on her side on the court and didn’t move when called. Els hurried to her and lifted her head. She was breathing, but shallowly. Els tried to rouse the puppy, who looked at her in an unfocused way and flopped back down.
A flicker caught her eye. Flames under the pergola, licking the legs of the domino table. She ran for the kitchen bucket. No water at the tap. By then, flames were devouring the table and starting to scale the pergola. Black smoke rose, thick and noxious. She sprinted to the tool shed, grabbed a shovel, and raced back to the patio, where she beat at the flames and tried to scatter the fire. Fighting choking smoke, she dragged the dining furniture to the safety of the gravel court. Flames leapt from the pergola toward the shutters and the house’s wooden story above.
Giulietta screamed for Els from the deck of Toad Hall.
“Stay where you are,” Els screamed back.
“Get out, cara! Fire will fall on you.”
“Go upstairs and call the fire brigade.” She broke off in a fit of coughing. Giulietta hurried across the court.
Pinky appeared as if he’d taken form from the smoke and disappeared as quickly, and Els wasn’t sure she’d seen him at all. Moments later he reappeared with the hose from the cistern. In her panic, she’d forgotten all about it. He sprayed the base of the fire until it stopped rekindling, then doused the side of the house and the flaming pergola. He shoved Els so hard that she hit the stone wall, scraping her elbow, just before a section of pergola fell in a shower of sparks where she’d been standing. Giulietta, now on the gallery, began screaming again.
After wetting the grass all around, Pinky handed the hose to Els, took the shovel, and beat at the remaining flames. He scooped up something and tossed it into the court. Susie rallied at this, walked unsteadily farther away, and collapsed again.
Els plied the hose until a puddle of water and floating char formed at the edge of the court. Pinky made a cutting gesture at his throat and disappeared. The water dribbled to a stop. The substance in the court continued to smolder. Everything smelled of wet ash and burnt rubber. Above the charred remains of the pergola, stars winked in the inky sky.
When Pinky touched her elbow, Els jumped. She hugged him. “Thank God for you, Pinky. And thank you, Jack, for your wacky waterworks.”
Pinky exhaled in a puff and stepped away when Giulietta arrived at the edge of the court. “Stay out there, Mum,” Els said, and surveyed the jumble of timbers—reminiscent of the pick-up sticks after the hurricane, but far more sinister. She took stock of her own condition: soot everywhere, a small burn on her left foot, a gash on her right ankle where she’d hit it with the shovel. Though she’d fought the fire in flip-flops, her feet were mostly unharmed. She stepped over a beam onto the court. Giulietta flew at her and embraced her so hard she thought her bones might crack. She clung to her mother, gasping in that spicy scent. Pinky smiled and disappeared into the night.
Giulietta released Els but continued to grasp her shoulders and search her face, her eyes glistening. “My only baby,” she said.
“I’m fine, Mum,” Els said. “Really.”
Still clutching Els’s shoulders, now as if for balance, Giulietta looked down at their feet.
“Susie,” Els said, and eased herself away. The puppy was still lying on the court but was no longer flat on her side. Els felt her warm nose and carried her to the kitchen. In the light she examined every inch of the pup; except for her bleary eyes, nothing seemed amiss. Els encouraged her to drink a little water and settled her into her bed.
The siren’s distant warble cut through the still night. Els lit the floodlights on Jack’s flag, walked to the gate, and waited, breathing consciously to balance the adrenaline still surging through her. When the fire truck arrived, she shielded her eyes against its blinking lights and said to the man at the wheel, “All under control.”
“Let us make sure,” he said.
She rolled open the gate and followed the gleaming truck into the court. The three men roamed their torches over the fire scene and surrounding area.
“You put this out by youself?” the lead man asked.
“I had some help.”
The fireman glanced at Giulietta, who was sitting on the steps in her nightgown, pristine compared to Els, and more