Up in Smoke
Someone handed me a lei. I slipped it over my head, and the
flower’s perfume floated up to my nose. I inhaled deeply, winding my way to the
front of the yard.
People were already lining up there, wearing grass skirts
and leis and smiling and laughing. Torches lined the back of the stage they
stood on, and there were two neat rows on either side of the stage.
“Allison!”
I turned at the sound of my name, but my feet didn’t stop.
They kept their course. When I couldn’t find who’d shouted my name, I turned
back to the stage just in time to run into a bus boy.
He reeled backwards. I grabbed his arms, but instead of
holding him upright, I was dragged down with him. He crashed into one of the
corners of the stage. The torch there wobbled.
“No, no, no!” I reached for the torch, but it slipped
through my fingers. It fell into the one behind it, and that one fell into the
torch behind it, and so on until half the stage’s torches had been downed.
The grass behind the stage went up in flames. Not long after
that, the stage started smoking, and then it was burning. Everyone who’d been
on the stage was screaming and running back for the hotel. The bus boy had
shoved me off him and was hot on their heels.
I backed away slowly, staring at the destruction I’d caused.
Again. This was the second time this trip. I turned to flee and fled right into
a security guard.
His beefy arms were crossed over his chest as he glared down
at me. “Not so fast. Somebody’s gotta pay for the damage.”
I smiled sheepishly. “It was an accident?”
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