. “Says you.”
She threw it back with impressive velocity. It whizzed past his head and bounced off the old wooden cabinets. “Careful, you might break the house.”
“It is in a woeful state.”
“The rent is cheap.”
“It better be.”
“Cheapest I’ve found.”
“It should be free.”
“You’re just saying that because of the palmetto bugs.”
“I think those are cockroaches.”
“I think they’re the same thing.”
Ashley got up and walked to the fridge to grab the wine. “What happened with your house?”
He stretched his arms above his head. “It’s still for sale.”
“Why don’t you just keep it?”
He shrugged. “I guess I’m afraid I won’t be able to get Cassie’s memory out of it.”
“But she never lived in it.”
“I know, but we bought it together. She picked it out. It was her baby. I don’t know, I guess it just felt weird to stay there.”
“That’s fair.”
“Would you stay in your house now?”
She looked to the ceiling and pursed her lips. “No, I guess I wouldn’t.”
Jake stretched his shoulders. “How’re you doing, by the way?”
“I don’t know. It’s weird.”
“I guess that’s one way to put it.”
“I mean, I don’t know how to feel. Or, maybe I don’t know what I’m feeling.”
“Aren’t you sad? You’ve known Mike for a long time.”
“Eleven years.”
“That’s a long time.”
She took a long swig of wine. “I’m not as sad as I should be.”
“And you feel guilty about that.”
She looked up from her hands and met his eyes. “I’m a horrible person.”
“No—no, you’re not. I understand exactly what you mean. As time has gone on, I’ve felt less sad over Cassie and Paul. But I didn’t want to.”
“Time heals all wounds.”
“I guess. But I didn’t want it to. I wanted to hold onto that pain. I started to crave it, it became me, consumed me. And I felt that if I let it go, then I was letting her go. I mean, I’ve said this ten times to myself, maybe in an effort to understand it.”
Ashley reached across the small table and squeezed his hand. “It’s okay to let her go. It doesn’t mean you loved her any less. And it doesn’t mean you’ll forget her.”
Jake bit back his emotions and looked down at Ashley’s delicate hands. He had a plethora of words in his head, but couldn’t get any of them out, not the ones he really wanted to. So he settled for the easiest ones. “Thanks, Ashley. I don’t know what I would’ve done without you these last few days. I’m really sorry I got you so wrapped up in this.”
“Jake, this is some crazy shit.” She leaned forward and crossed her arms on the table. “There’s a fricken mermaid swimming off the coast of North Carolina. Do you know how insane that is?” She chuffed. “Of course you do, what am I saying?”
“And you thought I was crazy.”
“Of course I did.”
“Don’t worry, so did I.”
Ashley made a face and stuck her nose in the air, sniffing hard. “Do you smell that?”
Jake mimicked her. “I don’t smell anything.”
“I have a very good nose.”
“What do you smell?”
“Gas.”
“Gas, as in gasoline, or propane?”
“Gasoline.”
Jake sniffed again. He didn’t smell it at first, but then he did get a slight whiff of it. But it was nothing more than what might have dripped out of a lawnmower or something. “I can barely smell it.”
Ashley got up. “Trust me, I can smell it.”
Jake followed her to the front door of the small bungalow and peered outside. “Maybe my car sprang a leak. It is old and things are breaking all the time.”
Ashley moved away from the front of the house and down the hallway toward the backyard. “I think it’s coming from the back of the house.”
Jake kept looking out front at his car, but didn’t see anything. He did smell gas though now, more than he did a second ago. Of course, maybe that was just in his head because Ashley had talked about it. Maybe it wasn’t getting any worse at all.
“Whoa!” Ashley exclaimed from the back bedroom.
He hurried toward her. “What?” But after the word came out of his mouth, he smelled it too. “Oh!”
“We gotta get out of here.” She turned quickly and bumped into him.
The explosion hammered at her back and tore into the side of the house.
The concussion of the blast threw Ashley into Jake with impressive force and they both fell in the hallway. Roiling flames painted the ceiling above them, reaching out for fuel to latch onto like busy fingers.
Jake helped push Ashley to her feet with a well-placed hand to her ass, and then sprang up and headed toward the front door. She twisted the handle and pushed, but the door didn’t open. Jake shoved her out of the way and slammed into it with everything he had, but it didn’t budge. The top part pulled away from the frame but it didn’t move at the bottom. Then with another whoosh of scorching heat and fire, flames consumed the front of the house in earnest.
Looking to his right, he saw the kitchen windows were still clear. He ran and grabbed Ashley’s hand, dragging her through the kitchen. In one motion, he wrapped his arms around her and jumped back-first through the tall glass, landing hard on his back onto the deteriorated concrete sidewalk.
Between his weight, Ashley’s weight, and the hard ground, Jake felt every ounce of breath blast from his body. Ashley rolled off him and sprang to her feet. Jake struggled a few seconds on the ground, trying to get air into his lungs.
Ashley reached down and pulled him up as she scurried away from the house while another explosion ruptured the side of the structure, sending a column of fire and smoke into the night sky.
They got to the street and turned back to face the inferno as sirens bellowed in the distance.
After catching his breath, Jake hurried out the words, “Too close.”
Ashley bent to put her hands on her knees. “That’s the understatement of the year.”
Fire trucks turned the corner as Jake watched all his belongings burn.