Where was Maisy? I knew she wasn’t upstairs. I knew she was beside Gloria, wherever they were. Why wasn’t she helping me? How could she leave me here? So many times I’d told her and told her to stick her head out.

Then I remembered. I’d left her first. I’d run off to be with Carl, and she’d been all alone with Gloria. That was my answer right there. Gloria could say whatever she wanted over and over and over again. To turn Maisy against me. And Maisy was doing the same to me as I’d done. I’d stopped thinking about her, missing her. I stopped caring.

The smell seeped in. I yanked off the sweater Carl had given me. Soaked it in the sink. Threw it near the bottom of the door. Water sopped everywhere. I sat back near the pipe. I tapped and tapped frantically. I tried to breathe. To calm myself down. But the smoke was getting stronger. I began to cough.

And cough.

And cough.

Tears poured from my eyes. I curled into a ball, clamped the hem of the sweater over my mouth and nose.

I wasn’t going to thrash and kick and fight like I did in Ansel’s Lake. I knew what was coming.

I was trapped.

Gloria and Telly and Maisy and Mrs. Spooner and Darrell and Erma and Carl and Chicken and Girl were on the outside.

To them, I no longer existed.

Maybe I never existed at all.

MAISY

Chicken spun in circles.

“Are you sure everyone’s accounted for, ma’am?” the fireman said. “Do you have another pet?”

“There’s nothing in there. The place is empty.”

Then he yelled out, “Can someone grab that dog?”

Another fireman went to catch him, but Chicken took off. He ran around the house and up onto the front porch and clawed and clawed and clawed at the screen until he made a rip. He jammed his head through. Then his body flip-flopped through the hole. Our happy, happy door was already open and he was gone. He was inside.

“Hey!” the fireman yelled out again. “Didn’t I tell you to grab it?”

“Oh god, oh god.” Gloria was making loud noises. She was wobbling back and forth like Shar’s blow-up punch clown. She talked to herself. “What’re you going to do, Gloria. Hey, hey? What are you going to do now?”

“Don’t worry, ma’am. Everything’s going to be fine.”

I watched the door. I watched the fire. Smoke and curly orange ribbons came out my bedroom window. I watched the men. They kept looking at the circle, but the water truck didn’t come. I looked at the tumbled-down pile of rocks. Then I remembered the little ball of metal Carl nipped in my hair. It was still in there. Inside the pile.

Terrible, terrible stuff is coming.

Terrible stuff was here.