“School’s not out for another hour.”
“I know, but I need you at home. If anyone tries to stop you, have them call me.”
“But what about Dad? Dad said that if I stayed home people would panic—”
“I’ve talked to him, and he agrees with me.”
Kay hadn’t really been scared until then. “Okay. Okay, I’m going right now.” They hung up.
She went back to class. Her face burned, because she felt like everyone was watching her. She stepped carefully, as if the floor were made of glass. Tam looked at her, brows raised, questioning. Kay shook her head and gathered up her books and things.
Her voice seemed small when she turned to Mr. Kelly. “I have to go.”
The teacher called after her, but she ducked out before anyone could ask any questions and ran out to the parking lot.
The skies above Silver River were clear.
14
At home, she tried to call Jon, but his phone was off. She left a message. He called her back twenty minutes later.
“What do you mean you went home?” he said.
“I mean my parents are freaking out and made me go home.”
“That doesn’t make any sense.”
But it did, because she was watching TV—had been for the last hour—and this time the news shows were saying things like “bombing.”
“I’ve got the TV on right now, and it looks bad,” she said.
“You’ve been watching way too much news.”
She couldn’t argue. The TV just kept saying the same things over and over. It all sounded awful. “It’ll be okay,” she murmured. “It has to.”
“Do you want me to come over? I can ditch school.”
Even though seeing him would make her feel better, she wasn’t sure even he could distract her from the TV, make the news stories go away, and make her worry less. He’d only worry more, when he saw how bad she felt. “That’s okay. Your folks are probably worried.”
“Naw,” he said. “My mom’s only called four times in the last hour.”
She chuckled. “Sounds like she wants you to go home.”
“I’ll stop by on my way,” he said, and that sounded like a good compromise.
Both her parents called to check in. Her father was first.
“When are you coming home?” she asked him. If she needed to stay home, where she’d be safe and where everyone would know where she was, why didn’t they?
“I may be out all night,” he said, not sounding concerned or annoyed. He sounded like it was just part of the job. “There’s got to be a thousand reporters in town, and they’re getting unruly. We’ve called everyone in to keep an eye on things.”
“Can you come home for dinner?”
“I’ll probably grab something on the go. I may meet Mom if she isn’t swamped. We’ll call to check in later.”
“Dad—” She didn’t like the way her voice whined, making her sound like a little kid. “What’s going to happen? I’ve been watching the news. Everyone says it’s bad. How bad is it?”
“I don’t know. All this press is making it worse, making people panic. I’m hoping it’ll blow over. If we don’t panic, it’ll blow over. How does that sound?”
“Okay, I guess.” But he hadn’t sounded confident. He was just saying it to make her feel better.
“Kay, I have to get going. Be good, all right?”
Not “be careful.” That was something. It had to mean things weren’t so bad.
Then Mom called. “I just talked to Dad,” Kay said.
“Me too.” She sounded better, as if as long as they were all still in contact, all was well with the world. “We’re going to grab dinner at the Alpine before he goes back to work. Will you be okay? Can you find something to eat?”
“I’ll be fine.”
Jon stopped by for a hug and kiss and asked for news.
“My parents are doing okay. If they don’t sound worried, things are okay, right?”
“Yeah. Probably.” Then his phone rang. It was his mom, wanting to know where he was. “I guess I need to get going. Call me if anything happens, okay?”
“Assuming I can get my mom off the phone.” They smiled, and even Kay started feeling better. They kissed again, and she almost asked Jon to stay. He lingered, as if he were going to ask if he could. But he squeezed her hand and left, to go home and reassure his mother, and it was too late for Kay to change her mind.
She wanted to ease into a relationship, not plunge in like Tam wanted her to. They should be together because they wanted to, not because they thought they were supposed to. But did she and Jon want two different things? If they did, then what?
Kay watched the news all evening, trying to do homework and failing. It was hard to keep her mind on algebra when an endless parade of politicians and commentators on TV went back and forth between predicting disaster and reassuring that everything was fine. That was stupid, because nothing was fine. She could feel the balance of the world changing around her. Maybe because she was part of it. The person who rode the dragon. She kept expecting to see pictures of her and Artegal flashing on the screen. So far, that hadn’t been made public.
But she and Artegal were safe for now, and as long as nothing else happened, they’d stay safe.
Around ten, her mother called her and told her to get to bed. Or at least think about going to bed and getting some sleep. Kay was long past the age of being told to go to bed. But since things were quiet for the moment, she agreed. The morning would come more quickly if she slept through it all. Assuming she could get to sleep.
Sirens woke Kay. Lots of them: fire engines, police cars, ambulances. It sounded like every emergency vehicle in the county was on the road and speeding toward a disaster.
The air-raid sirens were also howling.
She sat up in bed enough to push aside the curtain over the window. She didn’t see anything, except a passing blue-and-red flashing light, quickly vanishing down the road. Her window faced away from downtown Silver River, where the police car was headed. She couldn’t see anything else.
She padded into the living room and turned on the TV. Two in the morning, and the Great Falls, Montana news was broadcasting. Letters in the corner announced LIVE.
A pretty but flustered woman reporter was glaring at the camera and delivering her line: “…fire department primarily concerned with containing the blaze so it doesn’t spread to other buildings…”
The camera shifted to a taped segment. She recognized the fire chief, his middle-aged face red with exertion, shining with sweat and smudged with soot. He was wearing a helmet and his big coat. Fire trucks made up the backdrop of the scene. Except for flashing emergency lights, the street was dark and nothing else was visible. Nothing gave a clue as to his location.
Where are they? Kay’s heart pounded. What was in the process of burning to the ground?
The fire chief said, “We’re just lucky we don’t have strong winds tonight. We could have lost the whole town in minutes. Right now we have a good chance of containing the fire by morning.”
Back to the reporter: “Chief Perez would not give details, but he said there have been several serious injuries, and people have been transported to area hospitals. Once again, I’m in downtown Silver River, where several government administration offices are burning…”
Her heart nearly gave out. At least it was night. The buildings would have been empty. Her parents wouldn’t have been working—except, because of the trouble on the border, they hadn’t stopped working.
She retrieved her cell phone from her bedroom and dialed her mother. The call rolled to voice mail.
“Crap,” she muttered. Everyone in town who had any vaguely official position was probably either at the scene or on the phone. She’d have to keep watching the news and get the one-sided filtered version of what was happening. Or not.