When I walk back into work, Barry looks up from his desk. The little patch of red skin is gone, and he nods his chin down at me. The worst of it seems to have passed. I slide into my desk and start my computer. Once it’s on, I check my emails and read the report from the Department that revokes our work permit. I sigh. It’s not going to be easy to reverse this one.
Barry appears next to my desk and nods his head toward the conference room.
“Can I talk to you?”
He looks almost apologetic, so I nod my head and follow him in. We both sit down and Barry takes a deep breath.
“I didn’t handle that properly. I shouldn’t have brought up your personal life.”
I shake my head. “I should have run through the changes with you on the application. I swear I didn’t know about the petition, Barry. I would have told you.”
He nods. “I know. I shouldn’t have accused you of that. I know you care too much about doing your job right to do something like that.”
I take a deep breath and feel a tiny fraction of the weight lifting off my shoulders. Barry doesn’t seem mad at me, and my dad is right. It’s not my fault this project has come to a halt. It couldn’t be just one person’s fault.
The site is stood down, so we spend the rest of the day doing paperwork. I start working on an appeal for the petition and get to work sorting through all the conditions that have to be met for the work to be reinstated.
Before I know it, I’m right back in the swing of work, putting all my effort into getting this hotel built. It’s not until I’m back in my room at the end of the day that I realize what’s happened. Maybe I do want to build this thing. Maybe I do really believe that it’ll be good for the people of Lang Creek.
I care about my job, and my job is to care about the environment while constructing these projects. It doesn’t mean I’m a bad person. I stare at myself in the long mirror in my room and stand up a little bit taller. I’m definitely not a bad person. It’s not evil to be building a hotel in a beautiful place. It’s not going to ruin the place. It just means more people will be able to enjoy the beauty. I never would have seen this place if this hotel wasn’t being built.
I never would have met Aiden if this hotel wasn’t being built.
Pretty soon, my eyelids start feeling heavy. My brain starts slowing down after buzzing all day and my whole body feels more and more tired. The adrenaline and emotion of the day knocks me out, and within minutes I fall into a deep sleep.
A loud banging on my door wakes me up. I jump up out of bed, still fully dressed in my work clothes. I fell asleep on top of the covers, collapsed in bed straight after work. I rub my eyes and head to the door, pulling it open to see Cecilia with her arm raised to bang it again.
“Cecilia, what’s going on?”
“Maddy! The hotel!”
“What about it?” I look back toward my window and see the dark night sky. “What time is it?”
“It’s just after midnight. I tried calling you. Barry is on his way to site with the fire department.”
“What? What are you talking about? What’s going on? Cecilia, slow down.”
“Maddy, the hotel is on fire.”
Her words almost knock me back. I take a step backward and finally see the horror in her face. A siren rushes past the front of the street in the direction of the site. I hurry to the window and pull it open, poking my head out to see a huge plume of smoke in the distance. It smells like wood burning. I glance back at Cecilia, my eyes wide and my heart thumping.
“It’s on fire?”
“They’re calling in the helicopters. They’re saying it could turn into a forest fire. Come on, let’s meet Barry.”
I’m in a daze. I’m a zombie, being led down the steps and out to the car. I get in the passenger seat of Cecilia’s car and watch the trees rush by as we drive toward the site. I hold my phone in my hands, and it feels heavier than usual in my lap. My finger hovers over Aiden’s number, but I don’t have the courage to call him. Not yet.
We’re stopped before we can get to the site offices. The fire department has barricades set up, but I can see the fire raging higher up on the hill.
The heat of the fire is in the air, and the smell of smoke is strong. I look at Cecilia with my eyes wide and she shakes her head. The flames have consumed the entire hotel and are starting to lick the nearby trees. The entire site is a mess of yellow and red and orange.
From this safe distance it looks almost beautiful, in an awful kind of way. I get out of the car and watch as one of the main supporting beams at the front of the hotel collapses. We just put that in two weeks ago.
Barry’s car is parked over to the side, so I walk over next to him. He’s on the phone, but when he sees me, he rolls down the window and turns toward us.
“Arson,” he says. My eyes widen and my heart drops to my stomach. My hand slips into my pocket and I feel my phone again.
“How do you know?”
“We won’t know for sure until the fire’s out and we can get some forensics, but the forest was soaked with all the rain we’ve gotten. The Fire Marshal said there’s no way this is a natural fire. With all the opposition we’ve gotten…” his voice trails off and his eyes move toward the fire. He shakes his head from side to side and I think I see a tear forming.
I follow his gaze and once again I’m almost mesmerized by the fire. It’s not until Aiden’s voice rings in my head that the horror really starts to set in. One little thing he said last time I saw him, when his eyes were full of anger and his voice was hard and cold.
“Short of burning the fucking place down, that petition was the only thing I could do.”
I can hear his voice as if he were standing next to me. It plays over and over in my head as I watch the fire destroy everything we’ve built.
I take a few steps away from the cars and pull out my phone. In a few quick taps, my fingers are once again hovering over his name. My heart starts pounding and the tears fall on my cheeks.
Cecilia appears beside me and wraps her arm around my shoulders.
“Come on,” she says. “The smoke is getting to you. Let’s get back somewhere safer.”
It’s generous of her, to blame the smoke for my tears. I slip my phone back in my pocket and let her guide me back to her car and pack me into the front seat. I let her drive away, and I can’t bear to look at the raging fire behind us. I let her take me back to the hotel and guide me up to my room.
There, she helps me take my shoes off and pours me a glass of water. I’m catatonic. I know I am, but there’s nothing I can do to change it. She finally leaves and I lie back in bed and stare at the ceiling.
I can’t believe that Aiden could have done this. Was it him? Is he capable of something like this? Of arson? Of destroying something so big?
I know that he didn’t want the hotel to be built, but is he a criminal?
The peaceful sleep that I had earlier seems like a lifetime ago. Now all I have is dread and horror and questions and betrayal. My mouth tastes like ash and my chest feels empty.
My phone is ringing beside me, and it takes me a few seconds to recognize the sound. I turn my head to see my mother’s phone number on the screen. I move slowly, as if my limbs are suddenly twice as heavy as they were an hour ago.
“Mom,” I say into the phone. My voice is hoarse and I can’t manage anything else. Some part of my brain registers the sound of her sobbing.
“Your father,” she says between sobs. “Your father. Come back, Maddy. He’s leaving us.”
I don’t want to understand her, so I don’t. I stare at the ceiling and listen to her crying as if it’s happening to someone else.
“What do you mean, Mom? Where is he going?”
She takes a deep breath and sighs into the phone. “He’s dying, Madeline. Come home.”