Chapter 6
Josiah turned and quickly made his way back to the barn. 'Thank God there are no animals in there,' he thought as the fire began to lick its way up the walls and the fresh hay burned rapidly.
"Josiah! Jed's missing." Marion had made her way from the house to tell her husband that their grandson was nowhere to be found. "He's not in the house. I don't know where he could be at this hour."
"Marion, I don't have time to search for him right now." Both turned as headlights lit up the driveway. Two beat-up pick-up trucks pulled up and four men from two neighboring farms sprung out. "Josiah, where are the buckets?"
"Over there, by the fence." The five men then put themselves in a line from the horse trough to the side of the barn where a bucket brigade tried to douse some of the flames and keep the barn from burning down. Five minutes later a siren was heard. "Thank God! Marion, go up to the driveway and direct the volunteers where to put the hose in."
Marion turned to do as she was told but a familiar voice was heard over the noise of the bucket brigade. "Help me, Grandma!"
Marion turned back to the barn only to see Jed's anguished face in the upper hay window as he screamed once again. "HELP ME!"
"Jed!" She ran to her husband shouting, "Josiah! LOOK! It's Jed! He's in the hay loft!"
Josiah looked at where his wife was pointing, a sick feeling enveloping him as he saw his grandson's face highlighted by the flames as they danced higher and higher toward that opening. "Luke, you and George put the water on this side. Jed's in the hay loft."
"Grandpa! Help me!" Jed continued to yell, trying to stay calm but he knew that it was only a matter of minutes before the hay around him caught fire.
"Josiah, DO SOMETHING! He's not going to last much longer!" Marion screamed at her husband.
"I'm coming, son. I'm coming." Josiah looked around for a ladder and spotted one about a hundred feet away from the barn. He ran as fast as his sixty-five year old legs would take him and dragged the heavy wood over to the side of the barn that Jed had been seen.
'Had been seen' suddenly flared in Josiah's mind. "JED!" he screamed. "Jed where are you?"
A couple of the volunteer fireman held the ladder as Josiah scrambled up and through the hay opening. The smoke was intense and he could barely see where he was going. Flames were beginning to lick at his boots as the hay rapidly caught fire. "JED! JED! Where are you? Talk to me!"
He quickly scanned the loft, unable to see any sign of his grandson. "JED! Where are you son?" The acid smoke was beginning to make it hard for him to breathe but he was determined to find the boy. Or die trying.