That was too bad. Now that I thought about it more, I hadn’t even thanked them for what they had done, and I shook my head annoyed with myself. Granny would be so upset I hadn’t thanked them, she would say, “I raised you better than that.” And she’d be right, just like always.
I wished I could see them again, but I didn’t know anything besides their names.
This night had been a complete disaster.
5
Bree
The next morning, I woke up with a terrible headache, which reminded me of a hangover, but even that would be better than this. I’d barely slept a few hours, tossing around all the time as the nightmares of being left with nothing and lost in the middle of nowhere kept haunting me. The hotel room had been too quiet, and I felt weird being here all by myself.
A gasp of shock left my lips when I looked myself in the mirror. I was a horrible mess. I showered and luckily the hotel shampoo did wonders to my hair and took out some of the smell. Maybe I could grab some make-up today at a drug store. Since I had nothing left.
God. Nothing left. That stung.
The Red Cross had left a bag of clothes for me, donated stuff I assumed, at my door. I chose a flowery dress that smelled nice and put some effort into making my hair look more presentable. I braided it and made it fall over my shoulder. Granny had always braided my hair during my middle school years, so braids always reminded me of her. I was so lucky to have her on my side all this time.
I sighed, feeling anxious. Being separated like this from her made everything worse. I couldn’t help but worry about her, hoping she slept well. I took two painkillers and left the hotel to visit her, buying her a basket of fruit on my way.
“My sweet Bree!” Granny greeted me when I opened the door to her small room.
“Hey.” I smiled widely and rushed to her bed, pulling her into my embrace. “I’m here.”
“I missed you,” she murmured into my hair and left a kiss on top of my head.
“I missed you too. Here is something for you.” I placed the basket on the bedside table.
Her lips curled into a big smile. “Oh, you shouldn’t have.”
“This is nothing. I know how much you love fruit. Do you feel okay?”
I inspected her face subtly and noticed the tired lines around her eyes. I hated that she had to go through all of this and be forced to be put in a rehab center. Stupid smoke. I shook my head, just focus on Granny.
“Yes. I’
m okay now. The doctors and nurses here are very kind, and they are always around, so I have all I need. How about you?”
“That’s a relief. I’m completely okay.”
“Did you have a good sleep?”
I didn’t want to worry her unnecessarily, so I nodded, hoping she wouldn’t notice just how much this was far from the truth. “And you?” I glanced around the white and sterile room, which was furnished simply. There was a dresser with a TV on it, next to the chair and desk. Her bed was across from a window that overlooked the back garden. “This is kind of cozy, isn’t it?”
“It’s fine, I guess. I can’t get used to this bed. The pillow is not soft at all.” She sighed. “I guess I can’t complain when there is no other way. What is your hotel like?”
“Just like any other three star hotel. It’s not bad, but it’s nothing special. It’s clean, and that’s the most important, right?”
“Exactly. We’re alive and okay, so we shouldn’t complain at all. If it hadn’t been for the kind firefighters that had cleared the path for us and enabled us to get out of the building safely, we wouldn’t even be here.”
“You’re right.”
Last night had been crazy. All of the sudden, the whole building was on fire, and it was terrifying. I’d never experienced something like this in my whole life. I could still feel the hotness on my skin—the danger of the fiery flames crawling so close to me that I thought they were going to swallow me. We could barely breathe from all that smoke, and then Granny began coughing so hard I thought she would choke. I’d been a few seconds away from panicking.
Luckily, we managed to escape and rush out of the building before it became worse. The shock had started wearing off, so now I could think better about the whole situation and all the possibilities. The horrible possibilities.
“You should bake a pie to take to those nice young fellas that saved you,” my grandmother suddenly suggested, taking me by surprise.
“Bake them a pie?”