Fire Always Burns - By Krista Lakes Page 0,11

after soccer practice. It made me heartsick for simpler times as I drove home, remembering how simple life was when we were children.

Chapter 3

First some grass, then a bush, jumping to a twig, to old pine needles, then winding up the base of the dying pine, feasting on the dry fuel. The flames danced and played, gleefully jumping from grass to bush, feeding and consuming without end. The light grew brighter the more it fed, gray smoke beginning to cloud the stars.

“It is a shame to hear about that whole West divorce nonsense,” Mrs. Thatcher told me as she put her groceries up on the conveyer belt. It was a slow enough day that I was grateful to have her in my line. Mrs. Thatcher was the local busybody. She knew the gossip about almost everyone almost as soon as it happened. She had lived in Conifer for as long as anyone could remember, and had been airing everyone's laundry for just as long.

“I never liked that Barbara,” she confided in me as she put corn flakes up onto the belt. “Always too high and mighty for her own good. I never really understood why Ray married her, especially after he mooned after Audrey for so long. Barbara was never any good for him. In fact the other day-”

“What? What do you mean, Ray and Audrey? Audrey Miller?” Groceries piled up as the conveyer belt skid to a stop. Mrs. Thatcher looked up at me, surprised by my sudden interest. She looked like an owl, her big glasses magnifying her eyes and the feathers in her old-fashioned hat tipping over her face.

“Well, she certainly wasn't Audrey Miller back then. Back then she was Audrey Oscars,” she said putting a bag of apples up.

“What did Ray West have to do with Audrey Oscars?” I questioned carefully, making sure I got the names right. I knew both of them had grown up in this town, but I never considered the idea that they might have known one another more than that.

“Ray West and Audrey Oscars were sweethearts. All through high school. The whole town thought they were going to get hitched. When Ray graduated high school, he got a job at the hardware store just so that he could wait for Audrey to graduate. I heard they were engaged, but they were waiting to get married because her daddy wouldn't consent until she was out of school,” Mrs. Thatcher bobbed her head, the feathers swaying gently above her. My conveyer belt was still frozen, her cereal box clenched in my hands as I listened to her, nodding her on for more. The old woman seemed almost flustered at the sudden attention, but she continued, whispering in a loud conspiratorial tone.

“They were so sweet together, everyone was sure they would be married that summer she graduated. Something happened though, never did find out exactly what. That Audrey could be a feisty one when she wanted to be. The summer Audrey graduated, she went on off to college right away and left Ray all alone,” she said as she leaned forward. I stood transfixed as she continued, enjoying having a rapt audience for once.

“Well, poor Ray was heartbroken. He had waited for her, and then she left him high and dry to go off and live the college life without him. That's when he got with Barb. I always thought it was his way of getting back at Audrey for leaving, but he married Barb that same year. Luke was born not long after that. Ray was never the same after Audrey left. I always thought they would get back together and work things out, but then Audrey came back to town carrying Charlie's child, so apparently neither one of them was too lonesome.”

Mrs. Thatcher sniffed, looking at the full conveyer belt as I stood there holding her cereal and absorbing the information. She sniffed a little louder, giving me a pointed look. I jumped and scanned the box, my body going through the motions as my brain worked through what I just heard. Something in the story called to me, something important, an answer that was just dangling out of my reach, a solution to a problem I had been working on all day without realizing it.

I nearly dropped a can of beans on my foot as it hit me. Audrey and Ray. Audrey needed someone in her life to help keep her stable; Ray needed someone to balance out his hectic work