Solstice

Chapter 9

CHAPTER 9

It took a while, but with time came James' house. Surprisingly, a fraction of the house still stood crooked in the air. Jenna and I were tired and our legs felt like they would give in at any second. James, as I would have thought, still had plenty of energy as he started walking up to the house.

Sure enough, there was the oak tree. Sure, it was crippled had an unsurprising lack of leaves and branches, but it was identifiable. It was noticeably tilted to the right because of an explosion.

"Come on, guys, hurry up!"

"Don't worry," Jenna said, obviously sounding like she'd been run over a bus or something. I was slightly concerned, but I decided not to get into a conversation like that.

Jenna turned to me. "Jake, do you really think his parents are in there?"

"I hope so," I said, trying to think of something to say that would be respectful. "I mean, they're not my parents, so I obviously wouldn't care as much as he would, but I hope that they're in there. For his sake and theirs."

She forced a small smile, and she turned back to James who was already starting to walk into the huge pile of charred house parts.

"James, be careful, there's fire over there!" I called over loud enough so that he could hear me.

"Yes, ma'am."

I hated it when he did that.

James bent over to study a wide pad of concrete in the wreckage. Not everything in his house was blown down. Parts of the skeletal structure of the house was still standing and most of the chimney area as well. James got back up. "So, if this was my porch, then..."

He started walking farther over to the left of the site. He bent down once again and wrapped his hands under a large piece of wood which looked like it used to be part of a wall. Part of it was half covered with rubble and stone.

"Hey, Jake, can you help me with this?" I heard James call out to me.

"Sure," I replied as I began trekking over to where he was standing, trying my best to avoid stepping on anything that was burning or was sharp enough to leave cuts on my thin shoes.

It was terrible seeing everything like this. Yet everyone was seeming to keep calm in the situation. It's like everyone wasn't ready to go lay down and cry yet. That wasn't at all the case with me. All of the weight was starting to plummet onto my shoulders. I was trying my best to keep those feelings to myself.

Once I got to where James was standing, I could see what he needed my help with. There was a wooden trap door down on the ground surrounded by rubble. There was several cinder blocks and some long wooden planks on top of the trapdoor, mostly charred from the fire.

"You grab the ends of those planks over there and I'll grab these ends."

"Alright."

I grabbed the ends of two planks. The planks were much heavier than I thought they were going to be. Once I had a good grip on the wooden planks, I started to lift them up off of the ground. James did the same.

"Just toss them over there."

I did as he said and tossed the planks over to our right side. All that was left were a couple cinder blocks and then the door itself.

Both James and I started to push the heavy cinder blocks aside, along with a good amount of insulation and concrete tiles. Once that was all out of the way, the trap door was fully visible.

I had been down in James' basement before. It was a luxurious, fully finished basement. The entire floor down there was fully covered with soft, thick carpet. There were recliners, computers, and game consoles down there as well. His basement was just a little bigger than me and my mom's living space in our apartment.