Those Who Favor Fire by Lauren Wolk (easy readers .TXT) 📕

new resolve to resist any plot that was not her own. “I am not resigned,” she said as she came over the rise and saw the van waiting below.

Chapter 45

October 18, ’83

Dear Rachel,

I may not see you for a while. There’s really no reason for me to go down into town anymore. I can’t stand the sight of the bulldozers, I can’t stand to be bothered by the reporters. I’ll go down to see Angela and Rusty, help them move out, help everybody move out if they need help, but most of the time I’ll be in Rusty’s tree house, with your permission. It’s on your land, I know, but I hope you won’t mind that I’m out here. I won’t bother you. I’ll climb up over the hill, won’t come through your yard.

But that’s not why I’m writing.

I’m writing to say that there’s land for you up on that farm if you want it. Always has been. I picked out a beautiful place alongside a stream. There’s an old stand of holly trees nearby. Quite rare, really. When I was walking the farm, trying to picture where everything would go, I thought you might like that place, so I set it aside, had a well dug, brought the power lines out that far. Everything's ready whenever you want it. But maybe you won’t.

I think I understand how you feel, at least a little bit. Like I betrayed you, took your friends away. Nonsense, really, but I can still understand you feeling that way for now. Get over it quickly. Remind yourself that I love you. You know I do. There’s nothing to be afraid of.

I hope this letter makes you truly furious. I hope you get so mad that you come storming out here and fight it out with me. Maybe then I’ll be able to explain things to you. Though I shouldn’t have to.

I don’t believe in utopias and I certainly haven’t tried to create one. But I had more money than anyone has any right to have, and so I spent it. It’s as simple as that.

It occurs to me that maybe you had a similar plan in mind, a way to put your own money to good use. Did I steal your thunder? Well, I’m fond of thunder, too. Fire, no. You can keep your fire.

I’ll be leaving Belle Haven whenever you’re ready. You may not want me with you and I’ll stay far enough away. But I won’t leave you here alone. I’ll be in the tree house if you need me.

If you change your mind, want to join us on the farm, you can stay in the house I built for Frank. I’d let you keep it, but it’s meant for someone who doesn’t have the kind of money you do. Someone like Ed Zingham, but he’s already taken an apartment in Randall. Maybe you could call him for me and ask him if he wants it. Tell him where to find me.

Well, you’re probably not interested in all this talk about the farm. I wish I didn’t love you so much. Sometimes I wish I’d never come to Belle Haven. But most of the time I thank God I did.

Yours,

Joe

Chapter 46

        “What do you. mean, you’re not leaving?”

“I’m not leaving yet, I said. My mother’s going up to get the house ready. Earl and Mag will give her some help if she needs it. But Rusty and I are going to stay another week or so. I want to spend some time with Rachel, Joe. See if I can get her to change her mind. And Rusty wants a few more days with his friends. He’s known them all his life, and he’s never going to see some of them again. How can I say no?”

“Where is he now?”

“He’s over at Mary Beth Sanderson’s house. You know, over on Rachel’s side of the creek. There’s been no trouble over there. The nearest borehole is real quiet. The kids are just playing in the yard. Relax, Joe. Everything’s okay.”

He took Angela’s hands. She noticed that his fingernails were torn. He was growing a beard. “Don’t stay too much longer, Angie,” he said. He never called her Angie. “I’ve got a bad feeling about all this.”

Judy and Daniel Sanderson and their three children were among the hundred or so people still living in Belle Haven when the first cold nights came to town and the leaves began to turn. Judy, immense with her fourth child, had spent a whole week wandering through her house, looking at each room, checking to make sure the canaries were still on their tiny trapezes, trying to find the energy to pack everything up into the boxes she’d been collecting for months. It wasn’t that she wanted to hang around any longer than she had to. With the A&P closed and the Superette always low on everything, even putting supper on the table had become a challenge. But the check from the government would be arriving any day now, and then they would go. Daniel would still have his job in Krebs Corners. They had found a house real close to his office, a good fifteen miles from the fire, and had all but paid for it. They had to wait for the check to arrive. Then they’d go. But she couldn’t get organized. She couldn’t stop thinking about that motor home going down the other day. Three blocks away, other side of the creek. Maybe the creek would keep the fire away.

She walked back down to the kitchen and stood at the window watching Mary Beth and Rusty in the backyard, sitting at the picnic table, eating grapes and reading comic books. Everything looked okay. But no matter how hard she tried, she could not stop thinking that maybe in the next minute, in the minute when she was not watching, the fire would come right up out of the ground. She looked