Chapter Four
I hold the waffle burger between my sweaty palms and eat hungrily. I'd realised I hadn't eaten since yesterday evening and had been running since, so I strode into McDonalds and was served this concoction. Albert was the guy running it, he told me, as he'd put the chicken bits into the waffle, he'd just walked down a few minutes after the poof and started it up.
He was a funny guy; Albert. Younger than me but with his feet so grounded in this new reality he could have been 50. He's going to go far. Not a bully but a saviour. Got the peoples vote. So I wasn't snidey or mean, just polite. Insignificant. I'd asked him where to find an empty house and he told me all along the street I'm walking down now were abandoned. I found the one which looked least shabby and stepped in, admiring the carpet as I wiped my feet.
The stench knocked me backwards almost immediately. I stumbled back down the porch steps and fell with a harsh thump on my butt. I gulped for air, hearing someone call behind me. He was tall, a little lanky with a mismatched T-shirt and khaki shorts. He leaned down, offering me his hand. I coughed again, scrambling to my feet. "Are you alright?" he questioned, anxious for my safety but not because of me. That was a first. I wiped the hair out of my eyes and replied in a low stammer "Yeah, I think so. I was directed to this street for somewhere to stay so I opened the door to this one and, and the smell!" He sniffs once or twice himself then recoils disdainfully. "Ew. It's like something's rotting in there. I'd better baggie it before it mutates" He chuckles then heads in, pinching his nose tight. The smell is revolting but I don't want to act like the damsel in distress so I follow him in.
The smell gets gradually worse and worse until my eyes are watering and I can barely breathe. We track it to the front room, it's set out like a nursery, building blocks on the floor and the walls painted pastel pinks, yellows and blue. He notices it before I do and flails, lunging suddenly into me. Then I spy it too, lying in a cot by the wardrobe. It makes me gag and I flee, crying and snorting until I'm lying I the front lawn, sobbing into my cardigan. Around ten minutes later he joins me, crying himself but trying desperately to hide it. I feel sick with myself, letting him do the hard work while I curled up like a little kid, but I didn't care. I just stared u at the cloudless sky and hated it.
We lie like his, shaking on the patchy lawn for what seems like a lifetime until he turns his head and speaks to me. "I'm Quinn" he shudders, straining to smile at me. "Elvie" I reply, so quiet I'm surprised when he responds. "Ok Elvie. There's a whole group of us living up at the fire house. There are a couple of empty rooms we'd be happy to fill. Or if you want you could bunk with Ellen. Whatever." I nod in reply, figuring that's all I could really manage, so he gets to his feet, dusts himself off and holds out a hand to me.
We walk in silence, glancing at each other from time to time but never saying a word. I just couldn't think of one that would do the situation justice.
The fire house is an ugly, red brick house with a massive garage connected awkwardly to the side, I guessed that's where they kept the engines and stuff, but I'd never had any experience with this sort of thing. He held the door open for me and I shuffled into a sort of dining area, with a tiny kitchen and a cheap table where three blank faces stared at me. Only one of them I knew; Sam, but with his blonde hair dirtied with ash and bright burns on his arms and bare chest. The others I didn't recognise, but they all were dirty and tired, although none of them bore the burns Sam did. He stares at me for a while, probably trying to remember where he knew me from, then he got it. "You're a coats kid right? You were with Caine that day" He didn't speak defensively, just warily, like a weary soldier "Yeah, Yeah I did come from Coats. But I ran off, and I needed somewhere to stay, and Quinn… He…" I stutter when Quinn interrupted me to respond to Sam's quizzical look. "I told her she could have one of our empty rooms" Shooting Sam a hard, I'll tell you later look.
"Okay, great. Well this is Edilio and Ellen. As you can see we had a fire today, so we're all about to settle down for a rest, but we can probably-" Sam starts but I cut him off, saying "No, its ok. I'm tired to." which wasn't a lie at all really.
Quinn shows me up to my room, it's cramped but clean, and the bed looks so inviting, but I had to speak to Quinn first. "Thank you for today. I, I couldn't have done what you did. Oh and thank you for the room and the hospitality, I don't think I could have entered another empty house after, well you know" I tell him awkwardly, wanting to say more but just not finding the right words. "You're welcome, and you would have done the same for me I'm sure" he smiles, releasing me from the state I was in. I smile back, so glad I'd earned him as a friend. "Goodnight" I hear myself saying, but my mind is somewhere else completely. "Night" he replies and walks jauntily up the hall.
I close the door but keep the light on. The near empty wardrobe only contains some XXL firemen suits so I strip to my pants and bra and climb into the bed. I lie there a minute then realise what was bugging me. I climb back out and kneel at the edge to pray. Finally I snuggle back under the duvet. It's nothing like the silk sheeted bed I had at home, nor the plain, rickety dorm beds we had at Coats, but it feels more homely then both, and I settle down to sleep almost immediately.