Chapter 10 - The Performance
The moment the loud sirens turned the corner onto Bennett Street, my mother’s posture transformed instantly.
She dropped her handbag onto the grass, threw her hands over her face, and began screaming hysterically toward the sky.
“My daughter! Somebody help my daughter! She’s trapped inside!”
Jessica dropped to her knees on the lawn, sobbing loudly on cue as neighbors began rushing out of their front doors.
Two heavy red fire engines screeched to a halt in front of the hydrangeas, their red lights flashing against the white siding of the house.
Firefighters leapt from the trucks, pulling heavy hoses across the lawn while a rescue crew rushed the front entrance with axes.
Above them, at the broken second-floor window, I pulled myself up onto the sill, gasping for air, covered in black soot and glass dust.
“Up there!” a firefighter yelled, pointing a spotlight toward my face. “We have a civilian at the window! Deploy the ladder!”
I looked down through the glare of the spotlight.
My mother stood on the lawn below, her face buried in a tissue, weeping for the neighbors to see.
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But through the space between her fingers, her eyes met mine.
And she wasn't crying at all.
