Somewhere I Belong Read Online Free PDF Page B

house and in the neighbourhood around us. Grey light seeped through the broken window, bringing in the cold winter air. Ma lifted Alfred away from the broken glass. He clung to her neck and wrapped his bare feet around her waist as she held him and edged toward the window. Larry, Helen, and I stepped around the broken shards toward the kitchen counter and peered over Ma’s shoulder.
    The sky was as cloudy as it had been when we walked home from school. The house next door hugged the sidewalk, partially blocking our view. It looked unharmed as did the houses that lined the other side of the street. Our place seemed more shaken and wrecked than anything outside. In the distance, grey-black smoke mushroomed into the air.
    Then we smelled the fumes of burning oil.
    Ma clutched Alfred and put a hand to her face. “Mother of God.” She didn’t so much say it as breathe it out.
    Alfred tightened his grip on her. Helen’s face drained to a deathly shade. Larry bit his lip and straightened his glasses. I shifted slightly to get a better view and stared in disbelief. The only sound I heard was the beat of my own heart as the five of us stood and stared out that window.
    Thick, black smoke gathered in dark clouds above where Dad had gone to work that morning. It billowed across the sky and blackened it. Flames shot up and disappeared into the smoke.
    There was a second blast. It went off like a cannon and the house shook again. We fell against the counter and clung to it. A single chair toppled over by the kitchen table. Ma grabbed the counter to steady herself. Larry gripped her elbow. Helen put a hand to her face to stifle a cry and moved closer to Ma. Smoke poured up in a second stream so that it looked like there were two huge fires in the distance. It mushroomed skyward, then floated down and into the neighbourhood like a black, ghostly fog. A siren rang out.
    A kettle screamed, startling me awake. I rolled over and smelled smoke so thick I could taste it. It stung my eyes and made it hard to breath. I pulled back the covers, sat on the edge of the bed, and wondered why nobody had sounded an alarm. Someone rushed through the front hallway and into the parlour.
    â€œHeavens, I forgot that damper again.” Aunt Gert.
    I eased out of the bed, tucking the covers around Alfred, then picked my clothes off the floor, pulled them on over my long johns, and crept out of the room and down the stairs in my stocking feet. The familiar smell of molasses and oatmeal mingled with the sooty smell of smoke from the pot-bellied stove. Aunt Gert was standing at the front door waving smoke out with a rug. Granny was standing by the kitchen sink waving a tea towel at an open window. Helen was shivering by the cookstove, still dressed in her bathrobe and slippers. A book Larry had been reading lay open, face down, on the table, but he was nowhere in sight. The mudroom and the back doors stood wide open, airing the place out.
    â€œWhat happened?” I asked. “Where’s Ma?”
    â€œWell, look who’s up.” Granny closed the window and placed the tea towel on the counter. “How’d you sleep?” She moved to the mudroom and closed the back door.
    â€œFine,” I lied. My back ached and I was tired from the long trip and the lousy sleep. My eyes still stung. And nobody had told me where Ma was. I asked again.
    â€œYour mother’s still in bed,” Aunt Gert said. “She’s likely tired; we’ll let her sleep.”
    Uncle Jim banged through the back door, followed by Larry. Their cheeks were raw from the cold; steam rolled off their clothing.
    â€œIt’s freezin’ in here,” Uncle Jim said. He sniffed the air. “Someone tryin’ to burn the place down?”
    Larry pulled off his boots and lined them up in the mudroom beside Uncle Jim’s.
    â€œWhere’d you go?” I asked.
    Larry tossed me a sheepish look. “Chores.” He unwrapped his scarf