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The crowns of the tallest pal clouds of s residents h rubber boots unrolled hoses from the trucks and pulled them across ays, flowerbeds Other fire breathing apparatus so they could enter the smokefilled condominiums
Their swift arrival virtually insured that lanced toward his own unit, at the south end of the building, and a sharp pang of loss stabbed through him Gone His alphabetically shelved collection of books, his CDs neatly arranged in drawers according to type of music and then by the artist’s name, his clean white kitchen, carefully nurtured house plants, the twentynine volu since he was nine (a separate journal for each year)all gone When he ’Ithought of the ravenous fire eating its way through his roo over what little the fire didn’t consu mottled and dull, he felt nauseous
He re, started in that direction, then halted because it seemed foolish to jeopardize his own life to save a car Besides, he was the president of the hoht to stay with his neighbors, offer them reassurance, comfort, advice about insurance and other issues
As he øholstered his revolver to avoid alarrant had said- to hiainst the wall, the breath knocked out of hi and everyone you love then you!
When he thought about those words, considered the rah hiht he’d known so far, as dark as the fire was bright
He headed for the garages, after all Suddenly he desperately needed the car
As Harry dodged fire, the air was filled with thousands of glowing e, a dance upon the spiraling therh on the roof a cataclysht A hail of burning shingles clattered down on the sidewalk and flanking shrubs
Harry crossed his ar cedar shakes would set his hair on fire, hoping that his clothes were still too da out of the fire fall unharate still cold fro, the wet blacktop was sequined with glass froled with puddles Every es of the bright te serpents slithered around Harry’s feet as he ran
The back driveas still deserted when he reached his garage door and yanked it up But even as it inging out of the way, a fireet out of there
"Police!" Harry replied He hoped that would buy hih he didn’t pause to flash his badge
Falling ee roof
Thin s down froles
Keys Harry was suddenly afraid he had left the the car, coughing because of the wispy but bitter smoke, he frantically patted his pockets and was relieved to hear the keys jingle in his sportcoat
He reversed out of the garage, shifted gears, drove past the fireman who had shouted, and escaped the far end of the driveo seconds before an approaching fire truck would have turned in and blocked it
They nearly kissed bu the Honda into the street
When he had driven three or four blocks with uncharacteristic recklessness, weaving through traffic and running red lights, the radio snapped on of its own accord The vagrant’s deep, raspy voice echoed fro him
"Gotta rest not, heeo Gotta rest"
"What the hell?"
Only a static hiss answered him Harry eased up on the accelerator
He reached toward the radio to switch it off, but hesitated
"Very tired a little nap
Hissing static
so you have an hour"
Hissing
hut I’ll be back"
Hissing
Harry kept glancing away frohted dial of the radio It glowed a soft green but recalled to hirant
big herojust walkingme never the end of itnot
The car passed through a flooded depression in the paveels’ wings on both sides
Harry touched the radio controls, half expecting an electric shock or worse, but nothing happened He punched the OFF button, and the hissing stopped
He didn’t try to run the next red traffic light He eased to a stop behind a line of cars, struggling to sort through the events of the past several hours and onna call?
He didn’t believe in ghosts or ghost busters
Nevertheless he was shivering, and not merely because his clothes were still daonna call?
Ghost or not, at least the vagrant had not been hallucinated He wasn’t a sign of mental breakdown He was real Not huely cal Harry feared the most was not the supernatural or the unknownbut the internal disorder of madness, a threat that now seemed to have been replaced by an external adversary, bizarre beyond reckoning and terrifyingly powerful but, at least, external
As the light changed to green and the traffic started ain, he looked around at the streets of Newport Beach He saw that he had headed west toward the coast and north from Irvine, and for the first ti
Costa Mesa Connie Gulliver’s apart apparition had pro he loved before destroying hio to Connie before checking in with his own parents in Carmel Valley Earlier he had admitted to a keener interest in her than he had previously been willing to acknowledge, but perhaps that ads even to hih the why of his caring was still in part ahow utterly different frohtly closed upon herself she was Neither was he sure of the depth of his caring, except that it was deep, est revelation in a day filled with revelations
As he passed Newport Harbor, through the gaps between the cos on his left, he saw the tall ht, sails furled Like a forest of church steeples They were reenerationhe had been raised without any specific faith and, as an adult, had never ed to discover a faith of his own It wasn’t that he denied the existence of God, only that he could not find a way to believe
When you encounter the supernatural, who you gonna call? If not ghost busters, then God If not God who you gonna call?