Rorey's Secret by Leisha Kelly Read Free Book Online Page A

before Dad even stopped it. Fiery little embers were all over the sky like fireflies, and the Hammonds had already started dousing the porch roof, trying to save the house. Emmie was standing by the well hugging at her doll while Harry kept pumping water into one thing after another. Dad yelled for me to take Emmie clear to the pumpkin patch and stay with her. He was counting heads. Pulling our buckets out of the truck, he kept checking. Harry’s there. Frank’s over there. Mr. Hammond and Kirk and Willy and . . .
    I kept looking for Rorey, feeling tighter and tighter inside. Finally when I was just about to bust, I saw her standing in the barnyard, just staring into the flames. She wasn’t doing a thing. Maybe she couldn’t. She was just standing there, looking. I didn’t see Lester Turrey anywhere, and I was too scared to ask if he’d been there.
    “Where’s Bert?” Dad was calling toward Mr. Hammond, and I looked up. I grabbed hold of Emmie’s hand so I wouldn’t lose her and pulled her toward the pumpkin patch, looking every which way, hoping I’d catch sight of Berty safe and sound. Some of the goats and a pig were just running around loose, but everybody was turning their attention to the house.
    The barn had gotten too much ahead of us already. With no more folks and no more water than we had, there wasn’t a hope for it. But all those frightful embers were flying over and landing on Hammonds’ new porch. It would take some doing to keep the house from burning to the ground.
    Emmie was tugging at my shirt. “The cows get out?” she asked me tearfully.
    “I don’t know,” I told her. “I sure hope so.”
    Berty bumped into me suddenly. I hadn’t even seen him coming.
    “Hold on,” I told him. “Where you going?”
    “I found Bess,” he said, sounding funny in his voice. “I gotta go back for Imey.”
    Bess and Imey were calves. Berty loved his calves. He was running toward the barn, to the north section, where the flames weren’t touching yet. I tried to grab him, but he got away too quick. And I thought sure nobody else had seen him.
    “Dad!”
    My dad turned his head. I pointed to the barn. “Bert’s going after his calf, back into the barn! He—”
    I was going to say he looked okay. I thought maybe he’d be okay. That part of the barn didn’t look touched by the fire at all yet.
    But Dad turned on his heels and ran. Right in there after him, and then I was scared. Berty ran in after a calf, and Dad ran in after Berty, and Mr. Hammond and Robert and all the rest were so busy saving the house that they didn’t even know. I squeezed Emmie’s hand till she hollered and pulled, so I had to ease up and just stand there watching. I knew how it was supposed to end up. Berty would come out, pulling his calf. And Dad right with him, giving him an earful for risking himself over some dumb animal.
    I waited. I waited. And then I heard the most awfullest crack, and I couldn’t stand it anymore. I started screaming and screaming. The others turned to look, but they didn’t know what they should be looking for. Something gave way in the top of the barn in the south section, where the flame was the worst. Something gave way, and it leaned and crashed in on itself, a whole chunk of the barn falling down in a heap of smoke.
    I was screaming and Emmie was screaming, and suddenly Robert was grabbing me.
    “What’s wrong?”
    “Dad! Dad! He went in there!”
    I let go of Emmie’s hand and tried to get past Robert. I was going to go straight in. I was going to go find Dad, but Robert grabbed me.
    “He went in!” I screamed again. “He went in after Bert! He’s in there!”
    Robert let go of me. I knew what he was thinking, and when he turned around and started running, I grabbed him .
    “No! No!”
    He’d have run straight in, just like I would have. He was struggling, and finally he shoved me away from him. But Mr. Hammond grabbed him and knocked him clear to the ground. Emmie squeezed me