Primal - By D.A. Serra Page 0,87
as it plays out on a stage of fire and sirens. It feels as though it has been inevitable, this final destruction. Everyone knows what has been going on inside the Kraft house. They have been gossiping and worrying ever since Alison returned, and while they feel distraught, not a single person is surprised to see this house go up in flames. Even though in the last few days there have been some concerns voiced for their own individual safety as Alison got noticeably “crazier,” still every single neighbor gathered here now on this block feels personally injured watching this scene. A shared sorrow binds them together because this family was so much like their own. It could so easily have been any of them. Alison was a genuine person who cooked noodle soup when a neighbor was sick, who collected toys for foster children, who wrote letters to the military overseas, who put out the big candy bars on Halloween, who carried out hot chocolate in the frigid early morning winter for the snow plough drivers. They have all watched with profound anguish the agonizing ruin of this ordinary family. They have spoken of little else between them this last month. And now shivering in their pajamas in solemn unity every single one of them is thinking about Alison in the past tense and hoping that Hank and Jimmy are not in that house.
Driving only blocks away, Hank sees the night sky lit up by flames. He smells the smoke and although there is no way to know which home it is, he is nevertheless certain it is his. He jams the gas pedal to the floor. He is possessed with anxiety and a sudden blinding remorse. His head throbs and his heart pounds like never before. “No.” He breaks out in a sweat. He pushes the car to eighty miles an hour on the residential street, taking the curve on two wheels sliding into a parked car. The blow smashes in the passenger side of the car but he does not care and he does not slow down. “Oh, this is not happening.” He cranks the wheel right and careens onto his street. Up ahead smoke climbs in dense gray clouds illuminated by the dazzling yellow arms of fire that gesture out of the windows of his home. “Oh god; oh god!” People are everywhere. He slows and searches the faces as he pulls down the street. Alison? Where is she? He looks anxiously from face to face. Where? A police officer leaps out in front of his car forcefully waving his arms. He points a flashlight directly into the driver’s area trying to stop Hank from proceeding down the road. Hank yanks the steering wheel left, swings around the police officer, jumps the curb, and crosses the sidewalk. He tears up the grass yards of three of his neighbors before skidding to a stop in the middle of his own front lawn. One of the firefighters comes running toward him. “Hey!” Hank throws open the car door, jettisons himself out and charges toward the front door ignoring the shouts at him to stop. One of the firefighters grabs him from behind before he reaches the stoop.
“Sir!”
“My wife. My wife!”
It takes a great deal of physical strength to hold Hank back. The firefighter tries to connect with Hank. “We’re going in. Please stand back. We’re equipped. Look!” He points to two firefighters ready to enter the house. They are fully covered in protective wear and attached to oxygen tanks. “How many in the house? Sir! How many?”
“Just her. Just my Allie.”
The firefighter speaks into his radio, “One woman inside.”
“I have to go, too!” He tries to wrench free.
“Please, Sir, you will only get in the way.”
“I left.” Hank wails wretchedly. ”Don’t you understand? I left her!”
Hank’s anguish is palpable and the firefighter feels for him. He drops his voice and looks intently at Hank’s pained face. “Please, sir, I understand. Let us do our job. If she’s in there we will find her.”
“But I can help! I know where she is!” Hank can’t take his eyes off the flames reaching his bedroom window. “I know the house.” And for a second he thinks he sees her there in the window, looking out as she has night after night, but then the apparition is gone. Was that her? Was that the ghost of her? Is she gone? He howls.
The firefighter shakes him and Hank looks. The firefighter connects. “You