Angela perked up, hearing Nikki yelling. She
looked over at her father worriedly. “Daddy…?”Carlos groaned. He set the nozzle down and
reached into his pocket to grab his phone. He handed it to Angela. “Find
another adult. If you can’t, call 911, mijita.”Angela nodded, shaking but determined. “O-okay,
daddy!” she said and she turned around to hurry away.She went to the flagpole first and was
relieved to see Nikki and David.“David! My daddy’s here taking care of the
fire, but he said we need to call the police!”David was taking deep breaths, trying to shake this feeling when Angela approached. Her words felt distant but her father was there? And they needed to call the police?
Cameron was going to be so mad at him. The police were going to be mad too. They were tired of coming here, they were going to be really, really mad. He felt sick.
“David!” Nikki snapped again.
He was shaking as he tried to sit up, fumbling with the phone. He managed to slide it to unlock but he was struggling to dial the numbers. He stuttered out where they were to the operator and that there was a fire. Any further questions he was asked didn’t seem to process but the fire department was on the way.
The counselor was far from excited to explain this one.
Angela smiled shakily at David. He didn’t look
okay at all, but she was glad he called the police like her daddy told her he
should.
“That’s very helpful, David – good job!” she
told him. She clutched onto her dad’s phone tightly with one hand and reached
out to gently pat David’s shoulder. “What now, David? What do we do now?”
Where Carlos was, the scientist could still
hear the sparkler going off inside the tree. Who the hell thought fireworks was
a good idea in a forest?? He looked over his shoulder at the remaining children
– a tiny one with a fishbowl over his head was crying, and a small black-haired
boy was clinging to the legs of a girl with a purple streak in her hair.
The Perfect Scientist 