The Douglas Farm

Oliver was having one of the best times he ever had at a party. His friends were being their usual irritating selves, but at the moment, Oliver didn't seem to care. He was just so happy about the occasion. He looked over at his wife, who was relaxing on a couch, and smiled at her. Lisa met his gaze and smiled back. She then turned back to her conversation with the other wives.

Oliver was just about to go get some more punch when Alf and Mr. Drucker came up to him. "Hello, Mr. Douglas!" they greeted him.

"Oh, hello gentlemen. Is there something I can do for you?"

"We just thought you should know that we found the cause of your fire."

"Really, what was it?" Oliver asked nervously. Secretly, Oliver had been feeling terribly guilty for the past couple of days. He was fairly certain that it was the shorted out wire in Eb's room that he had neglected to fix. If it was, Oliver thought there was no way he would ever be able to forgive himself for putting his wife in danger.

"Well, it turned out to be this." Mr. Drucker said as he held up a charred lantern. "We are pretty sure that is was still lit when it landed in the dry hay. It set the hay on fire and then spread to the rest of the barn."

"This looks like Eb's lantern. But that's impossible; he would know better that to leave the lantern burning unattended." Oliver said disbelievingly. He decided to call Eb over and investigate for himself. "Eb!" Oliver called.

Eb came running to where Oliver was from the kitchen. "Yeah, dad?" he asked.

"I'm not your…oh, never mind." Oliver took the burnt lantern from Mr. Drucker and held it up for Eb to see. "Is this your lantern?"

"Yeah, what did you do to it!" Eb asked, shocked.

"Eb, Alf and Mr. Drucker said that it may have been the cause of the fire. How is that?"

Eb was taken aback. "That can't be, Mr. Douglas. I always put out the lantern before I go to bed."

"Always?" Oliver asked.

"Yes. And I distinctly remember…no, I don't distinctly remember." Eb said.

"What do you mean?" Oliver asked, beginning to feel the anger rise inside him.

"Well, let's see, I remember going up to my room after taking my medicine and I remember getting really sleepy. I remember putting the lantern on the side of the bed and lying down. The next thing I remember is Mrs. Douglas waking me up to tell me there was a fire."

"So you don't remember putting your lantern out before you went to bed?" Mr. Drucker asked.

Eb turned to Mr. Drucker and said, "I guess not." Eb turned back to face Oliver and nearly jumped in fright. Oliver's face was beet red and his eyes were filled with rage.

"EB, YOU STUPID, IDIOTIC, IRRESPONSIBLE, KNUCKLE-HEAD!" Oliver yelled at the top of his lungs. That caught everyone's attention, and the room fell deadly silently. Everyone had seen Oliver angry before, but never quite that angry. No one dared to move.

"Olivah, vhat is the matter?" Lisa asked, frightened.

"This…this…this idiot was responsible for the fire!" Oliver yelled a little less intensely. His eyes, however, were still filled with rage.

"Vhat!" Lisa asked in disbelief.

"Mrs. Douglas, I am so sorry. It was an…" Eb began to apologize to Lisa, but Oliver stepped in front of her, cutting off Eb's view and apology.

"You have nothing to say to her!" Oliver said.

"Mr. Douglas, please believe me! It was an accident! I never meant to hurt anybody, much less your wife! Please believe me!" Eb pleaded.

"Eb, how could you do this to me, to us? How could you be so careless?" Oliver asked, still outraged.

"I'm sorry." Eb said sadly.

"Sorry! SORRY!" Oliver yelled again. "Is that all you have to say!"

"What else can I say!" Eb replied.

"Don't you realize what you could have done!"

"Olivah, please!" Lisa jumped up from her seat to stop Oliver from getting out of hand, but she got up too fast. She became dizzy, swayed a little, and then began to fall. Oliver ran over to her and caught her before she had a chance to fall. He gently sat her back on the chair and turned back to Eb.

"See! See what you did to her!

"I didn't mean to." Eb said.

"I don't care whether you meant it or not! Because of you, my wife could have died!" Oliver yelled, tears welling up in his eyes.

Stunned silence followed Oliver's statement. It had finally hit everyone that someone they loved really could have died. They knew that they had come close to losing Lisa, but in the back of everyone's mind, they thought there was no way she could have really died. Now, it had finally become a reality.

Eb had never felt so horrible in his life. He's right, Eb thought sadly, I could have killed the one person who always stuck up for me. Eb wished that the earth would open up and swallow him right now, just to put him out of his misery. Eb looked at Oliver, then at Lisa, and then ran out the door and into the fields to be alone.

It was obvious that the party was over, so everyone shuffled out of the house quietly. Lisa still hadn't quite recovered from her dizzy spell, but she felt she had to tell him something. "Olivah…" she began, but Oliver interrupted her.

"Lisa, I can't hear it right now. I need some time to think." Oliver grabbed his keys and headed outside to the car.

"Vhere are you going?" Lisa asked.

"I don't know. But I'll be back for dinner." Oliver said. Then without another word, he headed out the door.

Lisa was about to jump up and go after him, but figured it was no use. Instead, she went to the bedroom, laid down in her bed, and cried.